Since then, a number of organizations, such as the Rouge Valley Foundation, the Rouge Valley Naturalists, the Friends of the Rouge Watershed, and others, have spent thousands of volunteer hours to plant trees, build wetlands, restore wildlife habitat, create Indian medicine wheels for learning about Aboriginal culture, maintain nature trails, and conduct regular hikes for school children and adults, interpreting the natural and human history and the agricultural heritage of the Rouge Park and the biodiversity of the valley’s wildlife. They also hosted special events in the Rouge and established educational conservation centres at Hillside and at the historic Pearse House. Over time, a few more parcels of land were added, so that the park currently covers an area of about 48 km².

Seventeen years later, the federal government has, in its throne speech of May 4, 2011, revealed plans to make the Rouge Park Canada’s first National Urban Park (RNUP) and spend $143.7 million over 10 years for its development plus $7.5 million annually in operating funding. The newly designated park will join the 42 other national parks across Canada.

Since the announcement, the national park idea has been vigorously pursued, gained momentum, and the David Suzuki Foundation is now also involved in the process. The Friends of the Rouge Watershed are pushing Ottawa to add another 53 km² of federally-owned land to the existing park, so it will reach from 19th Avenue in Markham to the mouth of the Rouge at Lake Ontario, thus establishing an ecological corridor from the Oak Ridges Moraine to the Lake. Excluded from the new park will be the Toronto Zoo, the Baere landfill, and existing infrastructure (railways, roads, bridges, powerlines) and public lands. Parks Canada plans to build a visitor centre and create three “discovery hubs” to attract people and teach them to value nature and protected places.

The RNUP will be overseen by Parks Canada. After the Alliance board had been dissolved and the chief supervisor of the Banff National Park, Ms. Pam Veinotte, had been appointed to set up and organize the new venture, Parks Canada is now negotiating with the more than 70 stakeholders, including provincial authorities, the TRCA, and the City of Toronto, and has invited public input and held workshops to determine what kind of a park the Rouge will be. First Nations, the agricultural community and tourism and youth groups have already been involved in discussions and will continue to advise Parks Canada. Entry into the new park will likely be free.

The City is now carrying out a study with the aim to amend its Official Plan that affects City-owned lands within and adjacent to the proposed RNUP. This amendment, if approved by City Council in November, will allow for the transfer of City-owned lands to Parks Canada. Publicly-owned lands will also be transferred to Parks Canada. It is expected that early in 2013 an agreement will be signed between landowners and Parks Canada.

Presently, the valley, containing two rivers – the Main Rouge and the Little Rouge – that carry 55 species of fish, is also home to 17 endangered species, including some turtles and salamanders. More than 225 species of birds, 19 reptile and amphibian species, and 27 mammal species have been spotted in the park, and beavers are busy in different areas. The valley has 11 distinct ecozones and contains one of the northernmost Carolinian forest trees, mixed woodlands, some old-growth forest, and tendrils of boreal forest. Biologists have identified 765 types of flora, representing a quarter of all plant varieties found in Ontario.

Upgrading the conservation and protection of this jewel domain by designating it an Urban National Park is a great step in the right direction at a time when the natural world is threatened by development pressures, urban sprawl, and climate change. We don’t need experts to tell us that conservation is a challenge – it always has been, and we know it. However, when we listen to them, we can gain insights on how to think about the issues. Every part of nature, no matter how small, and often seemingly insignificant, has a huge potential to teach us about life. Without conservation there is no future.

Currently the Rouge Park conducts seven public hikes every week in the park, at 9:30 AM on Wednesdays, and on Saturdays and Sundays at 9:30 AM, 12 noon, and 2:00 PM.

Additional information about the Rouge National Urban Park is available on the Parks Canada website:

http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/progs/np-pn/cnpn-cnnp/rouge/index.aspx

How do animals survive the winter? With the snowy season upon us, this is a timely question. Here are just two examples:

Deer rely on fat reserves they build up in the Fall, increasing their body weight by up to 30%. They also do something unexpected: in November they begin eating less, become less active, and find sheltered places to keep warm. When food becomes scarce, they eat coniferous and deciduous bark and dry leaves, evergreen ferns, poison ivy, and plants with winter fruits, as well as the seed cones of sumac.

Squirrels derive sustenance and shelter from trees and in return play an important role in the forest ecosystem. They disperse conifer seeds and plant hardwood nuts. In the Rouge Valley we have both Eastern Gray and Red Squirrels. The Gray Squirrel’s fur changes with the season and can be black, grizzled or reddish. Gray Squirrels mate in January and produce an average litter of two or three young in March. Red Squirrels mate in February or March and produce three to five young in April or May. A summer litter may be born in August or September. During winter, Gray Squirrels prefer to den in a hole in a tree, while Red Squirrels build nests on tree branches. A squirrel’s nest is called a “dry.” Red squirrels also seek shelter in underground tunnels dug under tree stumps or roots. Although they may stay hidden during severe cold snaps or blizzards, both Gray and Red Squirrels are usually active throughout the winter. Red Squirrels eat a wide variety of food, including insects, seeds, bark, nuts, mushrooms, pine seeds and seed cones. They need a large territory, which they vigorously defend, but some females give up a part of their own territory to their young.

Take a hike in the Rouge Valley or the Oak Ridges Moraine and observe how nature prepares for winter. It’s about adapting and making do with less. We can learn from that. S.G.

Sources: Canadian Wildlife Federation, conservation researcher Sarah Jones, Parks Canada and Rouge Park, notes from articles and meetings about the proposed Rouge National Urban Park.

