Oh good, reinforcements have arrived! It looks as if more garlic mustard met its match last week. The green box is full too. (Edit: it seems John, Lise, Charity and Bruce were the workers responsible. Come on out this Thursday night for another round if you can. Alas, I work Thursday nights and can't join you.)

I got to do a little outreach yesterday. I often wonder what people are thinking as they walk or cycle past and see me grubbing in the dirt. ("What on earth is that crazy woman trying to do, weed the entire valley?") Hardly anyone stops to ask, but yesterday a cyclist came over to find out what I was doing and we had a chat about the stewardship program. I even got in a plug for my blog, so hello to you, visitor, if you found your way here. We'd love to have you bring the kids out some time to see what's going on.

Reminder: meeting tomorrow night, 7 o'clock at Riverdale Farm. This will be the official stewardship kick-off for 2007. (I figure the season really started yesterday, when I got my first ant bite.)

Apple blossoms, and a couple of notes:

The orientation session for the Community Stewardship Program is set for May 23 at 7 p.m. at the Riverdale Farm Meeting House. Come out and learn about what we do and where we do it. Please RSVP to greentorontoATtoronto.ca if you plan to attend.

John is planning an outing Thursday night to remove garlic mustard at Beechwood Wetland. Apparently I haven't quite got it all yet, so please come and help out if you can. It's very rewarding, I swear!

I saw a mockingbird this morning. There are now 21 different birds on my list, and that's not counting the catbirds until I ID them for sure.

Gratuitous shot of crabapple blossoms not found on the Beechwood site. You can never have too much pink and green.

The garlic mustard is in flower too. Must ... work ... faster ...

(Actually it makes it easier to spot the plants that are hiding among the good stuff.)

I saw my first oriole of the season yesterday and a few more today, along with a redstart. I'd better keep a running list of birds and report back in the fall.

Thank you to Ontario Wanderer for identifying something I posted recently: "Just for the record, your 'tree thingies' are the male (pollen or staminate) flowers of the Manitoba Maple also known as Box-elder and Ashleaf Maple (Acer negundo). At least that is what it looks like to me from your photo."

Ontario Wanderer has just taken part in the Blogger Bio Blitz. I've been reading along with a couple of bloggers who attempted to list all the plants, animals, insects, etc. they could find in a small area. I admire their dedication! I'm happy to know the common names of the most obvious stuff I see, and I'm even happier if someone else will do the ID work for me. Thanks, OW!

Update on the odd goose: I posted the pics on a birdwatching forum and people have been tossing around some suggestions. The goose was there again yesterday with a mate (regular Canada goose) and I got some pictures of it out of the water. Orange legs, so it seems to be a domestic/Canada hybrid. A domesticanada? A Canadomestic?

Check out the kung fu moves!

A few scenes from early this morning:

Frost!

Mist!

Tree thingies!

It's a lovely day for digging up invasive plants. I was joined by a common yellowthroat warbler and some tree swallows. Sorry, no pictures of those -- the problem with actually working is that my camera isn't handy.

The garlic mustard is bolting. Sadly, this means it's sending up a flower stalk, not running away.



Here's what the roots look like:




An intriguing little hole in the ground. Anybody home?



What's the story with this goose, does anyone know? The first glance at my field guide made me think it was a barnacle goose, an unusual stray from Europe, but no, it doesn't have the black chest. Is it a hybrid?



I found an old oriole nest on the ground:

If you peer inside you can see the empty eggshell:

Before:



After (the green you see is not garlic mustard) :

Good progress, if I do say so myself. Just don't turn and look at the sea of garlic mustard surrounding this area, or at the forest of Japanese knotweed that's poised to take over the whole site:


I suspect resistance is futile.

Things are sprouting and growing apace now that it's warmed up a bit. It's a good time of year for birdwatching, without leaves on the trees to get in the way. Let's see if I can remember all the birds I've seen in the last week on or near the wetland:

Black-crowned night heron
Double-crested cormorant
Cardinal
Seagull
Canada goose
Mallard duck
Red-winged blackbird
Goldfinch
Black-throated blue warbler
Robin
Black-capped Chickadee
Belted kingfisher
Hairy woodpecker
Song sparrow
Red-tailed hawk
Mourning dove
Blue jay (heard)

There are even a few flowers to brighten up the picture. Here's some scilla:

Apparently it's not native, so I guess I should be digging it up, but I have my hands full with the garlic mustard. I'll take pictures of my progress next time.

