Tag Archives: Hairy Woodpecker

What’s In Your Ravine?

Sunday, May 9, 2021

When the last ice age retreated about 12,000 years ago each of the rivers and streams that drain into Lake Ontario were swelled with meltwater. The Rouge River, Don River, Humber River and Credit River along with all the little creeks in between carved deep ravines. These are much wider than the modern rivers that flow through their valleys. After Hurricane Hazel in 1954 these ravines were transformed into conservation areas and parks. They have become greenbelts and migration corridors for the local wildlife. With ongoing travel restrictions it is important to remember that there is some good hiking with plenty of wildlife available right in our own part of the city. This post features a selection of the plants and animals we saw in a few hours on Saturday, May 1, 2021 along a section of Etobicoke Creek.

Most ravines will have more than one type of habitat and you should explore each one, slowly. Rivers and their banks will have a distinct group of plants and animals which they may share with local wetlands. Grasslands provide habitats to pollinators and small birds while new and old growth forests will each have their own distinct species. We customarily head for the water first, but move quietly or you might not see the heron, if there is one, until it’s in flight.

Mallard ducks and Canada Geese can be found almost anywhere there’s water. However, there’s lots of other types of waterfowl that you can watch for. The picture below shows a female (left) and male (right) Merganser. Their young will feed themselves a day or two after hatching and will be able to fly after about ten weeks.

An American Mink came running along the opposite creek bank and down a fallen branch to quietly slip into the water. After a moment it emerged with a small fish in its mouth which it then carried away out of sight.

As we watched, the mink returned and went back into the same quiet pool behind some larger rocks. After coming up a couple of times to catch a breath it eventually came out with another fish, this one a little smaller. The mink kits will still have their eyes closed and won’t be weaned for a few weeks yet. As soon as their teeth start to come in their mother will feed them small bits of ripped up fish or mouse to get them started on solid food. The kits will eat every 90 minutes or so which means she will need extra food intake herself to be able to supply the milk they require.

Last April 24th we witnessed a mother mink carrying her kits across Etobicoke Creek and into a den on the other side amongst the rocks. In all, we saw her carry four kits across the creek. The picture below was taken last year while she carried the first one. There’s lots more pictures of the other mink babies in our story Mink Kits.

As we were watching the mink fishing a small heron flew upstream and briefly rested in a tree before moving along. It landed in another tree a little farther upstream. It seemed likely that people using the trail would scare it and there was a reasonable chance it would come back our way, which it did. The Green Heron is smaller than other herons and has a short stalky neck that is usually drawn down toward the body. The green on their back and head is set off by the chestnut colour of their chest.

The grasslands, especially tall grass prairie areas support a wide variety of flowering plants and grasses which attract birds and pollinators. On a sunny day you might see one of several, harmless species of snakes taking advantage of the sun to regulate their body temperature. Garter Snakes give birth to a litter of 20-30 live young in the late summer. This little one was likely born last year and will have a life expectancy of two years in the wild. Garter Snakes are sometimes kept as pets and average ten year life spans in captivity.

Butterflies and moths can be spotted on most days. The picture below shows a Compton Tortoiseshell butterfly which finally rested long enough for a photo op.

Eastern Cottontail Rabbits were not known in Southern Ontario until about 1860. Rabbits never stray far from a hedgerow, woodpile or burrow where they can escape their many predators. This is known as edge habitat and prior to the settlers cutting the forests there weren’t any of these places where fields gave way to shrubs. Their slow migration north didn’t bring them to the Ottawa area until as recently as 1931. They molt twice per year and this one is in the middle of its spring molting.

Not everything you see in your ravine belongs there. Unfortunately invasive species have taken over some areas of our parks and ravines. They grow quickly and overtake the natural species and eventually choke them out. Dog-strangling Vines are a key example of an invasive species as they routinely choke out the milkweed our Monarch Butterflies need. Garlic Mustard, pictured below, is another invader which is doing overly well. Once it gets going, Garlic Mustard will choke out the Trilliums and Trout Lilies (Dog’s-toothed Violet).

