Aylmer
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Aylmer

Aylmer

Southwestern Ontario farm town with a Victorian main street, near Long Point bird migration and Lake Erie beaches.

Aylmer is a small town in Elgin County, southwestern Ontario, surrounded by tobacco and dairy farmland. The town has a well-preserved Victorian main street, and the Aylmer and District Museum in the old town hall gives a good sense of the area's agricultural roots.

The main draw for visitors is the surrounding countryside. Long Point, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve stretching 40 kilometres into Lake Erie, is about a half-hour drive south and offers some of the best birdwatching in Ontario — it sits on a major migration flyway. Port Burwell Provincial Park, on the lake shore, has a long sandy beach and the oldest wooden lighthouse on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes.

Guide

Things to Do

Aylmer's appeal is modest and mostly rural: the Aylmer and District Museum for local history, and the exceptional birdwatching and natural areas within easy reach. For birdwatchers, this corner of Ontario is genuinely world-class — the combination of Long Point and the surrounding farmland makes it one of the best migration hotspots in the country.

Guide

When to Go

The best time to visit Aylmer and the surrounding area depends entirely on what you are there for. Birdwatchers should come in May for the spring warbler migration at Long Point (peak is often mid-May) or in October for hawk migration — Broad-winged and Sharp-shinned Hawks move through in spectacular numbers in September and October.

For beach visits at Port Burwell, July and August are the reliable months, with water temperatures that make swimming worthwhile. Summers in southwestern Ontario are warm and humid, with temperatures regularly above 30°C in July.

Spring and autumn are the most pleasant for driving through the countryside, when the tobacco and grain farms are either planting or harvesting and the roads are quiet.

Winter in Elgin County is cold and often grey, with lake-effect weather off Lake Erie. There is little reason to visit unless you are chasing winter birds.