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Opening
comments: More at the end.
The
Roy
Ivor - the Birdman of Mississauga & Bernice Inman-Emery - the Birdwoman of
Mississauga Web-page.
Mississauga News - Sept. 5, 2008 - By John Stewart - BLOG
The long and winding lane
The Winding Lane Bird Sanctuary has always been a special place: secluded in the woods between scenic Mississauga Rd. and the Sawmill Creek valley. What always caught your eye first was the giant enclosed cage that was central to the property — which was usually full of exotic, and/or, damaged birds.
Every sort of wounded bird was brought there in the 60s and
70s, because people knew that Roy Ivor, the legendary pipe-smoking "bird man of
Erindale" who ran the place, would nurse the bent wings and tend to the damaged
beaks and bones.
Ivor, who is buried in the historic cemetery across the road and just up the
hill at St. Peter's Church, was featured in innumerable articles and television
profiles, especially after there was a fire on the property which essentially
forced him to start over. He wrote a book about his life called I Live With
Birds.
On Sept. 3, Emery celebrated her 90th birthday. A group of friends are getting
together this Sunday at noon at Leisure World (formerly Chelsey Park at
Hurontario at The Queensway) where Emery, who has Alzheimer's, has lived for
several months.
The sanctuary is still down the winding lane, marked by the disintegrating stone
gates across from the main entrance to UTM. Generations of UTM students have
trudged up the path through the woods and struggled to climb the long flight of
stairs that goes by the property.
"My brother has been maintaining it for years," says Christine Burton, who is a
close friend of Inman-Emery's. Her only son now lives in faraway Dubai.
Burton's brother Bob Little still visits regularly to tend to three of the four
parrots that Inman left on the property when she had to move into the long-term
care facility.
There was a lengthy legal dispute between Ivor's heirs and Inman about ownership
of the property, but that has now been settled.
Bob is putting together a scrapbook of all of the press clippings of the
sanctuary, which will undoubtedly feature many more pictures like those you see
here.
"There are still a lot of wild cats there and deer, of course, and loads of
raccoons," says Burton.
The inevitable question arises about what will
happen to the property once Emery is gone.
A commitment to do that would make someone a lovely 90th birthday present, don't
you think?
"I hope the conservation authority might be interested," says Burton. One would
certainly hope so. And if not Credit Valley Conservation, then surely the City
(which bought the piece of land the Ivor heirs owned according to Burton) or UTM.
They aren't making too many two-lane scenic routes lined by mature forests in
Mississauga anymore. This private property — given its history as a nursing
station to the natural denizens of the woodlots that surround it — and smack-dab
in the middle of a lovely oasis of greenbelt must be brought into the public
domain.
[COMMENTS
BY DON B. - ]