Today in Nature: Why don't woodpeckers get concussions?

August 29th: So, if boxers, hockey and football players get concussions, why don't woodpeckers? Turns out that their heads have evolved to soften the blow. Their rapid pecking at trees can generate impacts 1000 times the force of gravity, but their necks absorb much of the shock, while their skulls are thickened in front to protect their brains. If only helmets on hockey players were so effective....

Today in Nature: Ospreys

August 28th: What a nice present for the end of summer - another encounter with the Osprey that has taken up residence along the Humber River.  Ospreys are one of the great comeback stories of the last 50 years. They almost disappeared during the DDT  decades, but when that pesticide was banned, they started to return, thanks to environmentalists in southern Ontario who built platforms for their nests. Their return also means the fish are worth eating. Things *can* get better.

Today in Nature: Digger wasps.

August 26th: Wasps get a bad rap due to their sting. Some wasps, like this digger wasp, don't live in colonies, but lead solitary lives, with homes underground. This one is in the act of digging in front of its lair. Under the sand it has a tunnel with up to eight rooms, where it stores captured insects. It lays eggs in their bodies, so that during the winter, its young will have something to feed on, before they emerge as wasps next year. There were lots of these holes along a path in Toronto's High Park. It is amazing what lies just beneath our feet ( and our notice).

Today in Nature: Swimming Through the Air

August 25th: This very little fellow landed on my book as I was reading outside today. For a flying insect this small, the world is very different than it is for us. On a humid day like today, the air is thick, akin to how water feels to us when we are swimming. So this guy's wings don't flap so much as stroke through the air, like paddling a kayak.

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www.torontonature.com.

Today in Nature: The "Jesus Bug"

August 24th: This amazing insect has the nickname the "Jesus Bug", for its ability to water on water. It is actually a water slider. For us, water is just wet, but for a bug this small, the surface of the water is solid, like a thick film, due to the surface tension. Its legs are covered in hairs which contain air pockets, thus keeping the bug on top of the water, like a natural hovercraft. It uses its middle legs for propulsion, and its hind legs to steer. The front two two legs grab onto prey what fall onto the water, like insects. It can also feed on creatures that rise out of the water like tadpoles.

So is water soft or hard? It all depends on who is asking, a little bug or a heavier animal like us.

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Time Travelling Rocks

August 23rd: This picture takes a bit of explanation. The slab of rock on the shore has a bubbly surface. They are actually ancient ripple marks that run right to left, top to bottom. They were made when this rock was mud, at the bottom of a warm sea, 450 million years ago. The water beside this rock is Toronto's Mimico Creek, which is constantly eroding these time travelling rocks. 

Today in Nature: A Tern in Flight

August 10th: This is a common tern, the better-looking member of the gull family. He/she was flying around, getting ready to pluck a fish out of the water at Toronto's Tommy Thompson Park today. The park is a wonderful place to go bird watching, easily the best in the city. During my trip there, I saw Great Blue Herons, a green heron, Cedar Waxwings, American Goldfinches, thousands of cormorants, and much more. For more information on the park, please visit http://www.torontonature.com/tommythompsonpark.php


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Today in Nature: How Lightning Strikes

A tree hit by lightning

August 11th: A tree in High Park that looks like it was felled by lightning some years ago. Lightning causes any moisture in the tree to boil along the vertical path of the bolt. The result is often explosive, drawing a straight line down one side of the tree, and blowing off the bark. That opening is often fatal to the tree, as bark is like skin - it keeps out parasites, as well as water that can freeze and thaw, weakening the tree. This tree was at the highest point in this part of the park.

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Today in Nature: A Young Night Heron fishes in the morning

A junior night heron

August 12th: This is a young Black-Crowned Night Heron looking for fish this morning. These herons are much smaller than Great Blue Herons, and usually don't do much fishing when it is bright outside. Perhaps the false promise of a cloudy day brought him out. They have also been known to indulge in a bit of cannibalism when young. There are more details and pictures on my website,http://www.torontonature.com/nightherons.php.


