World Wildlife Fund CN Tower Climb

Took part for the second year in the annual World Wildlife Fund CN Tower Climb last weekend. Amazingly, this years climb raised over $ 1.1 million dollars with 6200 people participating over two separate events - team and individual. It is extremely well organised, and the more I find out about the organisation here in Canada, the more impressive it becomes. WWF - Canada really does some superb work, and further details can be found in last years Annual Report at http://assets.wwf.ca/downloads/wwfcanada_annualreport2008.pdf. As an example during 2008, and after probably 10 years of negotiation, WWF-Canada was a part of historical agreements with NAFO, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation. Agreements were signed committing to a cod recovery plan, as well as banning bottom fishing on the southwest slope of the Grand Banks in order to protect cold water corals. Some real achievements being made amongst a very sad state globally on the destruction of wildlife and the environment. Included in the details is that the efforts not only benefit the marine environment, but also the people and communities dependant on what used to be one of the richest fishing areas in the world. New breakthroughs in net design reduce the bycatch, and add to the efficiency of the shipping crews.

Hockley Valley Provincial Park

We continue to explore conservation areas not too far from where we live in Mississauga, Toronto. On Easter Friday we completed a terrific and challenging hike in the Hockley Valley Provincial Park, another of the conservation areas located on the Niagara Escarpment. It turned out to be one of my favourite hikes in all the areas we have hiked close to Toronto. There are no facilities, and we walked for long periods with no sign of human construction or habitation, other than wooden bridges crossing streams. The terrain is also challenging winding up and down the valley slopes.

Beamer Memorial Conservation Area, Grimsby

One of the wildlife sights that has sparked our interest is the bird migrations in this part of the world. Just an hour from where we live, we spent a couple of hours yesterday at Beamer Memorial Conservation Area, a wooded area on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment. At this time of year it provides a good vantage point to view migrating raptors. A stong pair of binoculars is needed to view most of the birds, but it really is an astonishing sight to see the birds heading north to their summer breeding grounds. The majority of the birds we saw were turkey vultures, but there were also a couple of hawks that we could not specifically identify, and at least one immature bald eagle (so we were told by one of the other birders !). The escarpment with it's updraft provides good conditions for the birds to travel, and during March and April, tens of thousands of the birds migrate that way.