Sunday, May 3, 2020

There are over 100 species of butterflies that are found in Ontario and as you hike throughout the GTA you have an opportunity to see many of them.  With the COVID-19 lock down still underway we thought for our fifth Corona-blog it might be interesting to take a look some of the butterflies we’ve manged to get pictures of.  We hope you enjoy the pictures while we wait for the parks and trails to open again.

There are over 550 species of Swallowtail butterflies worldwide but we see only a few of them in Ontario.  Black Swallowtail have two broods each year with the first one emerging from their over-wintering in mid-May.  A second brood emerges in mid-July and flies throughout August.

The Spicebush Swallowtail has large blue iridescent spots on the hind wings.  This butterfly is less common in the GTA but can be seen regularly in Point Peele and at The Pinery.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is one of my favourite butterflies and it is fairly common in the GTA.  It also has two distinct broods per year.

The Painted Lady is also featured on the cover photo of this post and has a complex pattern on the under wing.  It looks similar to the American Lady which is more common in Ontario.

American Lady butterflies have less colour on the under wing than the Painted Lady featured above.  It has two large eye spots on the bottom of the hind wing.

Red Admiral are dark in colour with a bright orange band across the wings.  They are one of the more common butterflies in the GTA.

White Admiral are deep blue to purple with a broad white band across the wings.

White Admiral under wings have considerably more red than the upper side of the wing.

Great Spangled Fritillary is one of the largest fritillary butterflies in Canada. The underside of the wing will have a silver band along the edge of the wing.

Little Wood Satyr have four large eye spots on the wings, two on the front wing and two on the hind wing.

The Red Spotted Purple is a subspecies of the White Admiral.

Monarch Caterpillars become the butterflies that are perhaps the most recognizable to a lot of people.  The caterpillar can be found on milkweed which is the primary food.

Male Monarch butterflies have two little black dots on the hind wings that contain a scent to attract the females.

Female Monarch butterflies lack the black dots.

The picture below shows a pair of Monarchs mating.  The mating process can last for up to 16 hours. It usually starts one afternoon and can last until the following morning.

Viceroy  butterflies look very similar to Monarchs except that they have a black band along the edge of the wing.

Mourning Cloak butterflies are one of the first ones to be seen in the spring.  They over winter among the dead leaves on the ground and emerge when the weather warms up.

Gray Comma butterflies are interesting because the underside of the wings looks just like a dead leaf.  They can be well disguised when they want to be.

The Question Mark  looks similar to the Gray Comma but doesn’t have the deep section between the front and rear wings.

Pearl Crescent butterflies have several similar species but can be distinguished by the fine black lines that cross the orange sections of the wings.  A row of black dots lines the outer edge of the rear wing.

Silver Spotted Skipper are the largest of the native skippers.  The males can be very aggressive in defending their little territory, chasing everything else away.

Clouded Sulphur butterflies are one of the most common yellow butterflies in Ontario.  They seldom sit with their wings open so getting a shot of the upper wing requires luck and good timing.

The Appalachian Brown is very similar to the Eyed Brown.  The line on the under wing that separates the darker area from the lighter has gentle curves rather than being zigzagged like on the Eyed Brown

Milbert’s Tortoishell butterflies have three broods per season and are one of the distinct species in our area as there are no similar looking ones.  The bright orange band on the wings is complemented by red spots on the front wings.

Getting pictures of butterflies can be time consuming because they don’t always sit still and wait for you to get a good shot.  Patience is the virtue that will come in most handy.

Google Maps Link: look anywhere

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Friday, April 24, 2020

American Mink can be found along the shorelines of lakes, rivers and creeks throughout the GTA.  They generally live alone except for mating season which begins in February.  The kits are born from mid-April to June in litters that average 4.  The American Mink has a short delay between insemination and implantation which means that the female can delay the start of gestation for up to 45 days while she waits for favourable weather conditions.  With a mild winter and early spring it will tend to lead to earlier births than would be the case in years where there had been a severe and late winter.  The picture below shows a mink swimming with a kit in its mouth.

Mink don’t hibernate and so they can be seen all winter and their tracks tend to reveal where their nests are.  One lives in my area, I won’t say exactly where because of the babies, and so I went to see if I could get a picture of it since I am now laid off on Fridays.  I was lucky enough to see it return from a foraging trip and swim back to the nest.  Then it emerged a few minutes later with something in its mouth and swam across the creek.  When it climbed up on a rock in mid-stream I got a picture which showed that it was carrying a baby.

It took the kit across the creek and into a different den among the rocks on the other side.  Mink are known to keep several dens, each with multiple exits for security.

