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

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Ducks on the wing

Posted in Ducks

Something alerted the ducks as I was watching them on an inner pond at the Spit, and they all took off at once. © BCP 2010

I couldn’t let my wonderful visit to the Leslie Street Spit last weekend go by without including a photo or two of the ducks there. Anyone who has ever ventured past the gates into Tommy Thompson Park (don’t get caught on the wrong side of the gate at closing time, like I did…) knows that one of its singular attractions is the huge variety of waterfowl that either reside in the park and or pass through it during their migrations.

I spent a long time watching a raft of ducks near the metal bridge about the half-way point of the main road. Even with good binoculars, it was hard to be entirely sure what birds I was seeing, as they were quite far out. But I was able to identify scaups, mergansers, long-tails, mallards and possibly some red-heads.

I’m thinking that the ducks in the above photo are scaups, but whether they are greater (Aythaya marila) or lesser (Aythaya affinis) I cannot say.

According to my wonderful handbook, Waterfowl of Eastern North America: “The greater and lesser scaup offer the biggest challenge in identification of any of the duck species, and both the males and the females are difficult to tell apart.” The manual goes on to say that head shape is a very important characteristic for distinguishing between the two species, but depending on the duck’s “mood,” even this characteristic can be unreliable. I can assure the reader I was far too far away to be able to ascertain the mood of any duck I saw at the Spit.

On the way home from the duck pond at the Spit. © BCP 2010

But here’s the concluding line regarding identification from the entry on greater scaups in my book: “It is important to note that not all scaup can be identified conclusively. Remember, it is OK to say ‘I don’t know.’ ”

There you have it. I don’t know….But if anyone can help with the identification, I’d love to hear.

Two perfect trees at the Leslie Street Spit. © BCP 2010

My trip back from the duck ponds was a pleasant one. The wind had died down somewhat, and the afternoon sun spread its warmth on my shoulders like a favourite soft sweater. There was hardly a cloud in the sky, and you could feel the energy from the sun warming up the land, encouraging tiny green shoots to break forth from the muddy ground.

My eye was caught by the lovely shapes of two trees along the eastern side of the Spit. Don’t know from their branch structure what species they are.

But as with the ducks above, we don’t always have to name something lovely in order to appreciate it.

Posted in Ducks

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Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Homes for everyone

Posted in Mammals, Trees, Waterfowl

For rent: Spacious, one-family homes. All have lake and city views. High-rise or garden terrace available. © BCP 2010

So much for the recession. There’s still a building boom going on in Toronto, and it’s not just swanky condos for humans.

Above is a picture I took a weekend ago at Tommy Thompson Park, near the metal footbridge about halfway out to the lighthouse. If you look closely at the trees in the photo, you’ll notice they are punctuated by hundreds of large nests — currently vacant. But they are soon to be occupied once again, as soon as the cormorants return from their southern migration. Then there will certainly be more stories to tell, as the pro- and anti- cormorant factions start up again.

In the meantime, some of the animals that never left for the winter are busy building. On March 1, I put up a picture of a very large, newly renovated and particularly well-built beaver lodge at Humber Bay Park.

In the foreground of the photo above is another beaver lodge, this time a much messier-looking one (clearly this beaver family hasn’t been to the Martha school of home-making) near the metal footbridge at Tommy Thompson Park (familiarly known to one and all in the Big Smoke as the Leslie Street Spit.) This beaver family seems to have been in a hurry when it threw this house together. But I know that building has started up again this spring, as throughout the park there is ample — even scary — evidence of the beaver’s, er, mouthworks.

The Leslie Street Spit beaver clan are back in the tree-cutting business this spring. © BCP 2010

Everywhere you look along the paths and main road of Tommy Thompson Park are felled trees. What took Mother Nature years and years to grow, a determined beaver can bring down in a few nights’ work.

I do get that this is the way of the world — the big picture, so to speak. But beavers are meant to live and do all their busy buidling work in completely wild areas where the forests and marshes and fens are in every stage of sucession. If a family of beavers mows down a few hundred trees around a pond in Algonquin Park, no worries, mate! But move the same family of beavers to an urban wilderness….it doesn’t work quite as well.

A closer view of the beaver lodge at the Leslie Street Spit. © BCP 2010

The problem is especially acute at Ashbridge’s Bay, where the trees were planted, and there are not that many of them. Ten down at Ashbridge’s is a disaster for the other animals the beavers share the park with.

Damage or not, how wonderful it is to live in a city where a short walk can take us to another largely unseen world, a world that comes alive at dusk, where such concentrated effort, and single-mindedness of purpose results in the entirely ingenious construction that is the beaver lodge. I may damn the loss of the trees, but am dam glad for the beavers.

Posted in Mammals, Trees, Waterfowl

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Friday, March 12, 2010

First robin!

Posted in Songbirds

As far as I am concerned — no matter what the date is — spring is officially here.

Out today for a stroll in what seemed like balmy weather at first. But the sunny day was deceptive. While the warmth of the sun on my shoulders was a comforting reminder that the world is waking and warming up, the stiff cold breeze made me glad for a down coat.

I spent most of my walk observing the ducks in Ashbridge’s inner bay. There were lots today: the ever-present mallard mates, gadwall pairs, buffies, long-tails, and a good number of scaups. (Lesser or greater, I never can tell.) I also saw one lone American merganser male. And quite a thrill — a male hooded merganser, a duck I only rarely see at Ashbridge’s.

A female belted kingfisher, back in her usual hunting spot in the cottonwoods along the path from the parking lot. ©BCP 2010

On my way back to the parking lot, though, was the real thrill of the day. First I heard the teeth-chattering rattle of what could only be our bay’s belted kingfisher, (Megaceryle alcyon) back from his winter vacation in one of many hotspots — the West Indies, Southern U.S., Mexico, or South America. Then I saw him, er, her….as it was a she. She was fishing from her usual spot in the cottonwoods along the path from the parking lot.

Then, best of all, the unmistakeable song of a robin. Just one. But one was enough. I couldn’t stay long to wait to get a really good picture, so just grabbed this one of this male perched on the duff in the shadow of the hawthorn trees.

What could be better than seeing — and hearing the joyous song — of the first robin of spring. Many pleasures await!

©BCP 2010

Posted in Songbirds

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