These purple-flowered prickers are as tough as they come. They rise up from deep taproots and ground-hugging leaves to more than a metre and keep growing, no matter how many times they are cut down to size. They thrive in fields, parks, along forest edges and roadsides, as well as in yards and on vacant lots. Their long, thin seeds are attached to silky white fibres that carry them in the slightest breeze. Goldfinches love those seeds for a late summer snack, along with the seeds of goldenrods that also blossom at this time of the year, and they use the downy fibres of thistles – and also milkweed down – to line their nests.

As Kylie Taggart points out in a Canadian Wildlife magazine, there are more than 100 thistle species growing in North America, and at least 10 of them we can find in our country. Many species were introduced from Europe or Asia and are now considered native. These tough, drought-resistant plants are characterized by their flowers, leaves and distinctive bracts – the structures just under the flower head. Most are biennial, appearing as a rosette of leaves the first year and developing flowers in the second year.

Many thistles are considered noxious weeds, especially Bull Thistle and Canada Thistle. The latter bloom in large numbers from June through October in big clusters of smaller, lighter purple flower heads and send out numerous clone-sprouting root runners, each spreading up to six metres a year.

Thistles play an important role in the food chain. Butterfly larvae use them as basic food, bees visit them to make honey, and other insects feed on the pollen. Here are some thistles you can look for on your hikes:

Bull Thistles have dark purple flower heads that can be up to 5 cm across. They are the only thistles with sharp spines on the surface of their dark-green, angular leaves.

Canada Thistles came from western Europe and were well established here by 1795. They can now be found in all provinces and territories. This is the only thistle that has colonies of male and female plants. Only the female plants produce seeds – up to 40,000 per plant, each capable of surviving more than 20 years. Canada Thistles have a long, smooth stem and many branches. You can tell them apart from Bull Thistles by the smaller flower heads and smooth bracts.

Leafy Thistles are also known as Elk Thistles. They are a little different from other species, sporting white or pale pink flowers, many leaves and a hairy stem with soft spines. Found in cool, wet meadows, this native thistle is a treat for deer, elk and bears. Blooming from June through August, butterflies flock to it. They, too, can be found across Canada.

Nodding Thistles better known as Musk Thistles or Bristle Thistles, are also found throughout Canada, except on P.E.I. They have red to purple flowers which bow slightly at the stem, causing them to nod. The distinctive bracts frame the flower with their broad purple triangles. These are some of the tallest thistles, standing up to 2.5 m high, with leaves all the way down the spiny stem, except for just under the flower.

Plumeless Thistles are close relatives of the Nodding Thistle. They are found only in B.C. and eastern Canada. The erect flower heads are about 2.5 cm across. The bulbous bract just below the flower has many spines, and there are leaves all the way down the stem.

Scotch Thistles occupy the same areas as Plumeless Thistles. They have large purple flower heads and spiny bracts. The woody, spike-covered stems help the plant grow up to three metres. The huge leaves at the bottom can reach more than half a metre in length and are 30 cm wide. The stem has many branches covered in smaller leaves with white hairs on their underside.

Milk Thistles have smooth stems with white hairs, the leaves are spiny with distinctive white marbling over a shiny green background. Large leaves hug the base of the stem, with smaller leaves near the single flower head. Purple flowers, which appear in late August, are framed by a bulbous bract covered in stiff spines up to 5 cm long.

All in all, thistles are pretty smart plants. But there is more to the secret life of plants than meets the eye. Because we tend to view plants as inanimate objects – which, of course, they are not – we often underestimate their adaptability and intelligence. Botanists tell us that plants can smell, see, feel and remember.

For instance, a willow tree can “smell” when another willow is being attacked by tent caterpillars. The infested tree produces salicylic acid, which makes its leaves taste bitter and unpalatable. At the same time this chemical is released into the air and the chemical message is received by neighbouring healthy willows, triggering a similar defence. Lima bean plants do the same thing. When their leaves are attacked by an insect or bacteria, they release odours that warn their brother leaves to protect themselves against imminent attacks.

Plants can also “see.” They monitor their environment all the time. They “see” the ultraviolet rays that give us sunburn and the infrared light that is invisible to us. They can tell when there is very little light, say from a candle, or when the sun is high or about to set. You may have noticed how many blooming flowers turn throughout the day to follow the sunlight.

And plants can “feel” when they are being touched, which inhibits growth. They can “remember” certain conditions and adapt accordingly. The lesson in all this is to upgrade our respect for the intelligence of plants.

At this time of the year, we can also upgrade our bird identification skills. Fall warblers provide greater identification challenges than Spring birds. Physical features, plumage colour and patterns vary, and there is also a marked difference between nonbreeding and breeding species. If you are a birdwatcher, this time of the year can add some extra fun.

And here is another fascinating fact about bird life: to keep their wings flapping at 6,000 flaps per minute, hummingbirds have a heart rate of more than 1,000 beats per minute. But when the sun goes down, they save energy by falling into a deep sleep, during which their heart rate slows down to just 50 – 180 beats per minute. Aren’t birds marvellous?

Take a hike during these more comfortable days of late summer when the season is about to change and there is much to observe. Look for thistles and Fall warblers, enjoy the outdoors, and tune in again in November for the next Nature Notes. S.G.

Sources: Wild Bird magazine, Canadian Wildlife Federation, Wild City (Bennet and Tiner) and extensive field notes.

