In my youth, if I heard or saw a Raven, I knew that I must be north of North Bay. In the last few years, they have been moving south and it is not unusual to encounter one in our area in any of the four seasons.

Ravens have an incredible variety of croaks, squawks, whistles, grunts, bell notes and other sounds. It was this loud “singing” that brought an adult and its chick to my attention near a railway tressel by the Don River:

The adult was harvesting something from under some tree bark and presenting it to the chick.

Sometimes people are kind enough to alert me to interesting natural locales. Here is a note I got and followed up on:

Hi Miles
You may already know about this but I found a neat cut-through from Vanderhoof Ave (off of Laird) down into the valley – E.T. Seton Park. The entrance off of Vanderhoof is totally unmarked but it’s a well-trodden path, complete with abandoned homeless camp, lovingly homemade direction signs, and impressively dense forest canopy.

Some botany:

Other life:

NATURE POETRY

Very good in the grass to lie
And see the network ‘gainst the sky,
A living lace of blue and green,
And boughs that let the gold between.  – Katharine Tynan Hinkson (1861–1931)

Miles Hearn