How Lucious Are These Colours???

We are most fortunate to live within walking distance of the Rouge River Valley which covers 169.75 hectacres of land in Southern Ontario.

This morning I took a short walk in order to enjoy the beautiful show that Mother Nature and Autumn are putting on for us right now.

It is truly a magnificent, untouched section of wildnerness in Southern Ontario and is teaming with wildlife. It protects two National Historic Sites and a variety of ecosystems joining the post-glacial Oak Ridges Moraine, roughly 50 km north of Toronto, and the City's biggest wetland, where the Rouge River empties into Lake Ontario.

Rouge Park boasts more than:
762 plant species, including 6 which are nationally rare - 92 which are regionally rare.
225 bird species, 5 of which are nationally rare breeding birds - 4 other breeding birds of special concern as well as numerous locally rare.
Area-sensitive raptor & colonial birds
55 fish species, 2 of which are nationally vulnerable.
27 mammal species, some are locally rare.
19 reptile and amphibian species, some are locally rare.

Rouge River is part of Rouge Park and is the largest urban park in North America. It is one of few wilderness areas left in South-Central Ontario, and has been virtually untouched by development since the arrival of Europeans in Canada.

While many exclusive homes and conclaves border this area on the southern tip, it is currently surrounded largely by agricultural land. It is even devoid of recreational development but sports a considerable network of walking or bicycle paths.

Unlike other rivers in the Toronto area, it is allowed to fill its entire flood plain on a regular basis rather than being forced through an artificial channel.

Currently, there is a degree of abandonment in the area, of former farm lands, and historic houses. There also remains many historic houses which are still lived in, some even farmed.