HELP NEEDED FOR SPRING BIRD FESTIVAL

We are once again looking for volunteers to help with our Spring Bird Festival at Colonel Samuel Smith Park on Sat., May 27.

Possible volunteer jobs include:
- 8:30 - 9:30 a.m.- putting out directional signs in the park; setting up tables/chairs for display areas; helping people bring their display materials into the festival area
- 2:00 - 2:45 p.m.- collecting directional signs; taking down tables/chairs and bringing them to vans

Many hands make light work!  Please consider volunteering- this year's festival will be bigger and better than ever!


Please contact Barbara Keaveney at  Barbara.keaveney@sympatico.ca if you are able to help.
Thanks!

SATURDAY, APRIL 29TH - SAM SMITH PARK BIRD WALK

NANCY BARRETT: NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER AND HUGE SAM SMITH PARK FAN - A PERSONAL ESSAY

This is a special guest post from Nancy Barrett of Nature’s Dance Photography. As part of her current exhibit, Through A Lens, Brightly, Humber College's Interpretive Centre asked Nancy to share with them a reflection on her approach to birding and to photography. 

Through A Lens, Brightly is on display on the third floor of Humber’s Student Welcome and Resource Centre until April 29, 2017.


I have been keenly interested in the natural world around us since childhood.  My early years were spent exploring the wild spaces just beyond my grandparents’, and later my parents’, backyards in north Etobicoke, near the Humber River, right at the edge of encroaching suburban development.  There was so much to discover:  birds, bugs, and beasts of all kinds; frogs and toads and snakes, oh my!  My parents, bless them, disguised their revulsion well when I came home to show off my latest discovery, an Eastern Gartersnake, so that I never feared wild things.

The first bird that made a significant impression on me was a beautiful male Indigo Bunting that had unfortunately struck our window.  I wondered at this tiny, incredibly jewel-toned creature…a wonder that has never dimmed in the years since.

As a young woman, I joined the Federation of Ontario Naturalists (now ON Nature), a non-profit dedicated to the protection of wild species and spaces through conservation and education, which opened up the boundaries of my world by leaps and bounds.  Through them, I immediately gained valuable mentors and lifelong friends and connections and travelled to wild spaces such as Rainy River/Lake of the Woods, horse-trekking through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, Algonquin Provincial Park, and adult summer nature camps on the Bruce Peninsula.  A memorable trip in 1985 to Point Pelee National Park and Pelee Island triggered a new-formed obsession:  bird listing, or “twitching” (an effort to see and record as many different species as possible in a region; I’ve seen 349 out of a recorded 494 species in Ontario).  Along with each new species grew the desire to document every new thing I was seeing on film, to learn more, see more.  I joined more organizations, including the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO), the Toronto Ornithological Club (TOC) and, through the wonderful people I’ve met in the park, the Friends of Sam Smith (FOSS).

Together, my friends and family and I chased rarities throughout the province (and sometimes outside it—we once drove down into upstate New York to see a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, successfully, and back home in one afternoon).  Meanwhile, with the help of knowledgeable mentors, my familiarity with field marks, songs and calls, migration patterns, feeding and behaviour grew, providing a deep insight into my photographic subjects (no longer just birds, but also butterflies, dragonflies, wildflowers and more), and helping to inform what I wished to convey through my images.  I can see that vision still developing and becoming clearer as I compare my early efforts with newer images; it morphs and changes.

I began exploring Col. Sam Smith Park in 2008, visiting through all seasons and capturing the subtle changes that occur as each season progresses.  From pussy willows in spring to the last fallen leaf in autumn, I became familiar with the different mini-habitats throughout the park, which itself began largely as lakefill and which has naturalized beautifully into the biodiverse sanctuary it is today.  Spring and fall migrant birds are drawn every year to the inviting green space projecting out from the lakeshore, a place to rest and feed before continuing their journey north to breeding areas.