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Today in Nature: Wasps and Lady Bugs clean up the forest.

Nature's wisdom at work

August 14th: Here's an example of how nature works through interdependence. The leaf on the left has holes in it, signs that bugs have been feeding here. The ladybug isn't the guilty party, though - it has come to the rescue to eat the hungry insects. Over on the right, a wasp has also come to find bugs that could be harming this flower. Wasps also inadvertently pollinate flowers this way, helping them to reproduce.


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Finding Ancient Wisdom in a River

The Tao of Rivers

August 15th: This scene from Toronto's Humber River reminded me of a quote by the ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu: "Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful."

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Today in Nature: The stories acorns tell

These humble acorns have an amazing story to tell

August 16th: These acorns tell a story. First, they reveal the age of the tree: most oaks don't produce acorns until they are at least 20 years old, most wait until they are 50. Squirrels depend on acorns for their winter diet, but most oaktrees don't produce acorns every year. So squirrel populations rise and fall with the rhythm of acorn production - so far, it looks like this year will be a good one. Squirrels have already eaten some of these acorns, the ones with their tops missing. The rest will get buried - one squirrel can bury up to two thousand nuts in a season, helping the oak tree to spread its seeds elsewhere in the forest. Quite a system!


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Today in Nature: The American Goldfinch

An American Goldfinch

August 17th: This glorious little bird is an American Goldfinch. About the size of a sparrow, but much flashier, they survive mainly on seeds. Since most seeds only appear after July, they start breeding later in the summer. This saves them the headache of having other birds steal their nests earlier in the year. Since seeds are a dry diet, they can be seen drinking from puddles and streams.

This blog is devoted to providing nature pictures taken that day, every day.
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Swamp Cicadas: Sleep, sex, and death.

August 20th: This fearsome-looking creature is a swamp cicada. His species makes human reproduction look rational and easy. Cicadas are born from eggs, then they stay under ground from 2-17 years until they reach adulthood. Then they come out for one brief summer fling, create the next generation, then die. This one may have been having that last figurative cigarette, before saying goodbye to reproduction and this world.

This blog is devoted to providing nature pictures taken that day, every day. 
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Vampire butterflies ( Red Admirals)

August 21st: I came across this Red Admiral butterfly today, hopping along the bark of a tree that was also attracting a lot of wasps ( you can see one on the left). They were both here for the same thing: a sugar fix. As wildflower season winds down, tree sap becomes a great place to find sweet liquids which are high in calories. Trees may look like they are in business for themselves, but they actually provide homes for bugs, sap for butterflies, nuts for squirrels, and a buffet for birds who come looking for bugs in the bark. Talk about multi-tasking....

A Red Admiral Butterfly drinking some sap from a tree

Stephen Milton, of www.Torontonature.com. 
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For more in depth info, visit www.torontonature.com.

Toronto Fossil Hunt on Mimico Creek

Mimico Creek carves into the shale
 wall, causing rocks to fall.

This week I have been visiting Mimico Creek, in Toronto's west end. The creek carves into a wall of shale that dates from 455 million years ago. As the water and erosion eats into the wall, slabs of shale fall onto the creek bed where water gets to work, eroding the shale. What's incredible is how many fossils can be found in the rocks. As I walked along, I came across scores of fossils, from ancient mollusks, to tube-shaped imprints which were left by creatures are they burrowed in the mud.

The fossils date from a period when life on land hadn't started yet. The first amphibians crawled onto land around 300 million years ago. These rocks date to 155 million years before that, when life only existed in the oceans. At that time, Toronto was located close to the equator, beneath a warm sea.  So, while I walked along this creek, which is frequented by herons and ducks, with a busy road 100 meters away, I was seeing the remains of creatures which lived almost half a billion years ago. Does it get cooler than that?

