The Birdman of the Annex

An interesting article in the Toronto Star today about author Graeme Gibson and the birdwatching passion he exercises in and around the ravines of Toronto. Gibson wrote a book a few years ago called The Bedside Book of Birds: An Avian Miscellany, and in this article explains how rich the ravines are for birdwatchers.

He reconnects by birdwatching in Toronto’s ravines, the Summerhill reservoir, beside the Humber and Don rivers where migrating birds fly by, at Mt. Pleasant cemetery and in Rosedale’s Craigleith Gardens. It grounds his activism these days. He was one of the founders of the Writers Union of Canada, the Books and Periodical Council, the Writers Development Trust, plus an early president of PEN Canada in 1987.

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He moved to Toronto to pursue teaching, then writing, and although he was an outdoorsy person keen on canoeing and hiking, he was pretty much oblivious to birds — until one day when, while walking in the Don Valley in the late `70s, he spotted a red-tailed hawk under the Bloor viaduct. Intrigued, he bought a bird book, then a pair of binoculars.

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Now, for about a third of every year, he and Atwood live in their home on Pelee Island, where he was instrumental in founding the Pelee Island Bird Observatory six years ago.

I’ve run into a few birders on various ravine jaunts or jogs, but have left them alone (they know too much and are far too patient to mess with) with their binoculars and thoughts. Down in Windsor we would hear stories from Pelee Islanders about some of the visitors Atwood and Gibson would bring along on summer trips, including a curious old man who “was only later found out to be Pierre Berton.” As the article mentions, they were both founding members of Bullfrog Power here in Toronto.

Photo of Gibson via Bloomsbury.