Mink babies are born blind with just a fine layer of soft grey fur.  When the kits are about 25 days old they will open their eyes for the first time. This allows them to start to learn the skills of hunting for food so that mom can wean them at about 35 days.  These little ones still have their eyes closed.

Over the next few minutes she brought four kits to the new den.  After the third one she paused to collect a few more leaves for padding before going after the fourth.  She stopped and took one final photo op before disappearing into her nest to suckle the young ones and warm them up after their dip in the cold water.

American Mink can often be found along the shore of Lake Ontario where they build their home in among the rip rap that is used for erosion control.  This picture was taken in Colonel Samuel Smith Park in Etobicoke.

This one was photographed in the winter during our exploration of the Ghost Town of Mount Charles.

Seeing a mother mink moving her recently born kits is one of those opportunities that you only get if you happen to be in the right place, at just the right time.  We’re glad we captured this in pictures.

Google Maps link: Do not disturb!

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Sunday, April 26, 2020

After hiking weekly for many years, and blogging about it for the past 6 years we have been shut down for over a month now due to the global pandemic.  With no current hikes to present, we are now looking to find other material for blogs.  For our fourth COVID-Blog we’ve collected some of the bird pictures we’ve taken along the way.  A few have appeared in our previous posts, some have been used on our Facebook page as cover or profile photos and a couple may not have been published before.  Savour a taste of the nature that is waiting for us when we’re able to get out and enjoy it.

The Baltimore Oriole is the state bird of Maryland and is named after the colours of the coat-of-arms for Lord Baltimore, who was the first proprietor of the Province of Maryland.

Yellow Warbler males have reddish-brown markings on their breast and can grow to be around 12 centimetres in length.

Pileated Woodpeckers are the largest species of woodpecker that is native to Ontario.  Both the male and female have a bright red crest that sweeps off the back of the head.  The male is distinguished by the red stripe on the cheek, as seen on the specimen below.  Their main food is the carpenter ant and they dig large square holes in trees to look for them.  The mated pair stay in their territory all year long and tend to nest in the largest tree in the area.  For this reason they are prone to being killed in lightning strikes.

Great Egret are known to breed in colonies with their nests at least 10 feet in the air and as high as 40 feet.  Their main diet is fish and frogs which they spear with their sharp bill.

Another shot of an Egret, this one standing on a tree in G. Ross Lord Park looking into the Don River.

Male Cardinals are at their brightest red in the spring when mating season is underway.  Their courtship includes feeding the female seeds that he collects.  This is captured in the cover photo for this collection.  After the eggs are laid the male will use his bright colours to capture the attention of potential threats.  He will then proceed to lead them away from the nest, at his own expense if need be.

Female Cardinals are paler in colour and therefore can hide themselves easier than the males.  They will sit on the eggs for 11-13 days until they hatch.  During this time the male will bring them their food.  Cardinals remain in pairs year round and the two are seldom far apart.  They have different calls which allows you to hear them as they sing to each other.

Like the Cardinal, the American Goldfinch is sexually dimorphic, meaning that the male and female look different in more ways than just their reproductive organs.  The male also undergoes a complete molt in which its olive coloured feathers are changed for bright yellow for mating season.

Downey Woodpeckers are the smallest of the common woodpeckers in Ontario.  Except for size, they look almost identical to the larger, and unrelated, Hairy Woodpecker.  The male has a red crest on his head that the female lacks.

In recent years there have been an increasing number of Swans who choose to spend the winter along the shores of Lake Ontario.  This one was sitting on the fresh snow and was comical as it struggled to take flight.

Canada Geese may grace our $100 dollar bill but in general they are pretty dirty birds that some people rather dislike.  However, who could dislike their cute little goslings when they are a few days old.

Great Blue Heron are one of the more common of the large fishing birds.  We see them all summer long.  This picture became the background for the Hiking the GTA business card.

Herons have been known to gather sticks for nesting purposes but this one was just picking them up and throwing them off the grass.

This Red-Tailed Hawk was seen at Downsview Park where it is common to see several hawks in a single visit.  For some reason this one didn’t seem alarmed that I was slowly approaching and taking pictures.  It let me get quite close before taking to flight.

This Red-Tailed Hawk went into the trees near me and snatched a black squirrel off a branch.  It killed the squirrel quickly so that it couldn’t struggle and escape but this was also merciful.  It then spent several minutes making sure it wasn’t going to be challenged for dinner.

