A Bit of Suburban Greenery
Sunday 8 February
Coming Next Week:
Last week, housebound by ultra-cold snow, I wrote a longer piece than usual about just one single species, the Northern Cardinal. It proved to be gratifyingly popular. Some years ago, spurred by a naturalist in England, I used an old-fashioned blog to share a daily photo of a new species of bird, mammal, fungus or flower that I had observed each day. I gave its identification but little context - I was rising to the challenge of seeing something different every day for a year. It was fun. My posts, cross-posted to Facebook (not sure I’d do that again), gained followers and I realised that more people than you might suspect like to know about what they could and do encounter simply “Whilst out Walking.”
Newsletters evolve over time and so I wonder if the people who told me that they had enjoyed getting deep into Cardinals might find similar articles to be of interest? Let’s find out …
Starting next week, the Sunday edition of WOW will (usually) include a deeper portrait of a living something, appropriate to the season. Mostly a personal choice of plants and animals that I encounter on my patch to the west of Montreal, but often they will be species that have relatives on other continents and I will try to include some of them where I can. Please look out for … Wild Encounters. The regular stuff will continue, of course - in fact, see below.
“Sense of (peri-uburban) Place”
A regular theme of my posts is the amount of green space and wildlife there is to be found close to the communities we live in … albeit, I am not always certain that everyone believes me, though 😉. Anyway, I have read and enjoyed articles in recent months by better writers than me who have managed to get across the feel of the places they live when they go out walking. One at least is in a place that IS very wild, and I am most envious, but most of you will be living in, or near, suburbia like me. Without revealing my actual address these are places where I find my “1001 Species.”
Sam Davenport, the director of nature recovery at the London (UK) Wildlife Trust, emphasises the sheer variation in habitats that you find in cities, an amazing “mosaic” of wildlife. “If you think of going out into the countryside where there are arable fields, it’s really homogeneous. But if you walk a mile in each direction of a city you’re going to get allotments, gardens, railway lines, bits of ancient woodland.”
Animals thrive in cities because urban winters are milder than in the countryside. “It’s not uncommon in cities to see queen bumblebees foraging over Christmas,” Davenport said. “When it’s cold, the city is warmer. Cities have a microclimate that invertebrates can make use of.” Many species adapt their behaviour to urban life, altering where and how they hunt, the habitats they use, or the ways they move through the landscape. “Cities show that nature’s really good at being adaptable and finding a niche.”
Montreal, Canada’s third biggest city and the largest one that is francophone, is built on an island in the St-Lawrence River … one of the “Great Rivers” of the world. There are river‑side trails, green spaces, and seasonal wildlife. There are a number of parks, tree-lined streets, fields and Canada’s biggest arboretum. Some that I can access by walking from home, others by cycle or a short drive away. Walking these routes connects me and others to the island’s natural heritage. The openness invites exploration, fosters a feeling of freedom, and deepens appreciation for the region’s ecological diversity. Each layer, urban, peri-urban, semi‑rural, and verging on wild, shapes a composite “sense of place.”
Baie‑D’Urfé hugs the shoreline of Lac Saint‑Louis (see photo above for the winter shoreline at the end of my road) which is really a local widening of the river to about 5.5 miles across (some river!). Much of the shoreline is hugged by large houses but public access can be made at various points. There is a lot of natural tree cover with a canopy of mixed trees including maples and birches, interspersed with many species of evergreens. Progressing around the shoreline of the West Island to the western extremity and then along the northern shoreline there are, in wetter pockets near the lake, stands of broad‑leaf cattail (Typha latifolia) which provide shelter for amphibians and a food source for beavers and muskrats.
These plant communities attract birds, as you would expect. You might encounter Great Blue Heron and several species of ducks on the water, while the understory hosts such species as American Goldfinch, Song Sparrow, and maybe even occasional Baltimore Orioles. Over a couple of hundred and more species of birds are on record. During migration, the shoreline and areas of woodland including the arboretum and parkland, become a stop‑over for warblers etc, drawn by the abundant insects that hover around the cattails as they head north to nest.
Mammals are equally present but tend to be shy. Eastern gray squirrels of course, coyotes, skunks and white‑tailed deer occasionally pause at the edge of the woods to graze. Small mammals such as rabbits and chipmunks forage among the leaf litter, while raccoons are always somewhere, often investigating discarded picnic remnants. Together, the mix of maples, alders, and cattails creates a surprisingly biodiverse habitat - an illustration of how modest suburban green spaces can still contain a living, breathing ecosystem. Even though they are hemmed in by suburbia as this map shows. Everything to the west of the yellow line in the map below is what I consider to be my patch.
Baie-D’Urfé is one of several small municipalities that have grown on the island alongside Montreal. When I say small, I mean just 6 sq.km in area and a population of under 4000. It is predominantly a community of commuters, plenty of retirees with the usual children and teenagers. What distinguishes the town is that the lots are larger than usual and cannot be subdivided as we rely on septic tanks rather than sewers. Pretty well all of them have mature trees growing and there are numerous small parks. Worth mentioning is the large Morgan Arboretum which is open to the public. It is owned by McGill University, and has kept me fascinated with its wildlife and plants for almost thirty years - always something to discover. Hawks hunt from the top of street lights beside the Trans-Canada Highway to the north of the residential part of the town, while garden feeders bring birds to our doorsteps. My personal garden bird list stands at 124 species. Corners of gardens and unmown sectors of parks together with roadside verges harbour some surprisingly interesting plants, while a good selection of insects is not hard to locate at all.
Extra:
This is not about wildlife or walking, but it is offered as a PSA that may interest a few readers. I recently wrote some notes for a friend who asked for help in getting away from Google and its spying algorithms that collect and monetize our personal information. She wanted to move her email to Proton. If you want a more private life, this will get you started on the road.
https://whilstoutwalking.ca/2026/02/03/de-googling-your-life-opt-for-privacy/