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.

Sumac leaves

Milkweed duking it out with dog-strangling vine:

I've read that jewelweed got its name from the way raindrops bead up on the leaves. It also has the nickname of "touch-me-not" because its seed pods *POP* open at a touch. I had fun confirming this.


Raindrops on rosehips and whiskers on kittens ...

Definitely fall, with all these asters around.

At last, after not seeing a snake all year, I found this charming little fellow beside Pottery Road.

It's quiet around the ol' wetland these days. Summer has turned to fall, and the only thing I see moving around the pond lately is floating leaves.

The city crew has come in to remove trees we flagged and apply pesticides where necessary.

(Are those bullet holes??? Sigh.)

Don Watcher posted recently about salmon in the Don River. I haven't seen any live ones yet, but believe me, the dead ones aren't hard to locate. Just follow your nose.

The Chinese zodiac will tell you this is the year of the Dog, but I'm convinced this is actually the year of the Enormous Creepy Spider Everywhere You Look:

Foiled again! Our weather jinx continues, and tonight's outing has been cancelled. An alternate evening will be arranged if possible.

In the meantime, here are some shots of a funnelweb spider that took over the lone milkweed plant in my garden. This year seemed particularly good for spiders of all kinds. Alas, it was also particularly good for rainstorms, and both this spider and the amazing web were nowhere to be seen after the last downpour.

There was no scheduled outing this evening, but a couple of rogue stewards were seen stealing onto the site nevertheless. Here are a few before-and-after shots to indicate some of the work performed. (Note to local vandals: Dude. You have a whole city to deface up there. Stay outta my wetland restoration project.)





Clean, and with a pleasant lemon scent!