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Secret High Park
April 28, 2006 - 11:04 p.m.

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Today was a lovely day in High Park. I entered as usual, from the south-west corner, and made my slow way past the marshy stream. This time, though, I took a new route through the centre, and it paid amazing dividends...

I left the well-beaten (and paved) path and took off on the road less travelled by...a dirt path that leads into the woods. The path climbed the spur of a hill until I was quite high up and the land dropped away from me on either side. Typically, I had my eyes on the branches, watching what I think was a Brown Creeper skittering up a tree. As I adjusted my position I looked down for a moment and caught it - down on the floor of the dell, between the leafless trees, I spotted a flash of reddish-orange.

There's no mistaking the sleek shape and smooth movement of a fox. Silkier than a dog, more confident than a cat...and followed by a bushy tail. He picked his way through the branches and fallen logs, disappearing around the curve of the valley before I could get my camera to focus properly.

A fox, in the middle of Toronto. Cool, I thought. Then I went back to my bird search. Eventually I came to the top of the hill, where that portion of woods ends and the manicured park begins.

I had been photographing some birds there for a few minutes when a passing dog started a commotion at the end of the little valley, where it rises up to meet the top of the hill. The dog's owner was struggling to restrain him as he lunged to get at something...I immediately ran, as silently as I could, back down the trail. And there he was...

The Fox of High Park

Up from one valley and down into another, he cut across the path and whispered into the underbrush on the other side. I watched him as he picked his way across another valley floor, delicately trotted over a log that had fallen across a stream, and vanished into the further woods. I considered myself blessed to have seen him again and went on my way.

On my way home, hours later, I walked along one of the roads that cut through the park. I turned and there was the fox, coming up the paved path like he was out for his after-work jog. He reached the road and turned down the sidewalk for a distance...

The Fox is Back

Then, once he was down the road a bit from me, he crossed to my side and slipped into the woods above the High Park Zoo. He didn't seem all that concerned that I was there. Yes, he went around me, but no more than I do when I see another person in the park. He was clearly confident in his ability to give me the slip and no wonder...the park was full of humans and dogs and this fellow was parading about without a care. You want him to be more careful but you also have to admire his nonchalance.

I saw him twice more as I made my slow and reluctant way out of the park. Each time he was there in a flash and gone as soon. Last I saw him he was slipping quietly along a stream, close to a crowd of people but entirely unseen...except by me. I felt as if he'd let me into a secret High Park, the bits just inside the bushes and trees and outside the normal scope of people.

My entire visit had something of that feel. I saw some shy and rare birds, some that I'd never seen before. A White-breasted Nuthatch landed within five feet of me, bold as could be, and posed as I took his picture. A turtle paused on his way to the pond, just long enough for me to see him. A curious goose followed me along the pond-side path, looking for food no doubt. I heard like I've never heard before - the buzz of a passing fly, a single leaf shaking on a tree, the rustle of bird feet on bark.

People streamed past me, some boisterous, some obnoxious, some focused on where they were going...most not paying attention to the amazing world of minutia all around them. For a lot of people High Park is just a large, open area in which to run or bike or play catch or walk the dog. For me, at least today, it was an amazing, vibrant world of noises and colours and life.

I was following the fox, into the secret High Park.

I posted a few photos from today, and check out the new additions to the bird watching page.

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