The Mayapples are just starting to form the bud that will open into the flower. Plants with a single leaf won’t flower but the colony along this stretch of the creek is almost all female. They have a pair of leaves and a flower bud forming in between. This particular patch appeared to be mostly flowering this year. These plants grow in patches from a single rhizome and will be found in the same location year after year.

Violets are a large family of plants that have over 525 species. This time of the year they form a purple or blue carpet on the forest floor. Many violets are perennials which means that the plant will live for more than one year.

Experience has shown that almost every ravine in the GTA has both coyote and deer. The Etobicoke Creek is no exception. Although the local coyote didn’t make an appearance on this Saturday, the deer showed up in force. While walking a side trail a flash of white in the trees betrayed the presence of a White-tailed Deer. Upon closer examination a small herd of five was detected. Three of them went off along the ridge while the other two continued to browse. The pair are shown in the cover photo and the smaller of the two was very curious. It walked to within a few metres of where we were sitting as it casually munched leaves and grasses.

July 27, 2020 while taking an observation break, a fawn walked right up to us and pretty much said “Hello.” Its mother was nearby and called it back when she thought it was getting a little too curious. From the way the deer approached today, it was almost as if it was the same one with its mother and that it recognized a friendly acquaintance.

This male Hairy Woodpecker is in the process of digging some little snack out of a dead tree. The term “snag” applies to a standing dead tree and they make up an important part of the local ecosystem. They provide unobscured views for raptors such as the pair of hawks we saw circling high above at one point. Snags also provide homes for wood and bark boring beetles and their larvae. This is what attracts the woodpeckers and serves as a source of food for them. Small animals will nest in hollow snags and they’ll continue to serve as housing even after they fall.

Once you know where to look for Jack-in-the-pulpit you should be able to go back every spring and see the same plants. This is because they can grow from the same underground corm for up to 100 years. It’s quite possible that this little plant in the picture below will outlive everyone reading this article today.

This is just a sample of the types of things you can expect to see in almost any ravine, watercourse, or major park in the GTA. So, the question is, “What’s in your local ravine and when are you going exploring?”

Related blogs: Mink Kits, Etobicoke Creek Trail

Google Maps Link: Etobicoke Creek

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Joshua Creek – The Emerald Ash Borer

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Saturday, April 1, 2017

Joshua Valley Park has seen a lot of change over the course of the two centuries since Joshua Leach arrived. Leach was just 21 when he arrived in the brand new town of York in 1897. As a carpenter, he found plenty of work building many of the first homes in the town. By 1822 Joshua had saved up enough money to buy 200 acres of land which he took possession of on the creek that would later bear his name. Joshua built a home for his family and dammed the creek to power a saw mill and a thrashing mill. These were located near where Maple Grove Arena stands today.

This hike follows Joshua Creek through three contiguous parks: Joshua Valley Park, Maple Grove Park and Dunvegan Park. These parks run from Cornwall Road in the north all the way past Ford Drive to where we connected with the trail from last week’s story. For convenience, we took advantage of the free parking at Maple Grove Arena which is about midway along the journey. Cut lengths of ash tree logs were stacked in a pile at the side of the parking lot. This was a hint of what we were about to find in the valley. The forest is wide open now that all the ash trees have been removed.

The emerald ash borer is a beetle that is native to Asia. It was first seen in Ontario in June of 2002 near Windsor. The beetle most likely entered Ontario from Detroit where it arrived in wood packaging from Asia. The emerald ash borer is invasive as it meets both accepted criteria. It is outside of its native habitat and threatens the environment, economy or society where it is invading. The City of Oakville estimates that it has 45,000 ash trees and that most, if not all, will be destroyed by the beetle. In Toronto, the situation is even worse with an estimated 860,000 ash trees in the city. Every one of which will be destroyed if not treated with appropriate pesticides. The picture below of an emerald ash borer was taken from Wikipedia.

