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

Friday, June 4, 2010

Woodbine Park irises — not really wild, but naturally beautiful

Posted in Flowers, Woodbine Park

Since this website is supposed to be about what is wild in our city, I guess you could say I am cheating a bit here. The irises above, after all, aren’t wild. They are the work of the wonderful gardeners that keep Woodbine Park looking its best through spring, summer and fall.

I decided to post this picture anyway, just because I thought the brilliant flowers looked liked purple jewels against a jade backdrop.

Don’t get me wrong. This being June, there’s a smorgasbord of wild things exploding around us right now to photograph. Perhaps too much wildlife for me — or at least for my computer. I have taken so many pictures (without doing the recommended clean-up operations) that my poor computer has indigestion. Or much, much worse. I had my first-ever occurrence of the grey screen of death last night, which I am told heralds VERY BAD THINGS for my computer. We’re talking fatal error.

So, I’m posting this picture just because I like it and because it could be my last for a while. If there are no new posts in the next few days, you’ll know why… A dead computer means no website until I get a new computer or get the problem solved.

There’s a certain irony involved, I guess, in that it takes a huge amount of digital technology and computing power for me to celebrate that which doesn’t have to be plugged in to be perfect just as it is.

Wish me luck.

Posted in Flowers, Woodbine Park

1 comment

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Phragmites (the common reed) in Woodbine Park: Phriend or phoe?

Posted in Amphibians, Plants, Woodbine Park

Is it my imagination, or do the reed beds in Woodbine Park keep getting bigger?

At first, I was a huge fan of these reeds. (If my research powers are intact since my recent European sojourn, they are Phragmites australis — the common reed.)

I love the way they have a distinctive look in every season. In the fall, with their feathery seed heeds bending in the breeze. In the winter, bending under the weight of freshly fallen snow. Above all, in the spring, when the advance of the new growing season can be gauged by the moment the male red-winged blackbirds arrive from their overwintering grounds down south, reach our marshes, ponds and river edges where they land on the reeds, bending them almost completely over with their weight. It’s from these reeds the blackbirds loudly announce their return to all parties — avian and otherwise.

Today, an absolutely perfect summer day — the kind that makes you grateful to be alive on planet Earth — I thought the reeds to be as lovely as ever. But I noticed they seemed to be taking over the ponds in this relatively newly constructed park.

Looking them up online, it wasn’t long before I found out that these reeds are considered to be aggressively invasive non-native weeds that are severely phrowned upon by ecologists and biologists. Why? Because they spread extremely rapidly, forming dense thickets that effectively choke out many native species that are part of complex marshy ecosystems. That seems to be what is happening at Woodbine Park.

There’s no doubt the park’s teeming population of red-winged blackbirds has found the reeds to their liking. But what species of native grasses and sedges — and all the flora and fauna they are normally associated with — are being crowded out?

Who knew we had a purple loosestrife situation right in our own backyard?

I’m happy to report, though, that not all other life has been pushed to the margins at Woodbine. On my walk around the reflecting pond, I heard frogs bellowing before I actually saw any. But by listening closely, then staying very still, I was able to locate one of these noisy amphibians. He was right at the water’s edge, partially submerged. And he was playing a banjo.

Er, no. It just sounded that way. The Nature Conservancy of Canada website calls the green frog “the banjo player of the swamps.” Here’s what else the site says about these amphibians native to Ontario: “The Green Frog’s nickname, “banjo frog,” may explain Kermit the Frog’s affinity for the banjo. Their call, which only the males make, sounds just like a plucked banjo string or rubber band. But unlike Kermit, and despite its name, the Green Frog is not always green!” (Clicking on the banjo string link will take you to an audio file of the frog’s croaking.)

Hee’s another interesting factoid I found out about this cute little frog: the flat disc just behind the frog’s eye is actually his eardrum, called a tympanum. (All the better to hear you with, my pretty!)

On my next trip to Woodbine Park, I’ll see if I can find any other species of frog native to Ontario.

And I’ll try to find out what, if any, damage is being done to the park by the Phragmites reeds. Perhaps the phear and loathing is unjustified?

Posted in Amphibians, Plants, Woodbine Park

1 comment

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Tweet, tweet: Bird festival in Tommy Thompson Park

Posted in Events, Owls, Raptors, Songbirds, Tommy Thompson Park

Do we live in a great city, or what?

Last weekend, for those of who love to be connected to the natural world, there was the brilliant Paddle the Don. This weekend, a bird festival (billed as the “Original Tweeters” in what is turning out to be one of the best urban wildernesses in North America, Tommy Thompson Park. (Or, as most of us call it, the Spit.)

The festival at the Spit was advertised to begin at 7 a.m., today, running until noon. Unfortunately, I failed to get up with the birdies, but did make it before the sun was over the yard arm, as my mother would say.

I snapped a few quick pix of some birds of prey being exhibited — courtesy, I think, of the Toronto Region Conservation Authority. There were three on display: a great horned owl, (Bubo virginianus), a red-tailed hawk, (Buteo jamaicensis), and an American kestrel (Falco sparverious).

The folks demonstrating these magnificent creatures said that the birds are extremely used to people milling around them and photographing them at very close range. They’re experienced avian models, as it were, immune to the photographers and their bulky cameras as they patiently pose.

I didn’t spend as much time with the birds of prey as I would have liked to, because there was a bird walk just beginning that I wanted to catch. I managed to hustle down a path near the main road just as a small group was disappearing around a bend in the path through some underbrush.

Hustling to catch the group was a good call, as our guide, Mike, was extremely knowledgeable, and equally patient.

Mike was able to identify dozens of species by their call or song, long before they could be seen, and I was able to add a handful of new species to my life list, courtesy of Mike’s experience and expertise.

We saw many different warblers, including the following: black-throated blue; blackburnian; parulas; yellow-rumped or Myrtle; magnolia; black and white; nashville; and yellow. At least, these are the ones I remember.

Other species we encountered included lots or rose-breated grosbeaks; an oven-bird; brown-headed cowbird; house wren; many red-winged blackbirds; many barns’ worth of barn swallows; chimney swifts; warbling vireo; scarlet tanager; Baltimore oriole; golden-crowned kinglets; and a blue-grey gnatcatcher.

Two of these, the northern parula (Parula americana) and the blue-grey gnatcatcher (Polioptila caerulea) I had never seen before, so they were doubling exciting for me.

I’m including a photo of one of the parulas we saw on the hike. It’s not particularly clear or close up, but it’s the best I could catch this time out.

Despite the inclement weather — which seemed to include what felt like flurries!?! to driving rain with high winds that drove many of our quarry species to ground (oh, and some patches of sunshine) — we had a terrific hike, thanks to our guide, Mike.

Many thanks to the conservation authority for putting this spring bird festival on. I’ll be sure to put this event on my calendar for next year.

Posted in Events, Owls, Raptors, Songbirds, Tommy Thompson Park

1 comment