Beware: red-winged blackbirds

 

Location: Corktown Common

Date photo taken: 12 October 2021

Living in Toronto, most of us have been conditioned to recognize robins as one of the early signs of spring. In terms of feathered harbingers of nicer weather to come, I would also put forward the red-winged blackbird. While perhaps less evenly distributed across the city than robins, they are very common in Southern Ontario and just as distinctive. If you spend any time in parklands that are near water, you have likely seen them. Their bright red epaulets make them highly visible, and they're pretty loud as well. If you hear one in the spring, I advise you to not to stare. As the sign above notes, "Birds may exhibit aggressive behaviour protecting their young." Showing too much interest may lead to a close encounter. As someone who has experienced this first hand, it's not an experience I care to repeat. If you hear a red-winged blackbird, especially in the spring, I suggest you try to remain as non-threatening as possible: stick to the path, keep moving and do not stare or actively search out the nest.  

Attention - Coyotes

 

Location: Bloordale Park North

Date photo taken: 25 November 2021

With Stanley Park's coyotes in the news lately, I thought I would share some local coyote information. With all of our parks and ravines, it's not surprising that Toronto is home to coyotes but did you know that the City of Toronto offers an e-learning course called Coyotes in the Urban Landscape? There's also a webpage that sets out lots of tips and information on what to do and not do when you encounter a coyote. My favourite is definitely Be big and loud: Jump up and down, wave your arms, yell “Go away coyote!” It's not just a bit of fun - yelling "Go away coyote" alerts nearby pedestrians and pet owners that there's a coyote in the vicinity. Other take-aways include: do not approach them, never feed them,  and do not turn your back or run away from them.

Canada Life Beacon

Location: University Avenue, north of Queen

Date photo taken: 31 January 2017

In 1951, the Canada Life Assurance Company added an almost 100 metre tall beacon tower to the top of its stately building on University Avenue. The purpose of the tower was not to signal airplanes, but to transmit the weather forecast. Anyone in the know could look to the tower and decode the light signals to determine what was on its way, and in this, little has changed. The lights might be energy efficient LEDs now, but calls are still placed to the Environment Canada Weather Centre at Pearson several times a day to keep the beacon's message up to date, and the signals themselves are the same. The box at the top of the tower tells what type of weather is coming: steady green for clear skies, steady red for clouds, flashing red for rain and flashing white for snow. The temperature can be discerned from the lights on the support tower. If they are running up, expect it to get warmer, down means cooler, and steady means no change. 

Fire Pump

Location: Distillery District
Date photo taken: 1 November 2015

If you plan to visit the Toronto Christmas Market in the Distillery District this year, do yourself a favour and download the self-guided walking tour of the site's Victorian Industrial Heritage before you go. Hunting out the artifacts and plaques noted in the guide will take you inside many of the buildings you might not otherwise visit, giving you lots of opportunities to escape the crowds and warm up a little. This fire pump is part of a larger display relating to firefighting on the site.

Rock Garden

Location: Huron Street, north of Russell, University of Toronto

Date photo taken: 21 October 2015

Parked in the grass along Huron Street is an eclectic collection of boulders. Despite their size and proximity to the sidewalk it's easy to pass by them without a second glance. If you do look a little more carefully however you'll notice that the rocks have small plaques affixed to them, identifying just what type of rock you're looking at, where it came from and how old it is. In all, this urban rock garden contains 19 specimens from around Ontario.

Project Bookmark

Location: North east side of the Bloor viaduct
Date photo taken: 11 April 2016

Project Bookmark is a unique project that takes passages from fiction and situates them in the real world. In this example, located at the eastern edge of the Prince Edward or Bloor viaduct, an early passage from Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of the Lion describes a nun being swept off the bridge by the wind. It's a scene, and a book, deeply rooted in place. Readers of this plaque can take a few steps and experience the bridge for themselves, take in its height and be exposed to the elements. Combining the fiction and the reality in this way increases one's appreciation of both. It was an excellent choice with which to launch the program. To date, 15 bookmarks have been placed across Canada, and the 16th will be unveiled in Hamilton on June 10.

Do you have a favourite book or passage that is situated in Toronto, or elsewhere in Canada? Project Bookmark wants to hear about it - suggestions can be submitted through their website.

Possum PSA

Location: Residential area at Yonge and Eglinton

Date photo taken: 17 February 2016

It’s nice to have friends. Or at least a good PR team. Walking in a residential neighbourhood near Yonge and Eglinton, my eye was drawn to this page attached to a street pole. It seeks to educate those in the neighbourhood about a new resident in the area – a Virginia opossum. While opossum’s do tend to look like very large rats, they have a much more benign lifestyle, as this poster attempts to convey. Toronto is on the far northern edge of their current territory so we don’t tend to see too many of them but as the weather gets warmer that may start to change. That wouldn’t be a bad thing. They’re not destructive and as they can eat just about anything, they make excellent clean-up crews.

It makes me happy to think that someone cared enough about these creatures to go to the trouble of making and posting this information.