Marilyn MacKellar nature walk; new children's playground; rose-breasted grosbeak; 46 Heathdale; temporary pond
Stewarding resumes
Marilyn MacKellar leads another slow nature walk
This post will be in the nature of a short teaser. I found myself with a backlog of topics I wanted to cover, so will write more about the walk in my next post.
On Sunday 10th May, Marilyn MacKellar led another of her “slow” nature walks, focussing mainly on plants and bushes. There were about 20 people in the group. Here she is with part of the group at the start at Heath St:
And here she is with another section of the group further along the path
Marilyn has been associated with Friends of Cedarvale since its inception in 2012 and has a very broad knowledge of the park’s flora. More to come in next post.
New children’s playground coming to the Cross Roads
A new children’s playground is going to be built in the park next year. It will be at the southeast corner of the “Cross Roads” (where the paths cross near the tennis courts). Stella Zhou of the City asked me to publicize the information about it, including a survey:
toronto.ca/CedarvalePlayground
The survey covers such topics as the type of equipment to be installed in the playground. My only comment is that it does not ask the more fundamental question: is this your highest priority for the next major project in the park?
Rose-breasted grosbeak sighting
Doug on Heathdale sent me this photo of a rose-breasted grosbeak on his bird feeder at the back of his house:
Swimming pool under construction at 46 Heathdale
In previous blog posts, I have written about the swimming pool behind the new house at 46 Heathdale Rd. Here it is under construction in April:
Our interest in it arose because of the possibility that its construction might damage the roots of some of the unique stand of 15 mature oak trees that grow on the ravine slope directly behind the property. At the time I was there, the temporary fence at the back was being moved right up to the property line, even closer to the oak trees:
I will continue to monitor what happens at this site.
Temporary pond appears near Bathurst St bridge
The culvert that carries the runoff creek under the path just north of the Bathurst St bridge was blocked during the heavy rain in March and April. This resulted in a fairly large temporary pond beside the path:
The culvert has now been unblocked and the pond is back to its normal level.
Stewards tackles garlic mustard
The Toronto Nature Stewards stewarding groups have begun their activities in parks throughout the City. In Cedarvale, we have two groups. One led by Alexandria Pike and Kathryn Bryce meets at the dog park on Mondays at 6.30 pm, and the other led by Bob Kortright and myself meets at Heath St at 9.30 am on Saturdays. Esther Matus is a new lead steward who could work with either group. Our group has now met on 2, 9 and 16 May. We have spent most of our time pulling out garlic mustard, a non-native invasive plant that displaces native vegetation. This was the group last Saturday. We are behind a house on Millbank Ave:
Esther took the picture. Here she is in the centre of the group:
We spent most of 2 hours up on the hill that lies between Millbank and the path to Suydam Park and Spadina Rd. There is still plenty of garlic mustard left in the park to be dealt with.
Upcoming Event Saturday 6th June
Our next event will be a community walk, starting at 2 pm from Heath St on Saturday 6th June. It will be led by Valentina Gastaldo, newly returned from Spain. There will be 10 stops, with different speakers at each stop. The walk will end with a picnic. Hope to see some of you there!
John