Fossilized mollusk from 455 million years ago

There are no dinosaur fossils, unfortunately. Toronto may have had them at some point, but during the last ice age, when the ice was one kilometre high, the glaciers scraped away all the rocks from the dinosaur era. Fortunately, the rocks left by this ancient sea was left intact.

This spot lies south of the Queensway, at Park Lawn ( beneath the bridge). There is a parking lot next to the Royal Bank. The water is quite shallow, so once you get down to the creek, it is easy to walk back and forth across the stream if you don't mind getting your feet wet. This creek can get quite deep during any rain storm, so only try this when the water levels are low.

Fossilized wave ripples

Stephen Milton is a freelance writer and documentary film producer. To see more nature photos, please visit www.torontonature.com. Also, to get daily nature photos, sign up on Facebook to the Toronto Nature diary.

Deer in Toronto: An August Trip down the Humber River

Every summer, I look forward to a chance to take a kayak down the Humber River, south of Bloor Street in Toronto. The Humber is the city's best wildlife corridor, and never fails to reveal an amazing array of animals and birds. 

This year, as soon as I headed out from the Old Mill launch , I spotted an Osprey fishing in the river, easily seen from the subway line. The Osprey hovered, then dove down to catch a fish, and even floated on the water for a while. Of course, all of this occurred before I could get my camera out. Later on, I found the Osprey again in one of the lower marshes. This is the second time I have seen an Osprey along the Humber this year, so it appears one has made this area its home.

My favourite spots along the river are the marshes that have formed on the eastern side. The first of these marshes has a narrow opening that curves northward to reveal a lagoon filled with lily pads. A Great Blue Heron was fishing in one the open breaks among the plants. 

As I drifted away from the heron, I was hoping to see a turtle somewhere. However, I caught some movement on shore, and found myself looking into the eyes of a white-tailed deer. I have seen deer along the river before, and it never ceases to amaze me that a city as big and busy as Toronto still has a few deer living along this thin green corridor. I only wish we had left more of the city green so there could be more room for them to roam.

Later on, I went down to the second, larger marsh, where I came across what's left of a cormorant rookery. In years past, this nesting area was much bigger and busier. This is where the cormorants raise their young earlier in the summer. The trees are dead due to the toxic effect of the birds' feces. Further north, I spotted a few new trees that had been taken over by the birds. They, too, will end up dead, the price trees pay for being good places to nest.

All in all, it was a wonderful morning on the water. If you are interesting in renting a kayak to go down the Humber, I used The Toronto Adventures Company, whose prices are quite reasonable. I highly recommend taking the time to do a trip.I have found with lots of stops, I can get down to the lake and back in two hours.  It is a wonderful way to see Toronto's wildlife up close. 

- Stephen Milton, of www.torontonature.com.

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Reclaiming Nature in Toronto

What should a city do if it wants to bring nature back, but most of its original wildlife is long gone? Buying back private land to let it go wild is expensive, and usually so unpopular that it doesn't happen. But there is an alternative: create new land. That has been one of Toronto's strategies, and it has worked quite well. Today, all along the shore of Lake Ontario, bikers, hikers and birders enjoy many parks that have all sorts of wildlife, yet are built on top of landfill. Used concrete blocks from buildings that were torn down, along with the dirt from their foundations, have been used to create new peninsulas which are now havens for birds and wild animals along the lakeshore.

Today, I spent the morning in one of those areas, where I was delighted to spot a number of beautiful birds and flowers that call these landfill areas home. I was in the area to the east of Cherry Beach, along the Martin Goodman Trail, Toronto's biking trail across the lakeshore. There were all sorts of beautiful songbirds flying among the trees and bushes. The reason they like this spot so much is that these birds aren't fans of deep, dark woods. Many, like the cedar waxwing, prefer to eat berries from bushes, so they favour areas that are sunny, or at the edge of the forest. These reclaimed areas haven't had time to create dense forests, so they are full of low bushes and the odd quick-growing tree. A great habitat for many colourful birds, as well as bees, wasps and butterflies.

