Wild About the City &raquo; Exploring nature in the urban environment

Thursday, June 17, 2010

A great blue heron goes fishing at Colonel Sam Smith Park

Posted in Colonel Sam Smith Park, Waterfowl

A great blue heron (Ardea herodias), impales a fish at Colonel Sam Smith Park Thursday, June 17. © BCP 2010

What a day! A perfect June day. Sunny and warm, like most beautiful summer days. But today was elevated to perfection by the loveliest cool breeze that kept it from being swelteringly hot.

My first foray today was to Rattray Marsh, where I spent a couple of hours exploring the lakeshore walk. Although I saw some interesting plants and songbirds, I didn’t have the best luck with waterfowl. I was hoping to see a coot, maybe, or a green heron, like the last time I was there. Next time maybe.

My next stop was Colonel Sam Smith Park, where I have always had great luck with the waterfowl. Today was no exception.

The first thing that hit me as I got to the bay was the racket being made by the red-necked grebes. There were two pairs of grebes, arguing furiously between themselves. Not sure if it was a territory dispute, or what. I’ll check into that.

Looking to the east downtown from the park. High UV + traffic jam gridlock = murk. © BCP 2010

Just past the grebes I came across a great blue heron fishing. I got a couple of shots off of the heron, who then took off across the bay.

I kept on going around the bay, and encountered the heron again, as you can see from the picture above. I took a succession of photos of this heron fishing — very successfully, obviously — and will post the sequence soon.

(More horrendous computer problems today, so am just posting this one picture right now in case everything goes kerflooey again. That’s the technical term for something in between the fatal error — grey screen of death, again — and the simply moribund. Yup, I’m somewhere between the two right now, so better get this post up before it’s too late.)

About the picture at left. Up on the high ground of the park, I looked back towards the city — to the east — to see what the downtown looked like, and was shocked at how hazy it was. There’s no doubt traffic is as messed up as it has ever been, what with all the security barriers going up and already in place for the G20 summit.

Let’s see. About a billion bucks and counting. No extra charge for the bad air.

One last thing. Be sure to check out Today’s Quote. It’s about herons. (Sort of.)

Posted in Colonel Sam Smith Park, Waterfowl

2 comments

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Of beavers, trees and flowers in High Park

Posted in Flowers, High Park, Mammals, Trees

Sometimes on my walks I get the feeling that there is scarcely a tree in Toronto that is safe from the ravages of our hardworking national symbol, the beaver.

Certainly the trees in my neck of the urban woods have been decimated by our local family of Castor canadensis. Several times I have had to write to The Fixer — who otherwise goes by the name Jack Lakey — at the Toronto Star. The Fixer has an excellent track record of getting action on the niggling problems that drag down city life — everything from dangerously uneven sidewalks to lights out on public streets to, well, you name it. He’s fixed it. Or gotten it fixed.

So when the beavers were having a go seeing if they could completely deforest my little pocket-sized oasis, Ashbridge’s Bay, I contacted him. And damn if he didn’t get the upper hand, er, paw, on our local beavers. Got miles more chicken wire put around our trees at risk. (Beavers are especially fond of poplars, I have found out, and will climb over crushed glass, it seems to me, to find a nice, mature specimen. One that Ma Nature has put 35 or 40 years into growing just so.)

The chicken wire does seem to work, though, when it’s in place before the beavers’ appetite really revs up.

Which brings me to High Park. I noticed on my recent ramble there that the groundskeepers of Grenadier Pond have been proactive, beating the beavs to the leaves, as it were. Yup, I found young trees on the south shore of the pond perfectly protected from the yellow-toothed scourge. (Don’t get me wrong. Some of my best friends are beavers. I just think they should know their place.)

As I walked by, the sunshiny blooms of a bushy yellow hawkweed (Hieracium caespitosum) growing inside one of these wire mesh anti-beaver cages caught my eye. Like its better-known cousin, orange hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum), it is a member of the aster family. Neither species is native to Ontario; both were introduced from Europe. Although farmers consider them weeds, as they spread quickly by leafy runners, they are a lovely sight to see in a field. I haven’t heard that they are considered a troubling invasive plant, like the equally pretty but unwanted purple loosestrife.

High Park is a spectacular place I don’t know very well. I plan to head back there soon to see more of its resident flora and fauna. In the meantime, if you want to know more about this huge urban resource, check out the very useful High Park Nature website. It’s maintained on a volunteer basis by writer/photographer Karen Yukich, with excellent photos taken by Tony Pus and Karen’s husband, Bob Yukich.

Posted in Flowers, High Park, Mammals, Trees

no comments

Monday, June 14, 2010

Our swans (and cygnets) stop by for a photo op at Ashbridge’s

Posted in Ashbridge's Bay, Swans

At last! I finally connected with our swan family — Penny, her long-time mate, Tycho, and their two cygnets.

I think the cygnets were hatched around May 21 or 22 — a guesstimate, since I was, sadly, away when it happened. I saw them on May 24, when they were clearly newly hatched, barely able to remain upright standing on the sloping surface of the boat launch ramp at Ashbridge’s Bay.

Of course, I didn’t have any camera with me, as I was just out for a quick spin to see how they were doing, and I didn’t really think the cygnets would be born yet. So, no newborn pictures.

I made repeated tours of the bay and the peninsula over the next few weeks — with my photo gear — trying to get a picture of them while they were still very young. But for some reason, I was never where they were. I did see them quite far out in the bay. Much too far to photograph.

But yesterday afternoon, on a quick pre-dinner spin, I was lucky enough to catch the whole family feeding in the Coatsworth Cut. Finally! Of course, now the little cygnets aren’t so little any more. I reckon they’re about 22 to 24 days old, and growing like the weeds in my garden. (Much faster than I can contend with, that’s for sure.)

They may be three weeks old, but the cygnets are still being fed by their parents. Penny and Tycho put their heads down into the water, nibble at some submerged aquatic vegetation (what the biologists refer to as SAV), and pull it up so the little ones can get it. The slimy green stuff hangs in long strings from the adults’ beaks, making it easily reachable by the young swans. (The cygnets do plunge their necks underwater to grab at a little of the SAV, but Mom and Dad do most of the harvesting, it seems.) It never fails to amaze me what devoted parents the adult swans are. They patiently feed their littles from earliest morning til far into the evening.

The cygnets are still adorable little fluffballs, one a cream colour, the other more taupe. Next year at this time — providing that they survive, of course, and that’s not to be taken for granted — they will be pure white like their parents.

I don’t know why this year “our beauties,” as my friend Egon calls P and T, had only two offspring. Other years our love birds have hatched out many more. In 2009 and 2008, for example, they started with eight cygnets each spring. In both years, only three cygnets survived until the end of the summer, and then fledged in the fall.

I am going to try to find out what could have caused the reduction — fewer eggs laid? more predation in the new nest location?

In the meantime, here’s a family portrait, caught in one of the rare moments when all members of the family actually had their heads above the water line at the same time.

Posted in Ashbridge's Bay, Swans

1 comment