A special feature of the park is the annual Whimbrel migration, peaking around May 24. Whimbrels are large, curve-billed shorebirds which appear every year, swirling around above the shoreline, filling the air with their whistling calls.

Many birds also stay to breed in the park, including Red-necked Grebes, a diving bird that is at the eastern edge of its range here, and is now breeding in increasing numbers through caring people who provide anchored floating wooden nesting platforms each spring.  Tree Swallows, an insect-eating species that is losing ground due to loss of suitable habitat, are provided with clean nest boxes in the meadow.

Just these two species alone have provided me many hours of serene observation and documentation of their life cycles: migration, courtship, nesting, raising young—all of these are available at close quarters.  I’ve spent many lovely,
meandering hours in the park, knowing that I’ll come across more treasures–a meadow full of dew-diademed Monarch Butterflies gathering for southward migration on a foggy morn, a Yellow Warbler feeding its newly-fledged youngster overhead; a Mink catching a fish right in front of me, a Snowy Owl gazing at me as she flies by.


There’s a common element to the encounters listed above—that the creatures felt comfortable enough to behave naturally, without fear or discomfort, in my presence.  There should never be harassment or behaviour by people or their pets that prevents wild animals from feeding, looking after young around nest sites or dens, or the use of birding apps to call birds repeatedly, especially in breeding season. The employment of ethics in wildlife and nature photography is something I advocate as often and as strongly as possible, and in any case ultimately results in one-of-a-kind images.

I’ve learned to use natural cover to conceal myself whenever possible—trees, shrubs, slopes—to prevent disturbing the birds and other wildlife that I photograph.  If there is no cover, I get down and flat as possible, and wait for natural behaviour to reappear.  I once crawled through a crust of cormorant poop and fish bits to photograph some Black-bellied Plovers on a treeless island.  I have never found the need to use special camouflage clothing—I just dress mostly in earth tones and try not to make fast movements.

It is here, in this wilderness in the city, that I learned a secret to observing and photographing wildlife—the ability to be still and quiet.  It took a long time for me to understand the benefits of patience.  At first, I was eager to get a little closer, just a little…and was almost always rewarded by an empty branch instead of a bird, or the back end of a turtle as it disappeared into the water.  As for learning to be quiet, well, ask my friends—it’s not a quality I’m known for.  But learn I did, and the resulting images showed it.

 Friends sometimes ask me, “How did you see and photograph all this stuff in a city park?  How do you find it?”  I tell them all you have to do is slow down, put your smartphone on flight mode, breathe in deeply, and look around.  I mean really look—at the sky, the water, the earth, the plants around you.  Listen carefully–do you hear birds calling?  Reach out–feel the furrowed bark of a tree.  When you open yourself to even the smallest things, nature will open itself up to you.

I hope I will continue to draw inspiration from and create images of the wild spaces of this park for a long time to come.

“A photograph shouldn’t be just a picture, it should be a philosophy” 

–Amit Kalantri

Nancy Barrett

Nature’s Dance Photography

Flickr: Naturegirl99

Instagram: Naturegirl99

goldengooseproductions@yahoo.ca

SUMMARY: MINUTES FOSS STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING, MARCH 28TH, 2017

