Or so says Christopher Hume, writing in the Toronto Star: “Toronto’s accidental treasure“
I love the Spit: it’s a bird sanctuary, wilder than most city parks, looks a bit like Scotland with its hills and fjords, I mean lochs. It’s a good place for a walk or a bike ride. Who cares that the park exists only on weekends or that it’s built out of landfill?
Yesterday we got up in Savannah, Georgia, and went to bed in Wilmington, North Carolina. We drove up the scenic highways near the coast.
At one point we made a detour into a wildlife area in a swamp. We saw great white heron or great egret, great blue heron, and possibly a glossy ibis. Where there weren’t too many black vultures, we saw crows. The crows seem to avoid the larger scavengers.
We’re staying with friends on the outskirts of Wilmington. One of my best friends from twenty years ago, a restless soul, has alighted here for the moment. To my dismay, she’s avoiding surgery by treating melanoma with naturopathic and homeopathic remedies.
Tramping around Irvine Park in Orange County, California, I saw and heard three green parrot-like objects that were flying from one sycamore tree to another. Eventually, one of them roosted where I could see it. I took this picture with my digital camera on maxiumum digital zoom. I presume they are escapers from captivity or perhaps naturalized. But I don’t know the species.
This morning I took a walk in the estuary at Newport Beach. The tide was fairly high, and coots and some ducks gathered around the fresh water pouring into Upper Newport Bay, sipping the water and bathing. Further south there were great blue herons and an inconspicuous bird near some tall grass. I wouldn’t have seen it except that it was flipping its pale tail. A trip to the bird book confirmed my guess: it was a sora.
Back home, the wind chills are -22 C and the storm warnings are out.
In Newport Beach, it’s mild, with hundreds of birds feeding in the estuary. This is one of the three best places to watch birds in California.
