Who knows how many people have walked by this huge maple tree on Glenburnie Rd. in the Credit Reserve without spotting its tiny resident screech owl, perfectly camouflaged in the middle of the knothole?
Alan Skeoch, the now retired long-time award-winning high school history teacher, CBC contributor (they loved his collection of historic agricultural implements) and author of the lively history of the city called Mississauga- Where the River Speaks, admits he probably missed it himself the first few times he walked by. It took his wife to point it out, of course.
Skeoch (pronounced Ski-oh) snapped this photo of the common owl, who often spends most of the day dozing out in plain sight.
"There's a lot more wildlife in the city than you think, once you start looking for it," says the former Parkdale Collegiate teacher, who has a new book coming out in April. It has the provocative title, Your Home on Native Land, and deals with the long, sad history of our treatment of native peoples which has culminated in such clashes as the current Caledonia stand-off.
Since his two grandchildren, four and five-years-old, have been reading stories about red foxes, Skeoch decided to take them on a neighbourhood forage. Down by the spot where the Ministry of Transportation is reconstructing the QEW interchange at Hurontario St., he and his grandkids made a search of the brush.
"I knew there were fox down there because I'd seen them before and, believe it or not, there was a fox with five kits living under a stump," he says. "They've since moved on."
Lots of times we miss the urban wildscape that remains all around us simply because we don't take the time to look for it.
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Here's an item from the "it's a small world" category.
Larry Steinman, the fiery Lorne Park ratepayer who has lead the fight... er positive exchange of differing views... between residents living along the corridor where Hydro One butchered so many trees last year happens to be out in Canmore, Alberta these days.
He is flying back, however, for the next open house of the joint landscaping committee. Hydro One agreed to set that up last fall after residents balked at the utility's plans to kill numerous mature oaks in the Lorne Park, after they'd already slaughtered a number in Applewood Acres and Park Royal. (The open house, by the way, takes place next Wed. Mar. 5 in the Lorne Park Secondary School cafeteria.)
Turns out there's a connection between the communities at either end of Steinman's flight. After a friend mentioned the connection, Steinman did some Internet digging and found out that Sir John George Edward Henry Douglas Sutherland Campbell was the British Marquis of Lorne, born August 6, 1845. He married Princess Louise Caroline Alberta, the sixth child of Queen Victoria. Marquis of Lorne was Governor General of Canada from 1879 to 1883. Lorne Park is named after him, and Lake Louise, which is not that far from Canmore, is named after her.
And adding to the small world connection, one of those who "watched me do a pretzel while cross-country skiing at the Nordic Centre" says Steinman, was Mississauga's own Olympic heroine, Silken Laumann. Next week Laumann, who now lives in Victoria, will help launch the newly-expanded Canadian Olympic School Program in Richmond, B.C.
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After years of hearing about the deer herd at UTM, actually had an encounter of the close kind with them a few months ago. Since then, have spotted several white tails strolling around campus.
Yesterday, five were foraging in the snow along principal's road for green goodies hidden under the snow. This time, we were better prepared. Our cameras were at the ready as the deer posed patiently for photos, as seen below.