This country and water go hand in hand. We are the stewards of one-fifth of the world’s fresh water and can proudly claim an abundance of lakes, rivers, marshes, swamps, bogs and ponds. With three mighty oceans offering us more than 200,000 km of coastlines – the longest in the world – Canada is truly a water wonderland. It contains 25% of the world’s wetlands. There are plenty of them in the 327 km² Rouge watershed, consisting of the Rouge River, the Little Rouge, Berczy Creek, Bruce Creek and Morningside Creek.

Canada’s second-largest river, the 1,197 km long St. Lawrence, drains one of this planet’s biggest freshwater ecosystems, the Great Lakes. It is home to more than 100 fish species and other marine life, and the St. Lawrence Seaway is a crucial shipping corridor that facilitates the delivery of cargo to and from the nation’s heartland. The Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the river meets the Atlantic Ocean, is one of the largest estuaries in the world.

But enough of bragging. What really matters is the small stuff. From wetlands, groundwater, aquifers and springs to creeks, rivers, lakes and oceans, all water is connected through watersheds. Rivers feed lakes, wetlands and ultimately oceans, to which we humans are chemically and biologically linked. Oceans control the planet’s oxygen, carbon and nitrogen cycles, the building blocks of life. Plankton in the oceans produce half of the oxygen we breathe (the other half is produced by plants).

Wetlands are the kidneys of nature. Preserving them helps to promote biodiversity, because many species of plants and animals that would not live in open flowing water thrive there. Wetland plants, especially bulrushes, are powerful natural filters that remove contaminants from the water. In some places wetland vegetation is planted for this reason.

When we are concerned about environmental protection, no matter what the issue, the river is always there. Like the veins and arteries connecting the life-giving function of the heart to human and animal bodies, rivers constitute the ecological infrastructure of the continents. They are the roads and pipelines of our natural system and the veins and arteries of watersheds. The life-transporting functions of rivers helps to determine the health and ultimate survival of the entire watershed ecosystem. Rivers provide natural valley flood plains, wetlands, and habitat for a wonderful diversity of aquatic and land species. Rivers supply tremendous natural vistas, impressive displays of nature’s power and, conversely, contemplative opportunities crucial to our lives as thinking humans – attributes that need far more protection than they currently receive.

Rivers also perform a larger function in the natural realm. They connect the mountains and glaciers to the sea, link headwater areas to lowlands, and provide a continent-wide system of pathways for the movement of wildlife. This strengthens ecosystems by connecting natural areas and allowing plants to become established. Without rivers we would not have fish, frogs or turtles, or many beautiful bird species, such as herons, dippers and kingfishers. Without rivers we would not have wetlands, lakes and waterfowl. There would be no majestic waterfalls, no canoe routes, no fishing holes and ponds – and no water to drink. A world without rivers is unthinkable.

In the system of water, clouds are a bucket brigade, not a storage. The atmosphere around the planet carries only about a ten-day supply of fresh water – about 3 cm of rain. Water constantly evaporates from the sea and the land. Its stay in the air is short. It quickly falls again as rain or snow. And then it forms rivers and lakes and oceans, and the cycle repeats itself over and over again to make life on earth possible.

Let me share with you then some random thoughts about rivers, not related to facts and figures, just things that come to mind when I contemplate rivers:

I am fascinated by the flow of rivers, sometimes smooth and quiet, other times forceful and turbulent, but always flowing, without interruption. The flow of rivers is like the stream of consciousness, no matter whether we are aware of it or not; the river of the mind always flows. The flow and sound of rivers, the murmur of the waves, always has a purifying and calming effect. It washes away ugly thoughts and restores a peace of mind. The flow of time is like the swift waters of a river. It is poetry in motion.

We can view rivers as part of the essence of being. People have always composed songs, choreographed dances and written books and poetry about rivers. The bond with rivers has existed as long as mankind. To know rivers is to know oneself. It makes us aware of a spiritual connectedness with nature. To sit at a river’s bank and watch its flow smoothen our anxieties reminds us of the timelessness of things and heals our emotional wounds.

There are many forms, many ideas, many sides to a river, the same way as there are many sides to the human character. Even the destructive qualities inherent in man, as well as in rivers, lurk in the subconscious of the mind. It seems the water understands civilization well. It wets our feet and quells our thirst, it purifies our thoughts, it is not disconcerted, it is not broken-hearted, but if abused it will destroy.

In mythology we find many references to the quality of water, rivers and oceans. We could even think of the river as being life itself. Without rivers and oceans there would be no life on earth. Water is what sustains us, it is what we are made of, what we share with all creatures. Let us celebrate the voices of the river, the stream of events, the music of life. It all is connected to water. As an age-old proverb says, we never know the worth of water until the well runs dry. And everything we do on the land is reflected in the water.

Recently the Ontario educational television network TVO ran an illuminating series, called The Water Brothers,which looked at many aspects of water and what it means in our lives. TVO also ran a number of 20-minute programs, titled Canadian Rivers. Watch for reruns of these informative shows; they have already started.

July 21 is Canada Parks Day, a good time to visit www.parkscanada.gc.ca/rouge and find out how the fast-tracking of making the Rouge Valley an Urban National Park is progressing and how you can participate in its creation.

Have a pleasant summer, take some time to sit by a river and watch its flow, listen to its voice (rivers have their own language) and think of what rivers mean and how they help us focus on the miracle of life. Then look for the next Nature Notes in September which, for a change, will deal with the plant world. Happy river watching! S.G.

Sources: Canadian Wildlife Federation, Water (National Geographic), Special Places (B.L.Roots et al.), Voices for the Watershed (G.Beck and B.Littlejohn), The Green Book (Steve Gahbauer) and personal field notes.