Spring seems to be here for real, at last, so I headed down to the wetland site this morning and dug up some garlic mustard. It really does smell like garlic! This is a great time of year to be working there: the earth is wonderfully soft, there are no ants swarming up my legs, and it's not too hot. I filled a shopping bag with the GM, but there's lots more to keep me busy for a while. A lo-o-ong while ... I found a recipe online for garlic mustard pesto, but I'm not sure if I'll get brave and try it.

Happy first day of spring! I took a walk to Beechwood and found a robin, lots of red-winged blackbirds staking out their territory, and a chickadee singing his springtime song.

I saw a muskrat and lots of ducks swimming in the Don River, but nobody’s swimming in the pond for a little while yet. We’re expecting rain and warm temperatures, so I think things will look quite different here in a few days' time.

A few things are just beginning to pop out of the ground:

Woodpeckers or other small birds have drilled into most of the goldenrod galls to get to the tasty larvae.

Another sign of spring – pussywillows!

There are great quantities of rabbit droppings everywhere.

Looks as if the garlic mustard did not magically die over the winter. I’ll be back to deal with you later.

What’s the deal with all the snails? There were a lot of them in one spot at the Beechwood site, so I assumed something carried them there and had a picnic. Then I noticed hundreds of shells in one place in the ditch alongside the path by the river. What’s the story?

Hey! I found one of these beside the path last year too. I’m beginning to think maybe money does grow on trees after all. Naturally I took this specimen home for further study.

I have just discovered, in the nick of time, that today is World Wetlands Day. Never mind what that groundhog is doing, let's all spend a few moments appreciating our ducks and muskrats, and looking ahead to the spring when the land will once again be ... wet, not frozen rock-hard.

Happy New Year to everyone! Here's a rare mid-winter update on the happenings at the Beechwood Wetland. ("Winter" hardly seems the right term, as I wore a light jacket and no gloves this morning when I visited the site. Let's have some snow!!!)

Things seem to be carrying on here without me. All the colours are more subtle, and familiar things often seem to be a different shape or size due to the lack of leaves and flowers. I startled something small -- mouse? chipmunk? -- but didn't see any birds on the site. (I could hear a cardinal in the distance, and there was a BIG redtailed hawk a bit farther south.) At least I'm not worried about ants, mosquitoes or sunburn at this point.

There was a light skin of ice over part of the pond:

Isn't it funny how you can visit a place all summer and not know what's hidden in the leaves right above your head? This oriole's nest is perfectly obvious now:



There's been a lot of damage to the small trees by hungry critters. I think rabbits are the culprits:

I don't hold out any hope for the trees planted in the fall. Maybe the sumac on the right can recover?

Over by the pond there's something that looks more like beaver damage:

Of course no trip to Beechwood is complete without a big ol' patch of garlic mustard. Your days are numbered, buddy.

A message from Jenny, fearless leader of the stewardship program:

Our very last Community Tree Planting Event for 2006 will be on Saturday, November 11th at Beechwood Wetland.

It's the last chance to plant trees before it snows and I put our equipment in storage for winter. I hope you will be able to come out and help.

Beechwood Wetland is along the Don Bike Trail, between Pottery Rd and Beechwood Dr. The planting will be from 10 am to 12 pm. The event will take place rain or shine so please dress appropriately for the weather. And feel free to invite family and friends to come along.

Call (416) 392-LEAF or email if you have any questions or to rsvp. I hope to see you on Saturday.

Fall marches on, with colourful leaves giving way to bare branches.

The insects and animals are making themselves scarce, but I saw a kingfisher at the pond this morning ...

... and a V of geese flying overhead:

Posting photos on Blogger is always an exercise in frustration. I'll resort to a new post to show you two bugs I photographed a couple of weeks ago.

Can you predict the severity of the coming winter by the stripes on the woolly bear caterpillar? Gotta love the internet, which informs me -- yes! No! Well, maybe!

A praying mantis pining for the fjords.

I've been having fun making up "official" seals. Here's my suggestion for the community stewardship program. ("Mindful of what has been done, aware of what will be.")

Seeing red:

The brave maple leaf viburnum carries on. I suppose "skeletonized" is a good look for Halloween.


There's a nice cluster of young oak trees turning red. (Does that make them red oaks?)



Big as my hand!

Even this goldenrod gall has turned a nice autumnal colour.