8th April
Bird sightings in the ravine
Recently, I met a quartet of photographers in the ravine, all armed with those large, professional-looking cameras. I guessed they were bird-watchers and asked if they had seen any interesting birds. One of them, Arthur Gron, later sent me the photos below. The first is of a merlin:
Merlins are small, fierce falcons, broader and stockier than the slightly smaller American kestrel; they use surprise attacks to bring down small songbirds.
The second bird is a hermit thrush:
It is described as a medium-sized thrush, with rather inconspicuous colouring; it takes its name from its tendency to hide away inside forests. You can listen to recordings of its long, interesting song.
And the third is of a red-bellied woodpecker, first from the back:
and then from the side:
This woodpecker is about the same size as the hairy woodpecker. Its name is somewhat of a misnomer. It has a red head, but there is already a species called red-headed woodpecker. The red-bellied woodpecker does have a reddish tinge to its belly. but this is only observable to a trained birder. I am sure Arthur is one of these! Thanks, Arthur, for letting me use these excellent photos!
Tree growing along ground
As you may have gathered, I meet a lot of interesting people in the park. I know another photographer, Karl Vigelius, from previous meetings. He had told me about a tree that grows sideways along the ground. I met him near it recently and he identified it for me. It is in the gully down from the Strathearn Rd side of the park. You can see the houses of that street in the background. Here is where it starts:
It then continues along the ground:
extends further:
and finally rears up into the air to catch the sunlight. Apparently, it also grows new roots into the ground from the horizontal section.
City both plants and destroys trees
Somewhere back in the blog, I have a photo of a line of trees that a City contractor planted between the outdoor skating rink and Wyndley Ave, with the idea of mitigating the sound from the rink for the houses on that street. More recently, another City contractor, this time moving snow at the back of the arena, knocked down several of these trees over after the recent snowfall:
This is another:
And this is yet another, broken off at the top:
Maybe the City should coordinate the activities of its contractors!
Another oak sapling planted on ravine slope
With the permission of the owners, Ivor Simmons and I recently planted another oak sapling, grown from an acorn taken from the park, on the ravine slope behind another house on Heathdale. It accompanies two others that the owners had already moved to their ravine slope.
Early flowers blooming well
Coltsfoot is one of the earliest flowers to arrive in the ravine. There are now several places where they are blooming well:
Here is another:
This photo was taken on 6th April close to the wooden bridge between the Bathurst St bridge and the Glenayr entrance:
This is scilla, between the path and Glenayr:
More of the same:
What will they throw into the park next?
A favourite spot for people to throw objects into the ravine is the Glen Cedar footbridge. On 6th April, I found this metal lantern with its glass all broken below the bridge. I cleared up the broken glass and carried it and the lantern frame to the garbage container at Glenayr. I took a photo of the lantern before putting it in the garbage:
Watch your head next time you are passing under the Glen Cedar footbridge!
Friday litter pickup group welcomes new member
On Friday 5th April, the litter pickup group expanded to include our new Steering Committee member and Secretary, Valentina Gastaldo. Below from left to right we are Valentina, Alan Madras, David Raymont and me:
If the Friday group were ever all there, we would now be 6 people. I have to buy some more grabbers, using the funds raised in our fundraising drive.
Postscript 8th April: the solar eclipse was largely obscured by cloud today. However, a large crowd turned out and experienced the sudden dark period at 3.19 pm. More in my next post
John Cummings
Friends of Cedarvale 