Snowy Owls spend their summers north of the Arctic Circle hunting lemmings.  Each bird can consume up to 1600 lemmings per year.  It is normal for a few Snowy Owls to be seen in Southern Ontario each winter.  This one was seen near the Adamson Estate.

Belted Kingfishers dive at speeds of up to 25 kilometres per hour and can catch fish that are two feet under water.  They can often be heard before they are seen and have a very distinctive chatter.

Juvenile Green Heron will usually hunt from shore rather than wading like most members of the heron family.

Juvenile Black-Crowned Night Heron are brown in colour with spots on their wings and backs.  They will change colour as they mature to have the distinctive black crown and back with the rest of the body being white.

Common Merganser feed on a diet that is primarily made up of fish.  They have serrated edges to their bills which give rise to their other name which is “Sawbills”.

The Wood Duck is one of the most remarkably coloured members of the duck family.  The male has ornate feathers on almost all of their upper body.  Only the chest lacks a pattern.  They are found primarily in wooded ponds where they nest in hollow trees.  Their feet have little claws which makes them the only duck that can cling to bark and branches.

Just like the juvenile Canada Geese we looked at earlier, Mallard Ducklings are also very cute.  Mom jumped of the dock into Lake Aquitaine and one by one the little ones followed her.  While she was quite graceful, they each plopped into the water.

One of the most common waterfront birds is the “seagull” which is a term loosely applied to several different Gull species and often includes Terns as well.  In general these birds are unremarkable, but sometimes you just catch them at the right moment.

Killdeer have a diet of worms and insects and migrate as far south as Mexico.  They get their name from the sound of their call rather than the number of deer that they kill.  Which is none.

Hummingbirds are the smallest bird that migrates and the only bird that can fly backwards.  Even though they live off of the nectar from flowers they have no sense of smell.  With a weight under two grams they have the ability to dive at speeds approaching 80 km/hr.

American Robins don’t fly south to escape the cold, they move around to seek food.  Most of them will stay in the area where the temperature is warm enough that they can still get bugs and worms.  The ones who stay behind switch their diet to berries and seeds.  This picture shows a robin with a berry in its mouth.

Leucism causes an animal to lose part of its pigmentation.  This Leucistic Robin was seen two years in a row in the same area.

Obviously, the trail and parks are full of birds and avid birdwatchers will collect dozens of species on their “Life-List” of sightings.  We hope to be able to add to ours soon.

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Sunday, April 19, 2020

The more trails you hike, the more likely you are to come across the remains of an an old vehicle quietly rusting away.  Often they are in places that you could no longer drive a car to because of new growth.  This post features several old cars that we have covered before in some of our earlier posts.  Each of those has a link to the post where there is more information.  Some of them have not been published before and so no links are available.  They are presented in no particular order.

The first ones that we’ll feature are the farthest away, in the Georgian Bay area.  We parked on 13 side road off of the 7th line a little south west of Meaford to go investigate the remains of the Georgian Bay Milling And Power.  The area we accessed as we went down the old road allowance is known as Trout Hollow. As we walked along the road allowance we started to find the remains of old cars.  It’s hard to say how many cars are here because the parts are all mixed up.  There could possibly be five of them, all from the late 1940’s or early 1950’s.  The first pile we found contained the hood of an old Ford truck, a panel with the three trademark vents of a Buick and the side panel of a Cadillac among various other parts.  The Cadillac can be dated to 1947-1952 based on the shape of the logo.

Following the yellow side trail where it goes to the right off of the road allowance brings you past one of many 1940’s era cars that have been pushed down the hillside prior to the growth of the current forest cover.  More information on this hike can be found in our post Trout Hollow.

Nearly 2 kilometres from Hockley Valley Road on the Bruce Trail are the remains of a 1939 Chevy Sedan that are being slowly disassembled and removed.  The property belonged to Dennis Nevett who owned and farmed it until 1974 when he sold it to the government for the creation of the Hockley Valley Provincial Nature Preserve.  The family used the sedan from about 1951 until 1959 when it died.  Over the next year or two it was towed to the back corner of one of the fields and left to rust away.  The story of this hike can be found at our link Hockley Valley.

Just south of Hillsburgh in the first hollow lie the remains of a collapsed house and a car from the late 1940’s or early 1950’s.  More pictures of this area can be found in our Hillsburgh post.

Two cars can be found in Streetsville as you make your way upstream toward Hyde Mill. This car is in pretty good shape although it has been stripped clean of every usable part. The trunk lid still contains an old decal showing how to use the tire jack.  From the part number on the decal we were able to identify this car as a 1977 Ford Galaxy 500.  More pictures from this hike can be found in our story Hyde Mill.

