May 2nd, 2026
Today I had a big walk, one that I'm doing more routinely. Starting at Wychwood Park, working my way across to Casa Loma and Spadina House, up through Nordheimer Ravine, and finally back up to Oakwood and Vaughan using Cedarvale Park. This is approx. a 6km walk.
The red-tailed hawk was guarding its nest by Wychwood pond.
Wychood pond is now home to a pair of mallard ducks.
The pond provides water for many birds.
Chickadees and cardinals can be see throughout the year, and large flocks of blue-jays can be seen in the spring.
Walking East. This house finch was over looking George Brown college along Davenport road.
Climbing up to the gardens at Spadina House, and the area had many little white-throated sparrows..
The grounds had many fiddleheads starting to come up.
In the apple portion of the gardens, there was a ruby-crowned kinglet. The cold weather has slowed migration, so few warblers.
Spadina house is a good place for birding, especially since sometimes the bathrooms are open in the museum.
A highlight from Spadina was a brief sighting of a Merlin.
For a small falcon, the size of a large robin, you can really see the size of its talons, and the sleak profile in flight.
In Nordheimer Ravine, a white-breasted nuthatch sits and poses for a photo.
The red-bellied woodpecker was not hanging around, too long, for a good photo.
Crossing into Cedarvale Ravine, I checked up on the Raven's nest under Bathurst bridge. This raven was guarding sitting on an old pole nearby guarding the nest.
The nest was filled with baby ravens.
A muskrat! I can't believe a saw a muskrat in Cedarvale, I have no idea where it came from. There is a small secret pond between the dogpark and the wooden footbridge. you can even tell it's close to the dogpark because of the dogball in the picture. As soon as the muskrat spotted me, it dove under the water.
The cherry trees were in bloom.
A red-wing blackbird singing ontop of the blossoming cherry tree.
Thanks for reading,
Arthur Gron
gron.arthur@gmail.com