At this time of the year, looking for bird nests is a pleasant outdoor activity, always a learning experience, and often loaded with surprises. If you missed spotting a species of bird during breeding season, look for its nest. These sturdy constructions linger in their various hiding spots long after the young have fledged, only to be revealed in autumn when the leaves that once concealed them have fallen.

Not all birds build nests, of course, but those that do make many distinct types, varying widely in size and shape from simple ground depressions and a few scraps of gravel to incredibly complex and intriguing structures. Bluebirds and woodpeckers are cavity nesters. Robins and warblers build open nests on tree branches. Weaver birds and orioles construct hanging nests. Killdeer and grassland birds nest on the ground. Red-wingedBlackbirds prefer reeds. Falcons and sea birds build their nests on high cliffs or on top of building ledges. Terns and water birds make free-floating nests on freshwater or marshes. Purple Martins nest in man-made condo houses, and cuckoos and cowbirds lay their eggs in nests of other birds when the adults are away foraging for food.

The most spectacular nests of all are built by a group of avians collectively known as bowerbirds. Their elaborate and distinctive structures, known as bowers, adorned with collections of brightly coloured objects, are described and illustrated in great length in David Attenborough’s book The Life of Birds (1998) and there is also a great BBC video of Attenborough with bowerbird nests. The most extravagant bower of all is that of the Vogelkop Gardener bird. It looks much like a man-made hut and is almost tall enough to crawl into. Two saplings in the centre support a conical roof, thatched with dried stems of orchids. The ground in front of it is planted with moss on which, neatly arranged in piles, are the owner’s treasures, intended to lure a female. With one exception, these birds all live in the forests of New Guinea, so we don’t have a chance here to see their bowers, but there are a number of different nest types we can see and which I will describe a little later on.

But first a few more bird nest characteristics and some notes on nest recycling and why this is a problem for some songbirds.

Most nests are built of twigs, grass and leaves bound together with mud and saliva. The nests are usually lined with soft, downy material from plants and blossoms, or with feathers. Many birds have developed ingenious methods of making nests. Some weave strands of grass or twigs like basketwork, others – like Killdeer on the ground and Peregrine Falcons on ledges – just scrape together a few pebbles for a primitive but adequate nest.Ovenbirds often build their nests in high places, like fence posts or telegraph poles, so that they can keep awatchful eye on intruders. Their nests are spherical, comprising an antechamber and a brood chamber, with access from a small entrance.

Resourceful nest builders, like the European Starlings, scavenge particular plants (carrot and yarrow) whose chemical content keeps the growth of parasites within the nest in check. Great Crested Flycatchers adorn their nests with skin shed by snakes to frighten off predators that savour birds but fear snakes. Storks prefer to roost on man-made structures, like barns, rooftops and chimneys. Cliff Swallows form communal nests from mud pellets cemented on cliffs or beneath overhangs. Barn Swallows also build mud nests which they attach to soffits. There are nests every year under the eaves at the Rouge Valley Conservation Centre.

Bird “engineering” reveals a stunning range and complexity of approaches. A pair of Bald Eagles, one of the few species that return to the same nest every year, begin their building project by laying sticks in a triangular formation, then add more layers above it until the heavy structure is more than three metres deep.

Returning to the same nest is sensible for Bald Eagles, who put so much work into it, but reusing old nests is a problem for songbirds because of “nest fauna” — insects that inhabit bird nests in the hope of eventually getting on to the birds themselves at breeding time. Several species of flies lay their eggs in birds’ nests. Some overwinter in nests and hatch when the occupants return next Spring to renest. It would therefore seem to be to a bird’s advantage to resettle each year in an entirely new nest, but it’s not as simple as that. Building a new nest requires a lot of energy, especially for birds that return in late February and early March, when the temperature can still drop to below freezing at night. Also, for city birds such as House Sparrows, the number of good nesting cavities is not as high as one might think. Older houses provided lots of holes and crannies for nests, but modern buildings don’t. Competition for prime real estate is strong in the bird world, which is why we built and maintain nesting boxes in the Rouge Park for Bluebirds and Tree Swallows.

Nevertheless, some birds have developed strategies for dealing with parasitized nests. The adding of aromatic plant species to the nest, practiced by starlings as mentioned above, is one example of such strategies. That’s all right for summer nests, but what about nests built in early Spring when such plants are not yet available? House Sparrows seem to have solved that problem by simply cleaning out some of the old nesting material. As House Sparrows usually don’t lay their eggs until late April, there is still plenty of time to rebuild the nest with fresh material before the serious business of egg-laying and chick-rearing begins.

If you are wondering about owls’ nests you may be surprised to learn that most of the species don’t build their own but use abandoned or old nests of other large birds in trees with broken tops, or large cavities. Among those nest recyclers are the Great Grey Owls commonly found across Canada and the northern U.S., but also in Finland and northern Asia. Owl nesting usually occurs from March to May, except for one species that nests early in January. The average clutch size is four eggs. After 30 days of incubation, breeding lasts another two to three weeks before the young start to jump or fall from the nest. Even after they begin flying, the offspring usually remain nearby for some more months.

Here are some samples of the more common types of nests you can observe in and around the Rouge Park:

Most songbirds build sturdy nests. Yellow Warblers breed in large colonies and establish a small territory within it. They (and other warbler species) build cupped nests with soft materials such as milkweed fibres and plant down, woven together with grasses and located in forks of branches. Whenever a Brown-headed Cowbird puts an egg in a Yellow Warbler’s nest, the latter will bury the different-looking egg by making a new bottom layer and lay again.