The remains of an old vehicle, likely a late 1940’s or early 1950’s, lay at the bottom of the hill as you approach Hyde Mill from the river level. This car may have been here for quite a long time as it is damaged beyond identification.  These two vehicles must have been dumped down here before the trees grew up on the embankment above.  The story can be found at the link for Hyde Mill.

North of Georgetown there is an old wreck near the Bruce Trail.  We entered on the Eight Line Side Trail and made our way to The Great Esker Side Trail.  Along the way we identified the remains of an old car in the woods.  It has clearly been there for decades as it has no motor and is surrounded by mature trees. It is in a very advanced state of decay.  The front bumpers and grill pattern were quite unique in the various car models of the 1940’s.  Having looked through hundreds of online pictures, positive identification wasn’t possible but the closest candidate was a 1946 Chevy Stylemaster.  More pictures and this story can be found in our post about The Great Esker 

Between Kerns Road and Guelph Line, along the Bruce Trial, lie the remains of a car with a tree growing out of the rear passenger seat.  Positive identification wasn’t possible because no identifying stickers or plastic parts could be found.  We did notice that the front bumper incorporated the side signals in a unique three cut-out pattern.  Identical looking side markers can be found on the 1970 Chevy Impala.  More pictures of this wreck and the rest of the hike can be found in our story starting at Kerns Road.

One of the strangest places is the Toronto side of the Etobicoke Creek, south of the 401.  This section of ravine has at least eight different cars all of which are 40 – 50 years old.  How they all came to be within a kilometre stretch along the one side of the creek is an open mystery which we hope to solve one day.  For now, here are some of the autos in this area.The most prominent one is a 1975 Chevy Vega as identified by the tail light configuration and a specific pattern in the quarter panel.  This car was featured in greater detail in our Etobicoke Creek Trail post.

This one appears to have the paint job of a 1979 Ford Bronco.

There is a small area just south of the 401 where there are three cars in one small area.  When we visited here earlier we wrote about them in a post called The Auto Graveyard.  The car pictured below was identified as a Datsun 1200 coupe by the tail light cluster.

Car number two is a Chrysler and it too has seen some better days.  There’s been a few parts removed from the engine but once you replace them you can set the firing order as per the sequence on the casting.

The third car in this location was a GM, based on the engine housing.  We can deduce that the model year was likely 1970 or earlier based on the bumper design.  The 5 MPH crash design was imposed in 1971.  This required that an impact at 5 MPH should not damage the lights and so they were removed from the bumpers and placed on the rear panel of the car.  The bumpers were extended from the frame and much of the fancy tail light/bumper design was lost forever.  This rear bumper appears in two parts likely with an extended cluster of tail lights running between them.

There are several other skeletons of cars in this area which haven’t been identified because we lacked a unique identifier like a light housing or a part number.  The one in the picture below is a Ford as stamped on the motor housing.  What kind and how old is unknown.

This car is interesting because the transmission is laid open with all the gears exposed.

This last one we throw in as a bonus.  It was taken along the Don River on September 14, 2019 but remains unidentified.

No doubt there are many more abandoned cars scattered throughout the GTA.  Some of which we’ve visited prior to starting this blog and some we have yet to discover.

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Saturday, March 21, 2020

The world was changing rapidly every day with the ongoing spread of COVID-19. Almost everything was closed to the public except for parks and hiking trails.  We decided to take the hike along the Humber River from Pine Point Park north to an old estate named Rivermede.  Along the way we noticed a few extra people but there wasn’t an unusually large number of park users and we were able to have the trail pretty much to ourselves.

The trail follows the Humber River which it eventually crosses on a pedestrian bridge.  After crossing under Albion Road we saw plenty of deer and coyote tracks but the animals were in hiding.  Presently we came to the plot of land in old Emery Village which we had been seeking.  From the trail we could see the old lane way that once led to the river as well as the pump house and the main cottage on the hill top.

Percy Gardiner made his fortune manufacturing brass and later as a principal in the Toronto Stock Exchange.  In 1927 he bought 57 ares of land where he built a summer cottage for himself and his wife Gertrude.  They named their lavish cottage Rivermede and hosted parties for Toronto’s elite.  The house included tennis courts and a $75,000 swimming pool.  One of the first structures you see on the property is the old pump house for the swimming pool.  Even a simple building like this has been created with great attention to detail.

