Sweetbrier is variously called sweet briar, sweet briar rose, sweet brier or eglantine. It is native to Europe and western Asia. The stems bear numerous hooked prickles:

The fruit is a red hip:

A tea made from these hips is very popular in Europe and elsewhere.

Other botany:

American Tree Sparrows breed near the Hudson Bay coast and the northern part of James Bay.

In this part of Ontario it is a winter bird.

As a child one winter, I helped my grandfather band birds and we banded a few tree sparrows.

The following winter it returned to exactly the same spot after spending the summer over 1500 kms to the north, an amazing feat!

Species list: Canada goose, mallard, American black duck, bufflehead, hooded merganser, ring-billed gull, mourning dove, downy woodpecker, blue jay, common raven, black-capped chickadee, northern cardinal, American tree sparrow. (13 species)

Not too many birds on this 6 degree, very windy and rainy morning.

Park scenes:

Today’s group:

Lisa (left) attended every Wednesday walk this fall!

NATURE POETRY

November woods are bare and still;
November days are clear and bright;
Each noon burns up the morning’s chill;
The morning’s snow is gone by night.         – Helen Hunt Jackson (1830–85)

Miles Hearn