NATURE CLUB NEWS December 2018

by John Dickson

On Sunday November 4th, on a cool but mostly sunny day, and Fred Jazvac felt that it was perhaps the largest turnout (almost 40 birders, including some from the Bruce Birding Club) in his more than ten years of leading Around the Bay with Fred – Waterfowl ID: Tips and Techniques. And, coincidentally, almost 40 different species were observed and noted during the four to five hours of this annual outing of the Owen sound Field Naturalists. Highlights included 48 Greater White-Fronted Geese, at Leith, and a rare sighting of a Red Phalarope at the East Side Boat Launch plus about 20 various species that are found near water, along with a Bald Eagle and a few songbirds. Having announced that this would be the final time he would lead this event, Fred was given a rousing cheer, and a round of applause, in appreciation.

On November 8th, in the auditorium of the Public Library, Susan McGowan, Forest Health Technical Specialist for the Midhurst – Aurora Districts, enlightened the audience on her role, in monitoring forests, and reporting her findings on the relative health of trees, including ones threatened by disease, or insect infestations. She shared details of wooded areas right here in Grey Bruce, and farther afield, with details about Beech, Elm, Ash, Spruce, Oak, as well as the cyclical activities of the Forest Tent Caterpillars. There were many questions afterwards, and McGowan invited folks to report cases where healthy specimens are thriving, and could have greater disease resistance, possibly through genetics, and potentially providing a good source of future seedlings. Visit the OSFN website for her contact information as well as a list of online resources related to her talk.

On November 25, Brian Robin led the Young Naturalists Club on a field trip at Kinghurst Nature Reserve. His main focus was to show and share information about winter survival for many of the local fauna. Bird nests, Beaver lodges, cavities in trees – all of these were there to be discovered. Robin also brought with him and showed samples of butterfly cocoons, and even a wintering home of a Praying Mantis. Later he pointed out a vernal pool in the middle of forest, where amphibians may be able to find some mud, and where many critters even have a type of anti-freeze component in their bodies. The members of the Young Naturalists Club had many engaging questions questions answered and as one parent, Yulia Belov, reported –
“Thank you so much for the great hike today at Kinghurst! My family and I really enjoyed it! We found it very informative and interesting.”

In the month ahead many members of the OSFN, will be engaged in the annual Christmas Bird Counts. Held every year between December 14th and January 5th, the Christmas Bird Count is one of the the largest citizen science projects.

If you would like to join one of the counts in Grey or Bruce counties, the contact information and dates of the 2018 counts are listed on the OSFN website. If you are outside the area, or would like more general information about the project, head to the Bird Studies Canada Website.

On Thursday December 13, John Reaume, an accomplished wildlife photographer, naturalist, and physician, will present Spiders of Eastern North America. A popular speaker, Reaume states -“Spiders have a bad reputation but in reality these fascinating creatures are very valuable to us and have an amazing life history. Understanding more about spiders will make you appreciate them more – its true!”

The meeting begins at 7PM, in the auditorium of the Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library. Admission is free, although donations are welcome.

To close, a couple of nature quotes from our good friend Jake Doherty, recently deceased -“Was it a quick flurry of blowing snow, like a looming northern mirage, or was it perhaps something more primordial, left behind from an earlier time in the ancient forests?” ; “The wind picked up, and a single yellowed, withered leaf twisted, then tumbled to the ground … in the fading autumn -“

NATURE CLUB NEWS November 2018

by John Dickson

The Owen Sound Field Naturalists Club has been been bustling along this past month – Bill Moses led a well-attended session of All Things Woody, demonstrating tree identification and seed collecting at the Inglis Falls Arboretum, on October 8.

On October 11, Jenna McGuire gave an illuminating talk about Metis culture in Grey and Bruce. She shared the history of the Metis people in Grey and Bruce, and in the Southampton area particularly, relating to the fur trade and the fishing occupations. She also brought with her many samples of as well as historical photos and documents, plus basketry and clothing, as well as her delicious home made bannock to share at snack time.

Bob Gray, while thanking our speaker, also spoke for many in the area, who have been mostly unaware of the Metis presence and activities here in the past two centuries.

On Saturday October 13 Bob Knapp reprised his popular Marshall Woods Old Growth Forest Hike, exploring the trails along the Rocklyn Creek, near Walter’s Falls. Highlights included a visit with what may be the largest and oldest Eastern White Cedar tree in Ontario. Large, old Yellow Birch trees are also in good numbers there.

