Crocus

Location: Everywhere

Date photo taken: 12 April 2022

You know that spring is officially here and making a stand when gardens begin to sport splashes of purple and yellow. I have always thought of crocuses as the quintessential sign of spring in southern Ontario so I was a little surprised to learn that they aren't native to North America. Their ability to tolerate extremes of hot and cold make them ideal for our climate however, and their perennial nature, early blooming and glorious colours make them popular for gardens. 

Fun fact: The prairie crocus, which is the provincial flower of Manitoba, isn't actually a crocus. It's an an anemone, belonging to the buttercup family.

Toronto Trees

Location: Allan Gardens, Gerrard close to Sherbourne
Date photo taken: 18 August 2015

There are several areas in the city where it is possible to visit some truly spectacular trees. In honour of Earth Day, here is a personal favourite. Allan Gardens, along with being home to a beautiful conservatory, also houses over 300 trees. Not bad for a modestly sized urban park.

The City of Toronto has embraced its urban forest and is attempting to grow its tree canopy. Permits are required to remove trees, even, in some cases, on private property, and in the decade between 2008 and 2018, the city invested over $600 million in maintaining and growing its urban forest. City estimates put the overall canopy at approximately 30 percent. Treepedia, a project by MIT's Senseable City Lab, uses a different metric. Rather than measuring the tree cover from above, they take a pedestrian view to measure how many trees can be perceived on city streets. They call their score the Green View Index. By this metric, Toronto scores 19.5%. The lower number likely reflects the relatively large percentage of Toronto trees that grow in parks, ravines and backyards. For comparison, New York has a score of 13.5% and Montreal scores 25.5%.

Topiary Street Light

Location: Lakehurst Crescent

Date photo taken: 9 September 2013

In honour of Earth Day - a streetlight completely overwhelmed by greenery.

Zoo Woods

Location: St. George south of Harbord

Date photo taken: 6 May 2016

Walking along St. George Street, thru the heart of the University of Toronto's downtown campus, you pass this small, wild looking patch of green. This is Zoo Woods, a project undertaken in 1994 by the Zoology Landscape Committee to recreate the Beech-Maple forest environment that once predominated in this part of southern Ontario. Many of the plants here were rescued from the Altona Forest, a remnant of the beech-maple forest within the GTA which was cleared in 1994 to build a subdivision. With increased interest in fostering native species and increasing biodiversity within urban areas, learning spaces like this one can play an important role. To see what the space looked like prior to the project, or to download a map of the woods, check out the Zoo Woods webpage.

The Doris McCarthy Trail

Location: Between Kingston Rd. and the lake, Scarborough
Date photo taken: 9 September 2013

The Doris McCarthy Trail is one of those magical places in Toronto that let you forget for a moment that you’re in the big city. It’s green, it runs beside a lovely little stream, and it leads you to the shores of the lake. Perfect for a brief summer escape.

Doris McCarthy was a Canadian artist who lived on the Scarborough Bluffs. In 1986 she donated a piece of land on the east side of her property to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. It is through this land that the trail now runs. Her home, Fool’s Paradise, was donated over a decade later to the Ontario Heritage Trust and is now run as an artist-in-residence centre.

The entrance to the trail is just south of Kingston road off Bellehaven Crescent in the Cliffcrest part of Scarborough. From here it runs down through Gates Gully to the lake where it joins the waterfront trail. It’s a bit steep in places but generally easy to manage.

Magnolias

Location: Eastbourne Crescent
Date photo taken: 6 May 2016

This time of year there's a lot of chatter about cherry blossoms and with good reason - when they're in full bloom they are spectacular. Unfortunately, the High Park Cherry Blossom Watch is reporting that this year there won't be a peak bloom in their collection of trees. In the absence of cherries then, I present the magnolia. The deciduous variety looks particularly lovely when it blooms in the spring because there aren't yet any leaves to block your view of the flowers. There are many varieties of magnolia but most range in colour from white to deep pink, although I was very happy to come across a yellow variety on a walk this week. Like cherry blossoms they only flower for a limited time. Once the flowers are gone, leaves take their place and then these trees become wonderful providers of shade.

Bird Banding

Location: Waterfront, near the base of Dan Leckie Way

Date photo taken: 30 April 2015

Toronto, with its waterfront and many naturalized park spaces, provides lots of great habitat for many species of birds. If you're the type to take notice of birds, you've probably also noticed that sometimes they can be seen sporting coloured and numbered bands on their legs, wings, or as in this picture, their necks. The North American Bird Banding Program has banded over 60 million birds since it started back in 1904. Information on banded birds helps scientists learn more about them, including their movement and behaviour. Did you realize that you can help with this work? Ordinary citizens are encouraged to record sightings of birds wearing tags and report them to the program. You'll be asked for information such as the colour and placement of the band, the number on the band, and where and when you saw the bird. In return, you will be sent a Certificate of Appreciation which will provide you with some information about the bird you saw. In this case, the banded goose is a female, about a year old, and it had been banded in the Toronto area just over a week before this picture was taken. Observing and reporting bird bands would make a great summer science project for kids of all ages, and it would help the Canadian Wildlife Service better understand the birds it tags.