Cupped nests secured on a forked tree branch or horizontal ledge are also built by American Robins. They use mostly mud, weed stems and fine grasses, but will take advantage of almost any available building material, like shredded paper, rags or string.

Pensile nests are similar to cupped nests except that they are suspended below forked tree branches. The 7 x 8 cm nests hang usually 1½ – 3 metres above ground, built of grasses, strips of bark and vine tendrils. Red-eyed Vireos build such nests.

Domed nests, like those of Marsh Wrens, are usually found lashed to cattails less than a metre above water level. An oval dummy nest, complete with a roof, is built by the male. The female, if she is impressed, then weaves together the real nest, about 7 x 15 cm, with a tunnel-like opening in the side.

Then there are the cavity nesters, which use both natural tree cavities and man-made nesting boxes. Pileated Woodpeckers drill their nests into mature tree trunks, usually on the south or east side, roughly 15 metres above ground. The cavity extends about 50 cm below the lip of the opening. Woodpecker nests are often reused by other cavity-nesting birds, such as Black-capped Chickadees, Screech Owls and Saw-whet Owls.

Many birds of prey, such as hawks and ospreys, but also herons and ravens, build large, elaborate platform nests in tall trees or, in the case of ospreys, on man-made platforms. They are constructed of branches and lined with mosses, evergreen sprigs, or the soft inner bark from grapevines or cedars. Such nests are generally reused year after year if not appropriated by Great Horned Owls.

The Ruffed Grouse, like many woodland birds, nests directly on the forest floor. The female scratches out a hollow at the base of a tree and lines it with leaves or pine needles.

Most waterfowls build floating nests close to the water, but the Pied-billed Grebe builds its nest actually in the water. Both sexes build up an underwater foundation of rotting aquatic plants. On top of it they assemble a mass of vegetation about 30 cm in diameter. The nests thus sit just above the water level, usually concealed by reeds, but are vulnerable to destructive wave action, such as wakes created by speedboats.

We can learn a great deal from birds. Like frogs, birds are crucial indicators of the health of ecosystems. A healthy bird population indicates healthy conditions for other species, including humans. This summer marks the release of the first-ever State of Canada’s Birds report by Bird Studies Canada and a host of government and non-government partners. The report shows that nearly half of the species studied have declined since 1970. The most affected are aerial insectivores and grassland birds. But the report also shows that where conservation is applied, conservation works. Some wetland species are doing much better, and Peregrine Falcons continue to recover. (After release, the report will be available on this website: www.stateofcanadasbirds.org)

Go hiking and try to spot some bird nests. Enjoy the outdoors and tune in again in July for the next edition of Nature Notes. S.G.

Sources: Canadian Wildlife Federation, Bird Studies Canada, The Life of Birds (David Attenborough), Facts and Fallacies (Reader’s Digest), Wild City, Toronto the Wild, Planet Earth, Bragg Magazine, Backyard Wildlife, The Green Book (Steve Gahbauer) and personal field notes.

Of the birds that breed in Canada, 90% migrate. Shorebirds are the most accomplished travellers. For most migrating birds, the journey takes three to four weeks. But how do birds find their way on migration routes? Some follow geographic features, like mountains and lakes. Day flyers are able to relate to the moving position of the earth relative to the sun. Flying in daylight means exposure to predators and risk of dehydration. Night flyers don’t have those problems, but as they navigate by the stars they sometimes get off the course on cloudy nights. Others make use of the earth’s magnetic fields. And some learn the routes from their parents when they travel in family groups, as geese do, for instance. Those that are abandoned by their parents in early life, like cuckoos, find their way unaided by inborn generic route-finding skills, like the Monarch butterflies.

Of course, birds are not the only migrants. Most animals are born to move. They are powered by different needs but all of them revolve around the availability of food and water. Many mammals, insects, fish and reptiles also perform miraculous feats to survive: Monarch butterflies, caribou, elephants, wildebeest, whales, salmon and turtles to name a few.

The drama of migration plays out across the world. Millions of animals are on the move in the Serengeti, often fraught with danger, such as crocodiles at river crossings. Some don`t make it, but the mass movement is guided by a collective intelligence – and the need for sustenance. Africa’s parched Serengeti is the arena of bitter rivalries between cheetahs, lions and hyenas during the dry season when all of them fight for survival. But when the rains come, the plains flush green again and attract millions of gazelle, zebra and wildebeest.

For the White-bearded Wildebeest migration is a way of life. They are the most numerous antelope in East Africa and they travel through some of the most exciting landscapes in the world, from the lofty heights of the Masai Mara plains in Kenya to Serengeti in Tanzania, covering an area of almost 80,000 km² over the course of a year in constant search for fresh grazing.

Crabs migrate across Christmas Island, despite hordes of army ants and trigger fish in the Indian Ocean. Perhaps it’s because of these dangers that males go first and females follow.

Delicate Monarch butterflies inspire awe with their phenomenal migration. As one of the planet’s most astounding navigators they travel up to 4,800 km, flying for some 900 hours, to reach overwintering and breeding sites in central Mexico. Once there, they face new perils: logging and cold snaps. A new generation, hatched there, then heads to a place it has never seen – and finds with unexplainable accuracy a milkweed patch in the Rouge Valley, among other places.

In the still waters of the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, eels embark on a journey of many thousands of kilometres while being exposed to attacks from various marine predators. Once the mature eels have spawned in the Sargasso, they die, and their offspring then start the marathon journey back to “home” — wherever that might be.

