We got a lot of rain in less than 24 hours, so when the sun came out yesterday afternoon I couldn't resist going down to take a look at the river. It was running fast and high, carrying branches, tires, and other debris:

The Log Ness Monster:

I hope nobody was riding this:



This whole tree was no match for the current:



With the return of fair weather, some of the locals went about their business ...

... while others just rested up after the excitement:

The pond level at Beechwood rose markedly. These plants had been out of the water the day before:

While I was at the river I ran into Don Watcher, also documenting the effects of the rainfall. Check out the great before-and-after videos at his site.

My main stewardship activity this morning was cleaning up the remains of another party. Beechwood is a hopping place on a Friday or Saturday night, it seems. As I muttered my way through the cigarette butts, shredded Styrofoam cups and plastic bags, I was startled to come across evidence of some kind of weird bird sacrifice:

I managed to revive the poor creature. I propose a mascot for our site:

If this doesn't keep intruders away, I don't know what will. Say, do I get to add "eagle" to my Beechwood bird list?

Last week the team planted some stuff like this in the pond:

I wasn't there that night, but I'm guessing sweet white clover was the target du jour:

Baby bunny:

(Watch out for the eagle, kiddo.)

From today's Toronto Star: wouldn't it be great if we all took responsibility for one small part of our natural environment?