On Sunday October 21 Ron Gatis led a tour of trails on his property above (overlooking) Colpoys Bay. OSFN member Lynda Chiotti reported –

Members of Owen Sound Field Naturalists enjoyed a guided walk by Ron Gatis recently on his property at the north end of the village of Colpoy’s Bay. As we proceeded from the fields, still farmed for hay, into the forest, Ron described his family history in the area, dating back to the 1800s. In the forest are trails groomed for cross-country skiing and several side trails and the main Bruce Trail, edging the northern side of Colpoy’s Bay itself. With Jan Pugsley, I took the Whicher Side Trail, which rewarded us with a bounty of tiny late season mushrooms and ferns.

Our thanks to Ron for his generosity!

Throughout October, NeighbourWoods North planned 5 work sessions with volunteers to complete the Hospital Forest Project and to work on the final stages of the “Build a Forest” project, which entailed the planting of over 3000 trees. A cairn marking this historic development was unveiled on October 27th and appreciation was expressed to the group, as the volunteers put some of the finishing touches on this major undertaking, planting, mulching, wrapping and staking trees on the hospital property.

In the afternoon of October 27, the Young Naturalists Club members were given an educational tour of Keppelcroft, by Bill Loney. Highlights included discreetly placed bird nests near the centre of small trees, and the opportunity for youngsters to take home some huge Sycamore leaves as souvenirs. Several varieties of Oak trees are on the site, as well as Beech, Tamarack, Black Cherry, and the heritage apple and crab apple trees from the earliest dwellers on the property. Bill’s engaging personality and efforts to showcase interesting natural features, as well as planting interesting groups of trees as well as other plants and flowers, had the kids full of questions and answers. Loney also makes an effort to commemorate those who have left their mark in the community, with poetry by Archie Campbell, and a Nature trail named after naturalist Norm Fidler.

Coming up at 7PM on November 8, the area forest health technician Sue McGowan, of the MNRF, will share the latest information about the forest health conditions in Ontario. Regular monthly Indoor Meetings take place at the Owen Sound and North Grey Union Library auditorium. Admission is free, although donations are welcome, including charitable donations for such club activities, as LEAF (Local, Educational, Action Fund), LBCF Lorraine Brown Conservation Fund primarily for Nature Reserve properties, and NWN – NeighbourWoods North operations.

Membership and donation details can be obtained in person at the meeting or by visiting www.osfn.ca and the facebook page.

Birders have been reporting an influx of Evening Grosbeaks, Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins and already a Snowy Owl, along with Juncos, and even Crossbills, migrating into our area.

Those wishing to support the work of the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory can do so by attending the annual fund-raising dinner Saturday November 17, at Stone Tree, with special guest speaker and author, Professor Bridget Stutchbury. Ticket information is available at http://bpbo.ca/events/annual-fundraising-dinner

To close, I would like to leave you with the poetic “Reflections from Hibou” (by Carol L. Harris and Marie Knapp) that appear on the October page of the Friends of Hibou 2018 calendar. The thoughts expressed herein also apply to the many hikes and bike rides and runs through the bounteous leaves on the forest floor, which I especially enjoy at this time of year. “SHUFFLE THROUGH AUTUMN LEAVES. LISTEN TO THE WIND. FEEL YOUR SENSES AWAKEN.”

NATURE CLUB NEWS October 2018

by John Dickson

The Owen Sound Field Naturalists got started this season with a flurry of field trips around the first week of September. Picking up from where we left off in last month’s column, Marg Gaviller led a half a dozen OSFN members on a tour of her property near Irish Lake. This property had a history of farming, and some reforestation. As Dan Ostler comments –

Thursday, September 5 turned out to be the perfect day for the scheduled ramble of Marg Gaviller’s Irish Lake Property. The 100 acre farm had been purchased by her father in 1972, complete with an existing house and possibly a barn. About half the property was planted in white pine in 1973 as a managed forest under the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority. This area has now matured with the canopy shielding the ground to the extent that the forest floor is covered solely by a deep cushion of pine needles, a joy to hike through. Mother Nature has her own plans for this property, and there is little left of human endeavours apart from some foundations and oddly incongruous stone fences snaking through the forest floor. The land is now the home to a number of micro ecologies ranging from swamp to cedar to hardwood forest, and it invites the patient eye to unravel the subtleties of this new, more enduring plan for the site. Fittingly, the Irish Lake Property has now become part of the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy. Our thanks to Marg for an enjoyable afternoon’s ramble.

