December 22, 2024 9:44 pm
brick works evergreen has awesome surprises waiting for you
Evergreen Brick Works was a quarry for the red clay that built many buildings in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.
Information about the history and current events can be found on their website.
There is little shade, [as in older established trees] around the trail area of the Brick Works three ponds. The ponds used to be open quarry pits in a by-gone time.
On hot sunny days this can be uncomfortable at times.
Living in Leaside provided the local opportunity to explore the trails and ponds frequently, being just a stone’s throw away, or maybe a good skimming pebble from the Brick Works.
The route I often chose, started at Moore Avenue through the Park Drive Reservation, trekking in the back door.
One occasion, on entering the pond area, a young man came hurrying passed and asked if I’d seen the falcon.
‘Hey mister, have ya seen the falcon.. the falcon… have ya seen it’?
I had a camera with me, so I assumed that he thought that I had been photographing the falcon. But he chugged past me so quick, I didnt have time to respond to his question, nor to ask where the falcon might have been located.
A little excitement brewed within when the thought settled about the possibility of finding a raptor at the pond area.
But where? There are no trees except at the south-side boundary. That area is where the ravine rises up to another trail. The ravine wall consists mostly of loose shale and grassy ledges.
For the most part, I put the falcon prospective on a less urgent quest and carried on with a slow figure-eight walk around the three main ponds. I thought if there is a falcon there and I see it good. If it has left or I don’t find it… well, so be it.
The Brick Works ponds seemed silent. Often ducks would be out paddling.
A Great Blue Heron might be stalking the rushes, sparrows or gold finches flitting around the neighborhood.
But it was quiet.
Maybe too quiet.
Perhaps I was not seeing what was normally there, and my eyes were looking to find a subdued quest..
The last pond trail around the perimeter told me why the silence hung heavy in the air.
The young man’s falcon….
….perched thirty feet or more up on a ledge on the steep ravine embankment.
The falcon was actually an adolescent Red-Tailed Hawk.
A formidable raptor no less!
brick works raptor
What I should have said to myself having discovered the hawk where it was, was how to photograph it from where I stood.
Instead, it was ‘that shale looks really loose and unsafe, I hope that I don’t scare it and get attacked while climbing up to get close’.
Climbing up the embankment had its difficulties with two cameras.
One of the cameras is used as a ‘decoy’ of sorts. It’s used to make the sound of the click, but not to take a photograph. So that the subject ‘gets used’ to the sound, as I get closer.
I may fire off over a hundred ‘non-shots’ with this method, over a short period of time. Somewhere in the range of one or two every ten seconds. This method I have used many times and has proven successful for me. I also ‘talk’ to the subjects in simple low tones and muffled grunts. I believe eye contact is also important too, utilizing absolute minimum.
Staring hard is avoided, but knowing what’s going on, is paramount.
The thilling moment
The keen eye of the hawk had found a snake.
It only took a few moments to render the prey into an edible state, using talons and beak.
red-tailed hawk with snake
I sat and watched, taking photographs from about ten feet away.
Almost zero attention was paid to me.
After the snake was eaten, head and tail first, the hawk pranced around on the ledge for a few minutes, as if doing a ‘happy dance’.
I took that time to take my leave and gingerly maneuver back down the loose shale to the ground.
The hawk took to the wing and flew into the tree above where I had left my other camera gear.
perchy keen
I took more photographs from there, then left feeling a sense of privilege.
The Evergreen Brick Works have never left me feeling disappointed from my visits.
There are good restaurants and events open year-round and parking facilities.
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