Whales migrate along the west coast of North America for many hundreds of kilometres. They are among the largest predators on earth and migrate by sonar. The females travel in family groups. Some make the trip 50 times in their lives.

Among the migrating sea turtles, the largest of them – Leatherback turtles – rarely come ashore here in Canada, but thousands of them gather in Canadian waters each summer.

Their shell can measure up to 2 m and they weigh up to 900 kg. They grow to this size by feeding almost exclusively on jellyfish, which they find in the oceans. They swim at speeds of more than 9 km/h and have been recorded at depths of 1,270 m. They migrate across entire ocean basins and survive in water that is much too cold for other marine turtles.

Like all sea turtles, the Leatherback has both front and rear flippers, but it is the only sea turtle whose flippers have no claws. In Canada they are found off the coasts of British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador. They are powerful swimmers, making the trip from Nova Scotia to Trinidad in four months.

Unfortunately, the Leatherback population has declined more than 60% since 1982 and they are now on the critically endangered species list. That is why their nesting places are so fiercely protected. When I visited one of their nesting grounds on the Playa Grande in Costa Rica’s Parque Nacional Marino las Baulas – a reserve especially created to protect the egg-laying places of Leatherback turtles – I found strictly enforced regulations in place. Mating takes place at sea, and between October and February female Leatherbacks go on land to lay their eggs and then immediately return to the sea. When the nestlings hatch, they scramble to the sea and the males never return to land during their entire life.

Other than in Costa Rica, Leatherbacks also nest on beaches in Trinidad, French Guiana, Surinam, St. Croix, Mexico, Irian Jaya, Papua New Guinea, and Gabon. Although scientists have a sense of where Leatherbacks are found in the world, they are still only in the early stages of understanding what migration routes Leatherbacks take to get from the tropical waters near their nesting beaches to the waters where they forage for food or search for ocean shores in the northern parts of the planet after the egg-laying season.

But let’s get back to our feathered friends. Birds are truly the most spectacular migrants of them all, and one wonders how they do it. There is at least one scientific explanation:

What helps birds to make those long and arduous migration flights is the way they breathe. In mammals, only about 20% of the oxygen in a breath of air is absorbed by their lungs. A bird’s breathing is much more efficient. When it inhales, the air passes first into its lungs, which are relatively small and lie beneath the bird’s spine, moulded against the ribs. The air then continues through a number of little tubes into small air sacs that lie towards the rear of the body. When the bird breathes out, the air in the rear sacs moves back along another set of tubes to a different part of the lungs. With the next breath, this inhaled air moves on yet again, out of the lungs and into another group of air sacs located towards the front of the body. Then, with the next exhalation, that air leaves the bird’s body through its nostrils and goes back into the atmosphere. In this way, the air-flow in all of the many passage ways and air sacs of the bird’s respiratory system is always in the same direction and the absorption of oxygen from each intake of breath is almost total. All flying birds share this feature.

Another thing that makes migration flights possible is the great versatility of a bird’s wings. Thanks to the manner in which the feathers slide over one another, the surface of the wings remains perfectly smooth, regardless of whether the wings are closed, or opened, or at any position in between. The feathers are also crucial in minimizing turbulence.

Beating wings demands a lot of energy. So to conserve energy, birds have to do their wing-beating in flight as economically as possible. One simple method of achieving that is to stop beating wings every now and then. Another is to regularly interrupt rapid wing beats. Wood- peckers, for instance, do that by holding their wings closed tightly against their body once in a while when flying. Their forward movement is such that, without the drag created by open wings, they continue to shoot forward through the air. However, they cannot do this for long. Deprived of the lift created by the wing beats, they quickly lose height and after a few seconds have to resume flapping.

Only small birds can use this energy-saving trick. Bigger and heavier birds have developed other ways to economize on their wing beats. They stop flapping with their wings not closed but open. The surface area of their wings is big enough to enable them to glide. Raptors and pelicans do this regularly. How long they can glide depends on how high above the ground or water they are, how much height they can afford to lose, and how fast they are travelling.

Slogging through marshland in rubber boots and rain gear, or facing a chilly on-shore wind standing at the edge of a lake in the dawn hours of a gray, foggy day in early April, holding on to your hat with one hand and to a pair of binoculars with the other, is the hard price you pay for witnessing one of nature’s great miracles, the semi-annual migration of birds. But it is worth every bit of effort and discomfort. To see those avians fly between their wintering grounds and their nesting sites – often for thousands of kilometres – is an exhilarating experience you are not likely to ever forget.

We first see the changing of the guard as winter visitors vanish from our feeders and head back north. We then get the jump on Spring with the first ducks, swans and geese arriving from the south. Shorebirds are among the later arrivals and flybys of Whimbrels can be seen in May. In Toronto we are lucky to live in the best area for watching bird migration as one of the major flight corridors is right overhead. In the Spring, huge numbers of birds migrate to the boreal forest in our north to breed. The boreal forest supports more than 50% of the global population of bird species. Of all the waterfowl of North America, 38% breed there, along with seven million shorebirds. Like many of the 29 shorebird species found in Ontario, of which 22 breed regularly in the province, Whimbrels, those marathon migrators, are among nature’s most impressive wayfarers. Those that pass through here breed in the northern wetlands and tundra around James Bay and Hudson Bay and winter more than half a world away in Brazil. In 2008, one banded Whimbrel was tracked covering 5,057 km in 143 hours at an average flight speed of more than 35 km/h.

