Birthday Post - Rattray Park Visit Last Weekend

True to form, I try to docuwrite about any Conservation area walks or trips we make. Last Saturday we went to an art show in Port Credit, Mississauga, Ontario which I wrote a bit about in my previous post. While we were there, we visited a park that was right on the shores of Lake Ontario. We had already looked on Google to see if there were any areas we could walk in and take some shots, see some cool things....there was and very close :-) Rattray Marsh. I'm one for cleaning up garbage in these Conservation areas, and we've done it ourselves. Granted, I have to admit, garbage is minimal in our usual haunts, though you do see the odd Tim's cup and stray Kleenex, lost flip flop or a stray pair of grey washed up underwear on the beach (I even have pics) but I tend to give the benefit of the doubt (especially to the lost Tim cup owners) that it was an accident, unknowingly dropped, couldn't catch it as it blew away, they meant to throw it out on their way out or whatever. However, we happened to choose the annual clean up the park day for our visit to Rattray. Soooo, needless to say, it was swamped, yet fun.

We saw Goldfinches, and we saw and heard Sparrows of the white throated brand, tons of Robins, ok lots of dogs on leashes (yay they were on a leash!), and I even was fast enough to grab what I later see is a Flicker as it flew overhead near the shore. We also saw Killdeer, flying and on a flat muddy area across a small marshy area just across from Lake Ontario's shores. Cool thing too, the Toronto Skyline, CN Tower and all, was visible but through the hazy sunlight atmosphere. I got some cool rock shots (we think the rocks are dropped there) and some neat shots of plant textures.

You Know it's a nice warm sunny early spring day too when you see those little hideous black spiders run in and out of the shoreline stones. I once saw a documentary years ago, probably 20+, on TV. It suggested that spiders Have to be from another world because most of the human population hates spiders. Hard to know but I count in as one of those people - I hate spiders! I often have nightmares about them. It didn't help that our old apartment was a haven for them, you could not reach into any crack or crevice without feeling an icky clinging crackling web on your hands