Black-Crowned Night Heron
Posted: July 29, 2013 Filed under: Animal Life, Ontario, Toronto, Water | Tags: birds, black crowned night heron, Canada, Evergreen Brick Works, flood, heron, nature, nature photography, Ontario, ponds, Toronto 3 Comments
Black-crowned night heron at the Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto, July 2013
A week ago Sunday we went to the Brick Works which has been flooded twice this year from torrential rains. A little over a week after the last flood and a clean-up effort, the site had recovered quite a bit. On the way over, the wildflowers by the railroad were dense leaving only the tiniest of paths to stumble through.
Black-crowned night heron at the Brick Works in July 2013, Toronto
Shortly after arriving at the Brick Works, we saw this black-crowned night heron in one of the ponds. He or she stood hunched and still for long periods, except when catching a meal. It is heartening to see wildlife in Toronto in this place where nature is being restored so close to a major highway.
At the Brick Works
Posted: August 7, 2012 Filed under: Ontario, Plant Life, Toronto | Tags: Evergreen Brick Works, green, humanature, nature, ponds, shrubs, Toronto, trees Leave a comment
The Brick Works in Toronto, Canada, early fall 2010.
In Toronto, Canada, there’s a green space we love to visit on the site of an old brick works quarry and factory. This place has developed, through a national charity called Evergreen and the work of people in the community, into a life giving area that attracts many visitors. There’s a farmer’s market every Saturday, a restaurant, gift shops, a garden centre, places for workshops and, most importantly, trees, shrubs, grasses, flowers, ponds and wildlife.
Yesterday, we went for an afternoon ramble on a holiday Monday in Ontario. We walked down the hill and onto a path by a seldom used railroad track alongside Queen Anne’s Lace, hearty yellow wildflowers whose name I forget and the husks of thistles. At the Brick Works, we walked around the ponds, seeing a small turtle, reeds and many water lily pads with white flowers, then up onto a shady path along the edge of a wooded ravine. Here we looked down on the ponds we’d just passed and stopped to see a goldfinch and hummingbird on nearby trees and a chipmunk on fallen logs. Other walkers passed us. We came to a willow tree overhanging the path and stood under its tresses in a protected cave-like enclosure. This was a restorative humanature afternoon.
The photos I’ve posted here are from a previous year in the early autumn. Often I take my camera and binoculars along, but I wanted to be free to be in the setting without these filters. I do love photographing nature, but have to be careful that the process doesn’t take me away from the actual experience of being there. I’ve taken to stopping and being still after I take a photograph and this helps me be present.
Brick Works Pond, Early Fall 2010
of humans and nature 
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