Watching huge flocks of shorebirds, warblers and raptors passing overhead is an edifying experience. It teaches us lessons about determination, stamina, strength, endurance and accomplishments – lessons that we can apply to our own lives.

There are several good birdwatching sites in the Toronto area. Among them: the Rouge Park, Colonel Samuel Smith Park, Rosetta McClain Gardens, the Leslie Spit, Humber Bay Park, Thickson Woods, and the Cranberry Marsh.

For more information on bird migration check www.migrationresearch.org with links to the Frontenac Arch studies and to the McGill Bird Observatory in Montreal for bird banding statistics. Additional information is also available from Bird Studies Canada: www.birdscanada.org

In his book The Life of Birds, David Attenborough says: “We humans are now the most widespread competitors that birds ever had to face. We are also by far the most powerful. We have already exterminated whole species of them by direct attacks, but the greatest destruction we have wrought has been inadvertent – a consequence of the wholesale changes we have made to the face of the planet. That damage need not continue. We now have the knowledge and skill to maintain all the wonderfully rich range of birds that still exists on earth in all its complexity and glory. All we need is the will to do so.”

Quick quiz: how many migratory bird species stop over in Canada en route to wintering and breeding grounds? The astonishing answer is: more than 500.

Note a few important dates this Spring: National Wildlife Week, April 8-14; Earth Day, April 22;

Migratory Bird Day, May 12; and International Biodiversity Day, May 22.

Make the most of the migration season in Spring and Fall and enjoy the outdoors. S.G.

Sources: Canadian Wildlife Federation, Nature Canada, Ontario Nature, Bird Studies Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service/Environment Canada, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,  Leatherback Turtle Workshop Group, The Life of Birds (David Attenborough), Facts and Fallacies (Reader’s Digest), Nature’s Great Events (BBC), The Green Book (Steve Gahbauer) and personal travel and field notes.

This involves the concept and knowledge of cell behaviour, such as cell division, mitosis (the process by which a nucleus forms two exact copies of itself) and the two most important things that cells do: photosynthesis and respiration. Only some kinds of cells carry out photosynthesis, but all kinds of cells respire, i.e. they inhale and exhale air.

Photosynthesis makes food for life processes and respiration gives energy to them. Photosynthesis requires chlorophyll, light, carbon dioxide and water to make glucose and oxygen. Respiration does the reverse: it uses up glucose and oxygen and produces carbon dioxide and water. Photosynthesis changes light energy into chemical energy and respiration changes chemical energy in glucose molecules into energy needed for life processes.

Thus, science explains the food chain, how habitats and ecosystems are formed, the ecology involved, and how air and water, plants and wildlife create the environment. But we need to understand how it works – grasp the fact that everything in nature is interrelated and that all living things interact and rely on each other. No living organism lives completely on its own. It depends on other organisms and they depend on it. That’s what ecology is all about – it is the study of the relationship among organisms and between life forms and their environments.

Organisms interact on four levels: individuals make up a population, populations make up a community, communities make up a biom, and bioms make up the biosphere. Any community of living things interacting with its environment is an ecosystem. And the important thing to remember is that since all parts of an ecosystem are interrelated, each part is affected by all the other parts. Therefore, if one part is changed in any way, all the other parts will be changed too, and equilibrium – the balance between opposing physical forces – is lost. That’s why human interference, in a misguided attempt to “manage nature,” has often such a negative impact on the environment.

To appreciate ecosystems we need to understand their two major components: habitat and niches. The habitat of an organism is the place in which it lives. Think of it as the “address” of the organism. The niche of an organism is its total role in the natural community. Think of it as its “job” or “occupation.”

Organisms in an ecosystem may be linked in feeding relationships, called food chains. Clover is food for the groundhog, the groundhog in turn is food for the fox, and a larger predator eats the fox. This is known as the food web: who eats who defines an ecosystem. Some food chains are quite long, but many are just simple, let’s say wheat > mouse > owl.

Then there are the feeding relationships in which organisms help provide food for other organisms without being eaten or killed themselves. These are parasitisms, mutualisms and commensalisms. Parasitism is a relationship between two organisms in which one benefits and the other is harmed (parasite and host). Mutualism is a relationship between two organisms in which both organisms benefit (lichen and fungus). Commensalism is a relationship in which one organism benefits and the other neither benefits nor suffers (“Old Man’s Beard” lichen and spruce trees).

Nature is full of examples that can teach us about the mysteries of life. Take a chicken egg, for example. From shape to content, every feature of it is an example of perfection. The egg’s shape is its strength. Its five principal parts provide the entire life support system for the developing bird. The egg shell is porous, allowing moisture to evaporate and oxygen to replace it. The shell membrane on the inside of the egg consists of two layers close to each other, except at the larger end of the egg where they separate to create an air pocket, which does not yet exist when the egg is laid. The egg white contains many crucial proteins, stores water and offers insulation from sudden changes in the outside temperature. The yolk is a mixture of suspended proteins, fats and carbohydrates. The germ – the most important part – is a pinhead-sized blob on top of the yolk that developes into a new chick. No single part of the egg is superfluous, everything exists to protect and nourish the developing life within.

Metamorphosis is another of nature’s marvels. The change from a tadpole to a frog, or a caterpillar to a butterfly, not only requires that old limbs be discarded while new appendages sprout, but it also means that most of the creature’s internal organs and nervous systems disappear, to be replaced by new equipment for moving, breathing and digesting food. Metamorphosis is a stunning feat of genetic engineering. Butterflies begin life as an egg that hatches into a caterpillar, which spins a silk cocoon (chrysalis) in which it begins its transformation to a winged insect.

