June 8, 2018
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A day on the river

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Yesterday afternoon, after I voted in our ill-fated Ontario provincial election, Bill picked me up and we headed for the Grand River for an evening of fly fishing. Bill is new to the fly fishing game, so we did some casting practice close to home the other day to give him a fighting chance at avoiding disaster. While he has plenty of work to do developing some good casting form, Bill did well, and as a special bonus, caught some trout.

It was a beautiful afternoon. There was a goose with babies hanging out nearby, and we saw an osprey looking for dinner.

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We were on the water by about 3:30 PM, at a spot on the middle river, not far from town. Insects were already emerging. Throughout the afternoon, there were some tan caddis, plenty of craneflies and a smattering of big mayflies, which I think are the ones we call grey foxes. The trout, often very selective in this tailwater, appeared to be enjoying the smorgasbord.

We caught brown trout, quite a few of them, although none of the “alligators” the Grand is known for. This kind of day, with lots of insects (but not the biting kind) and rising trout was a perfect intro to fly fishing for Bill.

 

June 6, 2018
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Nature Walk – Wilket Creek Park

I arrived a bit early for today’s nature walk with Miles Hearn (the final one of this series…there are 4 more coming up in July). I saw Miles, who sent me up a steep trail to have a look at some mushrooms growing from a stump. They were ganodermas.

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Wilket Creek Park is a forested treasure within the Greater Toronto Area. It’s located near Edwards Gardens near Leslie and Lawrence. The bird migration is over so there were not so many birds singing as even a couple weeks ago. However, there were so many forest plants to learn about. Here is a sample. I’ve captioned each picture.

Purple flowering raspberry
Red clover
Yellow avens
Ox Eye Daisy
Swamp buttercup
Yellow flag
Rattlesnake root
Maple leaved viburnum
Bloodroot
Bird’s foot trefoil
False spikenard
Christmas fern
Virginia waterleaf
Mountain rice grass
Canada Mayflower
Joe-Pye weed
Rattlesnake weed
Philidelphia fleabane
Spindle tree

I’m beginning to recognize some plants which we’ve encountered in other locations. In some cases, such as with the Virginia waterleaf, we’ve now seen plants before and during bloom. It’s going to take a lot more nature walks and observation for me to learn many of these but I’m heartened that some are sinking in.