A Cedar Waxwing

These landfill areas aren't very broad, and have many paths cutting through them, which allows lots of sunlight for plants that flower late into the summer. In darker forests, plants on the floor can only flower briefly in the spring, before tree leaves create a dark canopy, blocking out the sunlight. But in these reclaimed areas, the trails and lack of forest cover mean that there is lots of sunlight, so species that flower later in the summer can thrive here. Some are weeds, some are invasive species from Europe, but many are from Canada, and would have been seen in meadows at the edges of forests, and near swamps.

An American Goldfinch

These areas are wild and natural in one sense, but they are not a glimpse of what Toronto was like before settlers arrived. In 1793 when the British government decided to create a town in this area, the shore featured a broad beach, some meadows, and then a dark forest which the newcomers found oppressive. Lieutenant Governor Simcoe, who created the new town of York ( he didn't like the Aboriginal name, Toronto), wanted all of Ontario from the Ottawa River to Detroit to be farming land. Like most whites of his time, he thought trees were a nuisance, and swamps, like the one then next to the Don River, were considered just a source of mosquitoes and malaria.  So, the settlers cut down the trees, drained the swamps, and did their best to erase the original nature here. Now that we realize the folly of that decision, these reclaimed lands are a small step in the right direction to restoring some of what was once here. It is far from perfect, but it is a start.

Stephen Milton runs the Toronto Nature Diary, a Facebook page that posts a new Nature picture each day. For more information on Toronto's nature and parks, please visit www.torontonature.com.

Surprise sighting of an Osprey in Toronto, July 2014

This week I had quite a shock when I came across an Osprey, a type of hawk which I had never seen in a city before. These hawks are considerably larger than the Red-Tailed Hawks which are quite common in the Toronto area, and are one of the most common in North America. I was cycling along the waterfront trail when I came to the mouth of the Humber River. There had been a big rain storm the night before, so the river was running quickly, and the water discharging into the lake was quite brown.



There were lots of seagulls around, as well as one much larger bird that was hovering above the muddy water that had entered the lake. It took a while to get the hawk into view on my zoom lens, but when I did, it was immediately apparent that this couldn't be a Red-Tailed Hawk. There were two reasons. The first was the size and look of the bird. Ospreys have very distinctive markings on their wings. The second reason was that Red-Tailed Hawks don't eat fish. This hawk, however, was hovering, waiting to swoop down to grab a fish with its talons. They actually dive into the water, although I did not see this one perform that feat.

The Opsrey was large, but that didn't stop the local seagulls from giving it a hard time. The gulls were circling the Osprey and crying out. Someone told me he had seen them chase off the Osprey a little earlier. After a few minutes, I saw the Osprey fly up the river, where it alighted on a hydro pole. I followed on my bike, where I saw a smaller bird chase it off, until it flew out of view. I was thrilled, and amazed to have seen it at all. When I posted a picture on my Toronto Nature Diary Facebook page, the community agreed that most of us had never seen one in Toronto before. Only one person had spotted one in High Park.

I had seen Ospreys before, but only in the country. Here are some images I took earlier this year in Prince Edward County. Pesticides like DDT had all but killed them off in Ontario by the 1970s. However, some dedicated volunteers in the Peterborough area started building platforms at the top of poles to help them return. The birds will build their own nests on hydro-electric poles, but that can be risky when it rains, due to the possibility of electrocution. These platforms are safer.

Ospreys are one more proof that nature can bounce back if we give it a chance. Fishing birds like these can only thrive when the water is clean, since toxins in the fish will build up in their predators. Keeping the water unpolluted can bring back some of the spectacular wildlife that was common here before we built cities and factories everywhere. These creatures are beautiful, and part of the natural life cycle. To see them so close to a city shows that there is hope yet.

Stephen Milton is a freelance documentary film maker and writer. He runs a website devoted to Toronto's Nature, which includes guides to local parks, and profiles of all the major species found in the area. If you would like to get a new nature picture every day, please join our Facebook Page, The Toronto Nature Diary.