All ash trees in Ontario are susceptible to the attack of the emerald ash borer. Our ash trees are named after colours and we have black, white, red, green and blue as the primary ones. The female beetle will lay 60 to 90 eggs, individually, in the crevices in the bark. The larva tunnel under the bark, eating curved galleries. These galleries girdle the tree and prevent the flow of food and water from reaching the tree. The larvae overwinter under the bark and pupate in the spring. The adults spend their lives on the outside and must eat the leaves in order to reach reproductive maturity. Looking at the ash trees that have been piled up you can easily find examples that are 50 years old. The one pictured below appears to have 47 rings.

After a tree has been assessed and found to be clean or in the early stages of infestation it can be treated in one of three ways. Each of the pesticides is intended to target either the larva, adult or both. The soil around a tree can be drenched with the insecticide which is carried throughout the tree by the vascular system. This method won’t work if the tree has too much damage already and it is unable to spread water and nutrients throughout. Another method of distributing the pesticide is to inject it into the tree. Lastly, when the adults are newly hatched and are feeding on the leaves they can be sprayed directly, killing them before they can lay eggs. The cost of treating a tree can be estimated at about $10 per inch of diameter. The picture below was taken last week near the mouth of Joshua Creek and shows a tree that is being treated for emerald ash borer.

Other invasive species, like the honeysuckle, will prosper now that the canopy has been opened up and they won’t have the competition. They are already present in the understory and can be seen because they are the first shrubs that get their leaves in the spring.

A thin trail runs along the back of the houses on Duncan Road. Old sets of stars can be found leading off of this trail and directly into a solid fence. The row of trees that has been planted along here seems to be older than the trail which was constructed in 1983. Straight rows of trees often indicate old laneways or roads.

This section of Joshua Creek has been protected from erosion by the use of gabion baskets filled with stones. The creek is prone to flooding and when it does it runs brown with soil being carried downstream. In several places, the creek has overrun the gabion baskets and they are no longer serving a purpose.

At Cornwall Road we turned back, leaving the northern reaches for another time. A small bridge crosses the creek just south of Maple Grove Arena and beyond here the ash tree removal is in full swing. Heavy equipment stands among the trees and there are fresh piles of logs along the sides of the trail. In many forests, these are being left behind as future habitat but they are being removed from this park system.

Crews have preceded the cutting teams and have assessed each tree and coded them. Yellow slashes or dots mark trees that are to be removed. Orange or red dots indicate that a tree is to be pruned.

We found an area where there were a lot of clam or mussel shells. The ones below are placed beside a golf ball to give the perspective of their size.

The wheat market fell after the Crimean War and at the same time, England removed tariffs that protected Canadain suppliers. The area around Oakville was hit hard and many farmers turned to fruit production. Orchards of apple, plum and cherry trees took over where fields of grain once grew. In the 1940’s the creek was dammed to create a pond for irrigation of a large orchard that stretched from Royal Windsor Road, all the way to Lakeshore. The earth and concrete wall still forms a bridge from Devon Road to Deer Run Avenue. There are two open spillways and a round culvert. The culvert had a sluice gate on the front end to allow for control of the water level. The cover photo shows the culvert from the upstream side. Two spillways and the culvert can be seen in the picture below. The spillways are about eight feet tall while the culvert is about ten.

The forest was alive with birds and one particular area was full of woodpeckers. Both Hairy and the smaller look-a-like Downey woodpeckers were moving through the trees. This female Hairy woodpecker stopped on the side of the tree to do a little preening of its feathers.

The Joshua’s Creek Trail runs for 6 kilometres and is part of the Oakville Heritage Trails. The northern reaches of the creek still require exploration.

Last week we explored the mouth of Joshua Creek and that post can be found here.

Google Maps Link: Maple Grove Arena

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Dufferin Creek

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Thursday May 11th, 2015

After previously publishing this area as Garbage Park Toronto I wanted to come back and show some of the beauty of this green space. After pressuring the city through several agencies they came and did a very poor job of cleaning up the years of garbage that had accumulated. I will continue to work at getting a satisfactory resolution to this mess. In the mean time, this park has much to offer because it is virtually unused. The pictures presented below were taken during several brief explorations on lunch breaks or after work, however, most of them were taken on the 11th of May on my lunch.

