Don Valley Wildlife - May 16

[Dr. John]

Went for an evening walk in the Don Valley, heading north from the Riverdale Park bridge.  Lots of great wildlife sightings, but no camera with us to record things. First we saw an adult beaver sitting on a rock and grooming itself all over.  Then we came upon two sapsucker nests in trees perhaps 100 feet apart.  The young were keeping up a constant din.  We saw several Baltimore orioles and many yellow warblers.  We then hit a section of the trail filled with cottontails, at least 3 or 4 popping in and out of view.  Then we came across a creche of Canada goslings, watched over by 3 adults, one of whom had a neck collar on of some sort.  We followed a raccoon heading upriver on a mission.  Then we stood by a pond and watched American toads swim about and call.  One actually came out of the water and approached us, we like to think because of our poor attempts to imitate the calls.  We saw a couple more cottontails on the way back.

[Ally]

How nice! Would love to see beaver grooming.

[Dr. John]

How nice! Would love to see beaver grooming.

It was the first time we saw one doing this.  Wish we had brought a camera.

[Axeman]

I remember when they showed up at the Cooksville Creek spit -- RK McMillan Park....it was such a novelty....and then they became "pests"...I get that I guess...the park is small and they were trying to naturalize it with trees...makes me smile....I love that they're there....but where on earth do they build their lodges?

[dodo]

I have not seen any fur bearing animals in the river yet this year. I saw lots of beavers last year including one that was grooming itself under the abandoned railway bridge beside the Brickworks. I have had better luck seeing them in nearby ponds. There always seem to be muskrats in the pond north of the Bloor Viaduct power line enclosure.I walked to the edge yesterday evening and one swam out to the centre that had been hidden by vegetation near my feet.There is also a beaver that lives permenently in a pond at the Brickworks. I was there one evening at the beaver pond and I saw a bird I have never seen in the area before.It was a common tern.I watched it circling around and occasionally dive down to the ponds.It caught a fish in the beaver pond and flew away with it in its mouth.I saw another fur bearing animal that I almost never see in the Don Valley when I was climbing a staircase in a parkette north of Riverdale Park at the end of Wellesley St.I heard something rustling and I stopped to look around thinking it was probably a racoon but to my suprise it was actually a big skunk heading in my direction!      

[Shortsighted]

Wherever a skunk heads must be its direction. You were head in its direction ... you just had a head-start. In colder weather during the fall I've seen occasional fur-bearing animals strut along Bloor street between Bay and University, often with an entourage.