From the side of the hill you can look down into the former swimming pool area.  The pool was filled in but the rectangular outline can still be seen and the pool area has the only grass in the prayer garden.

in 1961 the Basillian Fathers bought the property and turned it into the Marian Shrine Of Gratitude.  They converted the property into a monastery and the swimming pool into a prayer garden.  Originally there were several Fathers who lived in the house and maintained the property.  They took turns praying over the faithful who visited the prayer gardens.  Today the house is kept by a single Father who has been practicing social distancing since long before it became mandatory.

The cottage had a barn attached to the side which looks like a second cottage.

A stone arch separates the barn from the house and after passing through it you come to a set of stairs which leads down to the prayer gardens.  Crang’s Pond can be seen in the background.  In the 1950’s a large gravel quarry was operated on the property which supplied gravel for construction of the local section of the 401 when it was under construction.  The pit eventually filled with water to create the pond.

The lower walls of the prayer garden feature a series of carvings that depict the stations of the cross.  Most years at Easter the gardens are full of people but this year they will likely be silent for the first time in decades.

The prayer garden with all of its religious symbols has taken on an air of spirituality that I could feel as I walked slowly around the grounds.

When the swimming pool was in use bathers would have two sets of ladders to enter the water with.  One on the deep and a second set of steps on the shallow end.  Today, the hand rails for the steps stand in memory of swimmers soaking up the sun at a summer cottage party.

The trail along the river provides opportunities to see the local wildlife.  We were lucky enough to spot an American Mink swimming in the river.  All the mink that we see in the rivers around the GTA are related to a group that was released from captivity by animal rights activists.  Several of whom have been convicted of terrorism.

As we close this blog we have no idea when the trails will be open to allow new blogs to be photographed.  We have several places that were photographed in the last few months that were not published.  Perhaps there may be a few new blogs with original content yet.  In an era where things change by the day, we’ll see what comes next when we get there.

Google Maps Link: Pine Point Park

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Saturday, March 7, 2020

Following Hurricane Hazel in 1954 a plan was developed that called for several dams to be constructed to provide flood control on the major waterways throughout the GTA.  Only three were actually built, including the one at G. Ross Lord Park on The Don River, the one at Claireville on The Humber River and Milne Dam on The Rouge River.  Until recently there was no access across The Rouge River in Milne Dam Conservation Area but a new set of bridges has changed that.  Our excursion to check out these new bridges began with a visit to Milne Dam Conservation Area.

Closer to the dam the ice on the lake was much thinner.  Canada Geese are known for the “V” formation in which they fly which demonstrates a high level of social organization by providing support for the weaker birds in the tail of the formation.  The birds had cleared a winding path through the ice that they kept open simply by being organized enough to all use the same route.  It’s always interesting to observe the behaviour of the wildlife around us.

Male red-winged blackbirds can be easily identified by the red epaulets on their shoulders.  The spring migration of these birds begins in mid-February and continues through to mid-May.  The males and females migrate separately with the males returning first in the spring and leaving last in the fall.

Before you reach the dam you come to the newly constructed Milne Creek Bridge.  It is 42 metres long and helps connect the Markham Rouge Valley Trail which begins in Unionville at Toogood Pond.  The new bridges in the Milne Dam Conservation Area were officially opened on September 21, 2019.  The first three phases of the 15 kilometre trail are completed with the final phase currently under construction.

The bridge is a multi span, cable-stayed design with a fanned-cable system.  From the middle of each of the main pylons the cables extend to three anchor points along the bridge decking.  Cable stayed bridges have several advantages over suspension bridges.  The cables allow the horizontal forces to balance which reduces the need for large ground anchorage points.    The cables provide a much stiffer structure to the bridge so that deformations of the deck under live loads are reduced.  The cables also work during construction of the bridge to allow spans to be cantilevered out from the pylon, providing both temporary and permanent support.

The bridge is 143 metres long with the main section over the river being 45 metres.  It was built in sections off site and brought into the environmentally sensitive area ready to be installed.  The precast concrete decking was detailed to match the curvilinear approach on the west end of the bridge.

The sunshine was sparkling on the waters of The Rouge River as they flowed over the Milne Dam.  The smaller concrete piers below the dam act to dissipate the energy the water gains as it drops over the falls.

From below the bridge the view up to the little observation platforms is actually more breathtaking than the view from the platforms themselves.

From the bridge you get a nice view of the dam in one direction and the Rouge River in the other one.  The bridge passes over the river at a height of 20 metres.

This bridge provides the link to a much longer hike along the newly connected trail system, and a reason for a potential return visit.

Check out this link for our previous post on Milne Dam Conservation Area.

Google Maps Link: Milne Dam Conservation Area

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