End of Fall, Still Lovely

I love Fall seasons that are still so gorgeous that it feels like a bonus Summer. It's so much more delicious than real Summer even.

This past weekend, Sunday, was like that. The Sunday before, I thought was it, it was the most beautiful Fall weekend this year, but Nov 13th came close.

We went to Birkdale Ravine, on Ellesmere, late afternoon. The light was stunning. There were so many beautiful little things. Some I did capture, others we just looked at and experienced.

The little stuffed anime critters on the dash of a car and the super moon were a bit of a special bonus :-)

Fall 2016

Well, this was a bloody fast Spring and Summer, that's for sure. It's now well into Fall. I love Fall, it's such a pretty season. There are a lot of birds to see too, migrants heading back south, and raptors making their journey too. It's always sad to see in a way, because it means waiting 7 months to see them all back here again, in March. But, we shouldn't wish our time away too fast, even if winter is not as pleasant and enjoyable as Summer can be :-)

Some early October prettiness from our favourite close by walking area, Birkdale Ravine.

Cooper Hawk Nest Near Our Place

We often walk over to the ravine that is near our condo. It is not a far walk, but once you get into the ravine entrance, you could conceivably walk for miles, east towards McCowan, then towards Markham Rd., into the Highland Creek area. We often go as far as McCowan, but have walked for 4 hours or so, and done the longer route.

Last time we were there, John noticed a huge stick nest up in a tree. It was quite visible from certain spots. We saw the partially silhouetted head of a hawk in it, and I thought it to be a Red Tailed Hawk.

Today, on a day off from work, after renewing our library cards, we decided to head over and see how the hawk was doing.

There was a city worker mowing the meadow area just north of where the nest is, and as he left, passing us as we stepped aside and out of his way, the one hawk took off from the nest and was circling. It didn't seem to like all the noise, and it flew back and forth finally settling in a tree near the nest. I got a couple photos of it, enough to see that it was not a Red Tail Hawk, it was a Cooper's Hawk. We decided to walk on and leave it alone, let it settle down and go back to its business.

Later on, we stopped to see how it was doing, on our way out. I could see a bird seemingly feeding another bird, or pulling from something below in the nest then lifting its head. The bird popped up its head. It has yellow eyes and it seems larger than the one that flew from the nest earlier. Not sure if it is a female being brought food by the smaller male, or a single juvi hawk. Hard to know 100%, could be the female sitting on eggs still, or a juvenile pretty close to fledging. It was large. Hard to see from the distance the photos were taken from too, and the amount of the bird that I was able to discern in the photo. I purposely over exposed the photo when I tool it so I could see as much detail as possible later on. Looking in person it is too far and in total silhouette.

We also were treated to a pair of crows chasing a red tailed hawk through the sky.

The ravine is a pretty place to walk. Generally, someone will stop and talk to us for a few moments, and it is quite enjoyable. Many are long time area residents and we learn quite a bit from them. We saw a lot of swallow tails, mostly the yellow Eastern ones, but we did see a black swallowtail butterfly closer to our condo, on the walk back.

Lots of Spring Critters at Birkdale Ravine

Gorgeous day, slight nip in the air but still and warmth touching our shoulders given by the bright sunlight. Just a perfect early Spring day for a walk.

The animals and birds must have had the same inclination because we were treated to quite a few exciting sightings today at the ravine near where we live.

First, the bird that prompted our disagreement later at home, until I was convinced lol! - a Winter Wren (not a House Wren as I felt it has to be).

We spotted a mink running along the bank on the opposite side from where we stood, watching the wren, in its reddish coat. So cute!

Not a great photographic opportunity, but we enjoyed the pleasure of spotting a Cooper's Hawk eating something, in a tree, before 2 squirrels barrelling down a tree right next to it scared it off. It did return to continue eating a bit later,

Lots of Robins out, Cardinals, and Song Sparrows were singing.

A real treat, and not something we've seen as close as we did, an Eastern Phoebe. We normally don't walk on the right side of the Community Centre when we exit the park, but we did this time, and were then lucky to be greeted by the cute bird, sitting on the fence near the town houses, then she popped closer to us in a small tree, affording me the opportunity for a pretty close capture!

The ravine is only a 10 minute walk from us, and is a beautiful area, often offering up quite a few generous sightings of migratory birds, local birds, and wild life. It's a very enjoyable walk.

Mom and Baby Deer Sighting!

Always nice to get out for a walk and it's quite a treat to have a place that is only about a 10 to 15 min walk away, the Birkdale Ravine in Toronto. Late afternoons are a great time to go for a nature hike or walk. The light is pretty and many butterflies and dragonflies tend to be out in the late sunshine.

We'd heard that people have spotted deer in the meadow area but I can't recall if we've seen deer there before ourselves.

As we walked, I noticed that the clouds looked slightly ominous. We reached the meadow just as it began to come down. We had just spotted a wolf spider in it's web when the rain started. I grabbed a couple photos as we don't see one of those every day, rarely ever. They are creepy looking yet fascinating at the same time. We ducked under a huge maple tree and the leaves were dense enough to keep pretty much all the rain off of us and my camera. Mosquitoes loved it too though lol!

It was about 20 mins or so before the rain finally let up. It stopped 2x and restarted during that time. Right near the end of the wait, I was looking ahead around the direction of the path we took in and jumped slightly at the sudden appearance of a deer. I knew there'd be more so we stayed still. Another stepped out, munching a flower as it did, and both stood near each other in the clearing of the grassy path. The what I now saw was a Mom deer, a doe, was alert and saw us, the second deer, what turned out to be an older fawn, was not so nervous. It was such a wonderful sight getting to see the Mom and baby deer, and the fawn even reach to nurse from the Mom. Then, they decided enough was enough of being out of the cover of the woods and turned and walked back in.

Such an enjoyable walk.