Dufferin Street, like other roads in York Township, went through seasons when it was impassable mud. In 1855 The Gore and Vaughn Plank Road Company was formed to surface the road with planks. These were cut strips of wood several inches thick that were held together by long steel nails. The construction and maintenance of these roads was financed through the use of tolls. A toll booth was built at Dufferin and Sheppard where it operated until 1891. It can be seen in the historical atlas picture on the cover photo. There are still traces of the early Gore and Vaughan Plank Road in the Dufferin Creek valley on the west side of the road. These have been uncovered by the recent channel work on Dufferin Creek. The picture below was taken on April 28th during a brief exploration of Dufferin Creek on the west side of the road.

When the road was built the pioneers chose to make the decent into the valley by going along the edge of the ravine, crossing in the bottom and then curving back up the far side of the ravine. The cover photo shows the 1877 historical atlas map of the area. I have coloured Finch Avenue yellow and Dufferin Street in pink. The park is green to denote it’s upcoming status as a green space instead of a polluted brown one. The curve in the road is shown on Dufferin just south of Finch. In the 1947 aerial photo below, the curve in the old road can still be seen. Dufferin now runs straight up on left side of the picture across a tall berm that hides a large culvert in the valley. The old road bed can still be seen in the “S” curve that begins just to the right of the road just up from the bottom of the picture. Finch runs across the top of the picture below. Two homes (white spots) are seen in the park area just south of Finch with driveways off of Dufferin. Three driveways of increasing length run south off of Finch, east (to the right) of Dufferin. The home with the longest driveway is lost under a subdivision but the locations of the other four can still be found.

This archival picture shows the corner of Dufferin and Finch in 1958. The view is looking north where Finch crosses near the middle of the picture. A house stands on the north east corner where the bus stop currently is. Across the street on the north west corner stands an old blacksmith shop where a used car dealer now stands. Two mail boxes stand in the near right corner, one for the home whose foundations remain on that corner and one for the building across the road.

Walking north from Dufferin Creek the driveway to the first house is marked by a yellow pole. There is an area of old concrete and the remains of the garage are along the side of the dell to the north of the house. A tree is now growing in the former garage.

The only trail in the park leads from the back of this former house down to the creek valley. Most of the park area to the east of the creek is untamed bramble and hawthorn bushes. At the valley floor the creek spreads out into a large mud flat before passing under Finch Avenue and entering the West Don River in the G. Ross Lord flood reservoir.

The house on the corner of Dufferin and Finch is almost completely lost now. A few bricks and the remnants of a chimney are all that survive. I went down to the valley floor where starting this spring the creek has been channelized for about half of its length. This quiet section has been replanted with shrubs and small trees.

Along the east end of the park are the driveways of the three homes that used to stand here. Two patches of pavement in the trees are all that remain to mark the location of the home that used to stand closest to Finch Avenue.

The hairy woodpecker is considered to be a species that is not at risk because there are an estimated 9 million individuals in North America. The one in this picture is digging for his lunch as I was thinking about my own.

The picture below was taken on April 13 and shows the work crew busy creating the new channel for Dufferin Creek on the east side of Dufferin Street. A new mouth for the culvert under Dufferin is being constructed with large blocks of cut stone. A new channel for the creek has been cut and lined with stone. Along the edges a mesh has been laid down for erosion control.

Now complete, the mesh has been covered with a spray of soil and seeds. Small trees have been planted along either side of the creek. Over the coming years this creek will become more natural along either side as the green takes over again and hides the efforts of the work crew.

Dufferin Creek park is unique among our green spaces in that it doesn’t have any maintained trails. When the city finally gets the mess along the two streets cleaned up this will be one of the truly pastoral places in the heart of our city.

Google Maps Link: Dufferin and Finch

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Hiking the GTA

Places to hike and things to see in and around the Greater Toronto Area

Tag Archives: Hairy Woodpecker

What’s In Your Ravine?

Joshua Creek – The Emerald Ash Borer

Dufferin Creek