On Saturday September 8, Jenna McGuire led an outing entitled Metis Plant Use, on the Lindsay Tract Trails, demonstrating first hand the Metis perspective with regard to roots, medicinal, dye and fibre plants, plus the indigenous outlook on plant ecology. As Bob Gray reports –

I really enjoyed Jenna’s hike last Saturday. I knew virtually nothing of local Metis history and culture, so everything was all new information for me. I had no idea that Saugeen Metis were fisherman and traders in furs after the fur trade ended by sailing vessels from the mouth of the Saugeen River to the North Shore of Lake Huron. And that a Metis house (Aunt Annie’s) in Southampton is still standing to this day, dating from the 1850s. Looking forward to visiting it and learning more some time. Jenna’s demonstration of how cordage is made was amazing, as was her hand weaving.

I too was very impressed by the quick and effective creation of what Jenna called cordage – as in ropes or strings to tie objects, or to weave into more complex utensils. Discovering the fragrance of sweetgrass, was also a new and special experience for me. The hike on the trails there also offered a great diversity of interesting items and topics, including puff balls, and Beech trees covered by old marks made by the claws of black bears climbing to harvest the Beech nuts.

On Thursday, September 13, the OSFN’s first club meeting, featured a welcome by incoming President Gord Toth. A regular feature of these meetings is “sightings”, when those present report interesting nature observations they have made. On this occasion we heard about giant puffballs, and baby squirrels, along with butterflies, and rare bird sightings for our area.

The featured speaker Bruce Mackenzie, an award winning, and much respected naturalist – a recent appointee to the Niagara Escarpment Commission – shared his own recent introduction to Bon Echo Provincial Park, where he discovered surprising evidence of birds occupying the upper reaches of the iconic cliff face at Lake Mazinaw. These birds included Barn Swallows, building nests into suitable crevices, and a Peregrine Falcon family thriving in the cliff environment where Blue Jays formed at least one part of the diet there. Mackenzie’s enthusiasm for his own learning and discovery at Bon Echo, was complemented by his superb photos of details far away, up on the cliff. His observations then became stories with intriguing questions and exciting answers. By coincidence, the Trailblazers exhibition currently at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery includes a painting by Charles Comfort of the cliff face at Bon Echo. The exhibit continues until November 10.

On Sunday September 23, Bob Gray led a Geomorphology hike in the Robson Lakes area, which included a glacial moraine with deep kettles and kettle lakes. This hike brought many club members (17) out in excellent weather, to learn about this unique area, from one of OSFN’s favourite presenters.

This field trip coincided with the first gathering of the Young Naturalists Club, at the Grey Sauble Conservation headquarters. Club members learned about different types of bird nests and were given some birding tips by Lynne Richardson and Norah Toth, before heading out to observe the evidence of nesting this past season, in the bluebird boxes on the GSCA property there, under the supervision of club coordinator Elaine van den Kieboom.

On Thursday October 4th John Burton led a tour of the Hogg’s Falls area, which inspired Eileen O’Connor to write:

John Burton’s tour of the Hogg’s Falls area.
We were so fortunate to have the first good day of weather in a while: sunny, blue skies, breezy especially as it was the first visit to these trails for most of us. John gave detailed information about new signage in the area, new boardwalks and bridges that are planned and had photos of hundreds of bags of garlic mustard that he and students had cleared last spring. More volunteers will be needed for the huge patches they didn’t get to. By the way, it is possible to make pesto with garlic mustard leaves but maybe not on that scale! There are magnificent tall maple, cherry, hemlock, pine and other trees in this area all looking like a Tom Thomson painting at this time of year. Though nobody was an expert botanist, we did our best to identify many spring wildflowers well past their season and we did identify beautiful groupings of maidenhair fern, bracken and sensitive fern among those many other look-alike ferns.
The braver souls scaled down to the base of the falls, our final destination, on the Boyne River.

Bill Moses is hosting a learning session about Woody Plants on Monday October 8, at the Inglis Falls Arboretum. Bill is always keen to help others learn about tree identification and characteristics, as well as getting more native trees planted.

Jenna Maguire will also be the featured speaker at 7PM on Thursday October 11 for the regular club meeting at the public library in Owen Sound. She will be sharing some of the cultural history of the Historic Saugeen Metis, with its important roles in the local fur trade, maritime heritage, and the local communities of this area. Everyone is welcome, admission is free, although donations are welcome. For more details on Owen Sound Field Naturalist programmes and field trips, membership information, and the Young Naturalists club, please visit www.osfn.ca, and on facebook.

To close, a Nature quote from this day, October 4th, 1924 by Thoreau MacDonald – “Leaves now turning. It wouldn’t do to think more of art than nature, for it is a kind of substitute only…. We want not those pictures which look most like nature, but those which remind us most of her.”