Thank you to everyone who attended our Annual General Meeting and outing to the North Bear Alvar Nature Reserve.
At the AGM we voted in the Executive and Committee Chairs, shared updates from the year and shared some good food. We welcomed Mike from Bear with Us, who shared information on his organization and the many bears who have been in their care.
The outing to the North Bear Alvar took place the following Saturday in partnership with the Carden Field Naturalists Club. It was a hot and sunny day, and six people made the trek. In attendance was Ginny Moore, Cindy Carroll, Barb Ryckman, Bill Sherwood, David Hawke, Chris Evans and myself Tom Wilson.
We headed north from the parking on the Deverell-Morton property to a short-wooded trail that leads east to the south west corner of North Bear. We noticed a few branches down as we did throughout the walk but nothing that would hinder our progress until much later further north on the trail.
The south west corner of North Bear has the remains of a derelict building with scattered bits of tin and wood laying on the ground. It’s a place to check for snakes, usually Milk, as you gently lift the tin off the ground. Ginny found a few Woolly Bear Caterpillars here today though. They turn into a Pyrrharctia isabella, the Isabella Tiger Moth.
It was at this point that we were joined by Chris Evans to add to the growing list of knowledgeable participants of our group.
As it usually happens people start to drift off in smaller groups exploring and identifying species along the way. In some cases, non-nature discussions ensued on politics with many world problems solved by our astute group.
photo & notes David Hawke
That cute little sedge we found trailside at North Bear is Richartdson’s Sedge (Carex richarsonii). Listed as regionally rare (due its love of alvar-type habitat).
Early bloomer (typical of alvar plant species), two tone stem, ankle-height.
I was hoping to possibly find some blooming Yellow Lady’s Slippers along the way but it was a bit early and only found the emerging stems in a known location.
Following the designated trail put us on the boardwalk to get us across the wetland enjoying the prolific Marsh Marigolds. I was glad to see there was no sign of ATV tracks as a few years ago there was substantial damage to this section.
As we kept on the trail we meandered through the junipers and stumbled on a very pretty still blue snake. As it turns out it was a dead Green snake and in death its green color turns blue. Darn, I thought we had stumbled a new species of Serpentes!
The north section of the North Bear open grassland is very special to me with its sweeping sections of exposed limestone pavement and grasslands surrounded by the junipers on the west and south, cedars on the north and east and of course Nostoc on the alvar pavement.
The trail turns east to the cedar forest and here the ice storm had downed quite a few trees making it much more difficult pass through. In my wisdom I thought I should take a bit of time and open a passageway in a large cedar by bending and breaking a bunch of branches to allow a better route for all. It was probably here that I became contaminated with ticks, but more on that later.
The trail starts to loop back south and we all hauled branches as we all negotiated our way along probably picking up hitchhikers along the way.
It was an absolutely gorgeous sunny day with a stiff breeze making its way through the exposed trail sections giving us a windy reprieve from the non-biting blackflies foreshadowing bloodier days ahead when the girls start arriving.
Eventually all our group arrived back to our respective vehicles and some of us started to notice those nasty little spots moving around on our clothes.
The tick count for me was 19 or 20 with another grabbed from my side as I drove home. Another 3 after removing all my clothes, then a good shower but still another showed up at the BBQ and still another on my leg in the middle of the night. The next time I’m going out there with bug spray, regardless how much I hate the stuff.
The tick count for Ginny was over 10. Cindy with 3. Maybe there’s no ticks left out there?
Write up by Tom Wilson.
