Several Walks at Rosetta, East Point Park, and Birkdale Ravine in Scarborough

Last few weekends, we've gotten out to Birkdale Ravine, which is a walk from us, and Rosetta McLean's Gardens, which is a drive.

We didn't have our car much this summer, having lent it to my daughter probably 65% of the summer, so we didn't get out to High Park, Col. Sam Park again, nor the Leslie Spit much, which is fine. There is Plenty to see right near us.

Birkdale, which is so close, we were happy to see 3 or 4 Cooper's Hawks, so we knew the babies from this year did well, and are out and about, lingering around the area. Three were playing together in the sky above our heads on one of the visits.

We walked the Doris McCarthy path once in the last 3 weeks as well. This is by far our favourite. We tend to stay away from Bluffer's Park in the summer, just too crowded with groups of people and laden with garbage. Similar situation to if one goes out to Oshawa lake front too.

East Point Park is great for birds, and a really nice walk. You just need to be aware of the "rendezvous crowd", if you venture into certain spots along small foot paths. The guys mostly park down at the far west end lot, and traipse in a constant stream in and out of their established paths. Walking along the beach shore of this park is also really fun, lots to discover and lots of old dead drift wood textures and shapes too. Just be prepared to disrobe at Scarborough's famous "Nude Beach" lol!

The Monarch butterflies seemed to be just starting, early Aug walks, and are now out in full force this Labour Day weekend at Rosetta.

This seems to be the year for Cicadas. There were a lot of them flying around, making their loud buzzy sounds, at East Point Park in Scarborough. I had not seen them so active before, either we see them dead or just sitting.

Sunflowers were beautiful at Rosetta! Lots of bees, tons of wasps, and small butterflies and moths too.

We were treated to humming birds, twice, both times at Rosetta, feasting on the flowers there. I did get some shots of them, not great ones, but good compared to most years :-)

It's a treat just walking around these areas, seeing so many different types of people along our jaunts, lots of photographers, and of course, all the thrilling textures and such, as well as the creatures! Not to mention, the one lawn that was green this summer, the AstroTurf lawn on Brimley lol! I used to threaten to do this to the lawn at my old house as I hated trying to keep a good lawn lol! Seems someone else actually went further.