Cathedral Bluffs: December 2020

This is one of the most dramatic locations in our area:

summer Bank Swallow colony

Some birds:

Buffleheads
Red-breasted Merganser (female)
Red-breasted Mergansers
Long-tailed Ducks (female)
Ring-billed Gull
Trumpeter Swan
Trumpeter Swan
Trumpeter Swan family
Trumpeter Swans

Buffaloberry is a shrub which enjoys the clayish soil at the bottom of the bluffs. I see it in no other Toronto location. Buffaloberry is also know as Soapberry.

The buds are a lovely golden colour:

Soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis)
Soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis)
Soapberry (Shepherdia canadensis)

Other botany:

Autumn-olive (Elaeagnus umbellata)
Jack Pine (Pinus banksiana)
Siberian Pea (Caragana arborescens)
Austrian Pine (Pius nigra)
Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica)
White Birch (Betula papyfifera)
Wayfaring Tree (Viburnum lantana)
Rose Hips
Missouri Willow (Salix eriosephala)
Phragmites (Phragmites australis)

NATURE POETRY

How like a winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year!
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen?
What old December’s bareness every where!       – William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

Miles Hearn

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