Summary: FOSS Steering Committee Meeting                                         

March 28th, 2017

7:05 PM, LAMP, 185 5^th Street, Etobicoke

• COLONEL SAM PARK CLEAN-UP DAY WITH ALAN ROY: Sunday, April 23. 9am-3pm. Volunteers needed.  Bring your own gloves and boots. Water and garbage bags supplied. Draws, prizes and giveaways. Directions/information will be posted at park entrances. Watch for the “sandwich boards”. Contact Alan Roy at alan_roy@rogers.com or call 416-937-4568 for more information. 
• SWALLOW NESTING SITES: FOSS volunteers have prepared a total of 66 Tree Swallow boxes. See blog for details. The TRCA will erect a Barn Swallow nesting platform at the wetland outlook. Both projects are a go for the 2017 nesting season.  
• VOLUNTEER REQUIRED FOR FOSS BLOG: If you are an advocate for nature in the city and have the necessary skills required for maintaining the FOSS blog, please contact FOSS. Contact information is available on the website. Thanks go to Terry Smith for his 9 years of dedication in this position..
• PROPOSED PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKSHOP: Tentatively scheduled for May 2017.
• Location: Colonel Sam Smith Park. Free. Check the blog for more information.
• “MEN’S” PICNIC SHELTER REPAIRS AT COL. SAM: The City plans to renovate this structure. Schedule yet to be announced. 
• DRUG/GARBAGE PROBLEMS AT COL. SAM: Discarded drug paraphernalia and litter are on-going detriments in the park, particularly in the North Creek area. Visitors are asked to notify the police at 416 808-2200 for drug infractions and 311 for trash build-up. 
• FIELD GUIDE DONATION: A generous donor has presented FOSS with 18 Field Guides that cover a wide variety of topics (bird, mammals, rocks and minerals, etc.). FOSS plans to use the guides for reference purposes at the Bird Festival and for Col. Sam Park nature programs. FOSS is most appreciative of this gift and offers great thanks to the donor.
• SPRING BIRD FESTIVAL: Saturday, May 27. 10am-2pm. Bird walks (begin at 9am). Face painting. Possible photography sale (subject matter related to Col. Sam Park). FOSS children’s projects (build bird feeders/baths). Bird house kits for sale ($10). And much more!
• TWO-HOUR PARKING LIMIT ON SOUTH LOT AT COLONEL SAM: FOSS has been informed that the two hour parking limit in the south parking lot has met with some success. Vehicles are being marked and fines are being issued.

WE'RE NOW READY FOR THE TREE SWALLOWS!

 


Friends of Sam Smith Park volunteers have now prepared sixty-six Tree Swallow nesting boxes for the influx of birds expected this coming week as the weather continues to brighten and warm up.  There are fifty-three in the main "Swallow Field" immediately east of the yacht club and another thirteen on the west side of the park, south of the filtration plant.

Preparation included removing old nesting material, sanitizing against parasites, repairs and the installation of some new boxes.  We give a special thanks to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority who have, over the past seven or so years, provided FOSS with the materials to create this amazing park asset and for their confidence in allowing community volunteers to manage it.

FOSS volunteer Walt Balenovich

It is estimated that over seven hundred young swallows have been raised in Sam Smith Park over the years this project has been running.  That might explain the increasing numbers we see each spring competing for a chance to raise a family where they perhaps were raised.  It is important to remember that this species is in serious decline due to a number of factors, including the scarcity of natural nesting cavities.

FOSS volunteer Bruce Wilkinson

Click here to see previous FOSS posts on our Tree Swallows.

A DATE FOR YOUR CALENDAR - MAY 27TH - 8TH ANNUAL SPRING BIRD FESTIVAL AT SAM SMITH

THE RED-NECKED GREBES ARE BACK - "MATING DANCE"

Photographer - Brian Bailey

INCREASED DRUG USE IN SAM SMITH?

There have been numerous reports lately of public drug use near the North Creek wetland area - specifically, north of the wetland in the spruce growth on both sides of the creek due east of the path leading north from the south parking lot.

This has been going on for a long time now but seems to be increasing based on sightings and the higher than usual number of discarded plastic bottles that are used as smoking paraphernalia recently found there and later removed. 

The debris is an unsightly garbage problem in one of the most ecologically interesting parts of the park and public drug use, for now and probably even after upcoming federal changes to the legislation, is illegal and definitely not to be encouraged in our park by turning a blind eye to it.

This is a police matter and reports should be immediately called in to 22nd Division at 416 808 2200.

SUNDAY, APRIL 23RD - ALAN ROY'S SAM SMITH PARK CLEAN-UP - 25TH ANNIVERSARY!!!