David A. Balfour Park

Location: Access off of Mount Pleasant Rd., south of St. Clair Ave. E.

Date photo taken: 19 Sep 2013

Itching for the great outdoors but can't afford the time or expense of a cottage getaway? Why not spend some time exploring some of Toronto's parks? This descent into greenery is an access point for David A. Balfour Park, a 20.5 hectare park running roughly north to south along Yellow Creek, near Yonge and St. Clair. In addition to a number of wooded trails, the park also includes the large grassy expanse of the Rosehill Reservoir and if you follow the main trail to the south it leads you to Craigleigh Gardens, a gated garden space. The park is easily accessed by transit, and if you decide you want to keep on hiking, you can easily turn your stroll into a longer circuit by adding the Beltline Trail through Evergreen Brick Works, Moore Park Ravine and Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Mute Swan

Location: in the water off Harbour Square Park
Date photo taken: 10 May 2014

On a recent walk out to the west end, I was amazed by the number of swans I saw in the Humber River. Swans are not an unusual sight in the city but it seems to me that their numbers are increasing, so I did a little reading. It turns out that their numbers are indeed going up and that the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) in partnership with the City of Toronto have been quietly working for years to control the population. Their efforts are only targeting this type of swan, the mute swan. According to an explanatory letter from the TRCA, mute swan populations are being controlled because "mute swans are not native to North America and their population has been steadily increasing over the last decade, as they appear to lack significant natural predators. They cause significant damage to natural habitats; they displace and disrupt native waterfowl and other wildlife species that are less common and more sensitive to disturbance; and they can be very aggressive toward people." That last part is important because swans are powerful creatures. While they may look serene, they can be very dangerous if approached, especially if they are near their nests or young.

Native trumpeter swans, extinct in Ontario until recently, can also be found in Toronto, although in small numbers. They are larger and have straight necks and black bills while mute swans are easily distinguished by their curved necks and orange bills. To read about the effort to reintroduce trumpeter swans to Ontario, and about where to find them in Toronto, check out Margaret Bream's article in the February Toronto Star. To read more about efforts to control mute swan populations, visit the High Park Nature Centre website.

Wilket Creek Park

Location: Trail in Wilket Creek Park
Date photo taken: 5 October 2014

The weather is glorious and the leaves are brilliant. If you want to get out there and enjoy it without leaving the city, there are lots of options. One that I discovered recently is Wilket Creek Park. Running in a long strip between Eglinton and Lawrence, the park is 44 hectares of wilderness in the city and it's part of a much larger interconnected park system that includes Edwards Gardens to the north, Sunnybrook park to the west, and Serena Gundy Park and the Don Valley trails to the south. All together, you can walk for hours on these trails, admiring the fall colours and the sound of the river.

Monarch Caterpillar

Location: Humber Bay Butterfly Habitat
Date photo taken: 23 July 2014

The Humber Bay Butterfly Habitat is a waterfront park just west of the Humber River. While it's a joy to walk through, the native species planted here were selected with butterflies and other pollinator species in mind, not humans. One of the most important species in the area is milkweed. It's important because Monarch butterflies lay their eggs on milkweed plants, and once the caterpillars hatch, they feed on the leaves. Milkweed leaves contain toxic compounds which the caterpillars store up, making them unpalatable to birds and other creatures that might otherwise consider them lunch.

The best time for spotting Monarch butterflies in Toronto is late August, and one of the best places to see them is Tommy Thompson park. The park is hosting a Butterfly Festival on August 23rd, with activities, nature hikes and educational displays. Hopefully, there will be a good turn out, but Monarch populations have been in steep decline in recent years. One cause is a decline in native species, many of which are considered weeds. To help out the struggling butterflies, the David Suzuki Foundation has launched their #gotmilkweed campaign to encourage Torontonians to plant milkweed and other butterfly-friendly plants in their gardens and in under-utilized public spaces like medians and hydro corridors.

Trilliums

Location: Wooded area in High Park
Date photo taken: 12 May 2014

Springtime in High Park means cherry blossoms but there are other treasures to be found at this time of year. If you happen to be walking on any of the wooded trails through the more naturalized parts of the park, keep your eye out for trilliums. Growing singly or in clumps, their brilliant green leaves and glowing white flowers are relatively easy to spot against the brown of last year's leaf cover. The trillium is a perennial and native to the area. It was chosen as Ontario's official flower in 1937. It is slow to grow, taking a minimum of seven years to get to the flowering stage, and if the leaves and flower are picked, the whole plant may die. The plants are now protected by the Ontario Trillium Protection Act, which was introduced in 2009. Anyone guilty of picking, pulling up or otherwise injuring a trillium is liable for a minimum $500 fine.

Fun fact: The trillium also happens to be the official state wildflower of Ohio and since 2008, the Toronto FC and the Columbus Crew, from Columbus, Ohio have competed for the Trillium Cup.