As the father of four children, I have spent many hours in various East York parks that have playground equipment. During this year’s March break, I am going to revisit one each day and make a post of some of the nature that I find there.

Stan Wadlow Park is home to East York Arena, several baseball diamonds, an outdoor swimming pool, a skateboard park and a handball court.

The southern end is bordered by Norway Maples.

The ground is littered with their keys.

The northern end is bordered by Silver Maples.

 

Silver Maple bark

Silver Maple buds

There is a good variety of planted evergreens here:

Austrian Pine;

Austrian Pine buds;

White Spruce;

The small, cylindrical cones of White Spruce;

Colorado Spruce (the blue colour becomes green as the branches age);

Norway Spruce with its large, cylindrical cones;

The twigs are orange-ish in colour;

White Cedar;

Douglas Fir with its blackish bark;

Douglas Fir cones.

Here are some of the other planted trees;

Catalpa;

English Oak;

This species tends to keep its leaves in winter.

Bur Oak;

The “monkey face” leaf scar of Kentucky Coffee Tree;

The northern border of the park looks down on Taylor Creek Ravine.

Some of the non-planted trees here are:

Black Walnut;

Black Locust with its thorns;

Manitoba Maple (this one has many trunks);

Eastern Cottonwood;

The sharp buds of Cottonwood;

A few green leaves of wild flowers are appearing.

Motherwort;

Garlic Mustard;

Cinquefoil;

Some birds were about including European Starling, Red-winged Blackbird, House Sparrow, Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker and even a Pileated Woodpecker calling from the valley.

I was able to get a photo of a Red-tailed Hawk who was hunting among the nearby Pigeon population.

Miles Hearn