And we can learn a lot from plants when it comes to seed propagation. Millions of years before humans invented the wheel, plants were already utilizing most of the methods we later devised for getting around. The catch is, of course, that plants themselves don’t move from place to place – their seeds do. They accomplish this by rolling like wheels (tumbleweed), riding on wind (milkweed, dandelions) or water, (mangroves, coconuts), or being carried overland on the backs of animals (burdock) or the feet of birds. And so the cycle continues.

Think about some of these interactions, and our relationship and connectedness to the natural world around us, during your next hike in the Rouge Valley, where many of these wondrous things can be observed. S.G.

Sources: Planet Earth (Time), Canadian Wildlife Federation, Facts and Fallacies (Reader’s Digest), Discovering Biological Science (W.A.Andrews et al.), and personal field notes.

One of the most prolific – and least observed – life forms are fungi, defined as any of a group of spore-producing organisms feeding on organic matter. Fungi include moulds, yeasts, mushrooms and toadstools, and lichens. We like to think of ourselves as the dominant life form on the planet, but fungi may be gaining on us, even now that we have passed the seven billion mark. Tightly woven into our daily lives, they are in the beer and wine we drink and in the bread and cheese we eat. They are in the drugs we take, they are in the fuel and in the preservatives we manufacture. Thousands of species of plants and animals depend on fungi in ways that scientists are only beginning to understand. What we do know is that fungi display stunning chemical properties. Some can ingest granite, tar or uranium and either transform them back into basic elements or lock them into stable, harmless forms.

Scientists, who have identified hundreds of thousands of fungi species and believe there are a million more yet to be named, have found from DNA analysis that fungi have genetically more in common with animals than with plants. They surround us (and sometimes inhabit us) almost always unseen. Estimated to constitute one quarter of the total biomass of dense forests, microscopic fungal spores coat every surface of the ecosystem.

Neither plants nor animals, fungi form their own separate kingdom of life that is mostly unseen, but all pervasive. A thimbleful of soil can have two kilometres of microscopic fungal strands running through it. Fungal networks are like veins and capillaries in the soil, keeping ecosystems alive. The number of spores in one gram of soil can be up to three million; the number of spores in a single mushroom can be billions. And spores can remain dormant for up to 20 years. Mushrooms and tree-clinging polypores are only the external, spore-producing fruiting bodies of fungal organisms. Underground fungal fibres comprise an estimated 90% of the subterranean biomass in forests. I have heard it said that this biomass weighs more than the trees above ground. It is plausible when you think that fungal threads weave through every nook and cranny of the upper soil of most habitats, intertwining with tree roots and entering rotting logs, dead animals and droppings, forming an immense living web.

And then there are the lichens, composed of fungi and algae in symbiotic union. So common are they that they are often overlooked. But lichens are one of the most remarkable life forms on earth. They are not plants, like the mosses with which they are commonly confused, but a unique combination of two distinct organisms – green algae and lichen-producing fungi. Neither would thrive, or even survive, without the other. Lichens have no roots to absorb water and nutrients from the soil, and no protective outer coating such as the cuticle of leaves. So the fungal partner develops a thick outer cortex that protects the algal layer underneath. Moisture can readily pass through it and atmospheric particulate matter can easily penetrate to the inner fungal layer. Together they combine to form tens of thousands of lichen species of incredible diversity in appearance and habitat. Lacking chlorophyll, fungi cannot make their own food and photosynthesis does not work underground. But the algae produce carbohydrates for the fungi and, in return, the fungi provide a protected place to live. In working together, algae and fungi create a tiny self-sustaining ecosysten in which the fungus is the dominant partner and architect of the symbiotic relationship. As calamitous as this arrangement may seem, the partnership has created some 14,000 species of lichens worldwide, with a big diversity in size, shape and colour. It is one of nature’s success stories.

The sensitivity of lichens to the degradation of air quality was recognized as far back as the 19^th century and for the last 100 years it has been used to monitor atmospheric pollution. The degree of sensitivity, however, varies among species. Some have zero tolerance for pollutants and die in their presence; others tolerate some pollutants but become stunted in growth. In heavily polluted urban areas lichens may disappear altogether. A lichen survey at the Todmorden Mills Flower Preserve in the Don Valley five years ago has clearly shown the effect urban air pollution has on these fragile life forms.

Boreal Felt Lichen are native to Canada and grow on branches or trunks of Black or White Spruce, Balsam Fir, and occasionally on Red Maples, in mature forests on cool, damp, exposed slopes. Those of you who have been camping in provincial and national parks have surely come across lichen communities. We even have some on rocks in the Rouge Park.

So do we love fungi? Maybe not enough. We love birds, deer, turtles, trees and flowers, but perhaps spiders and snakes not so much. Yet we should care about all forms of life. They are part of who we are.

On another note, now that the splendour of coloured leaves is over, the question arises again: does the colour of autumn leaves act as a warning signal to insects that use trees as hosts for the winter? The answer is maybe. As chlorophyll breaks down in leaves, the amount of green pigment is reduced, allowing other hitherto “covered” pigments to become visible. So we know how leaves change colour, but controversy still surrounds the why.

Scientists have two leading theories. One, known as co-evolution, argues that leaves turn red to indicate their plant could have higher levels of toxins that would be harmful to insects that look for winter homes, food sources, or places to lay eggs. This is similar to bright red colours on animals that warn “we are poisonous.” The second theory is that anthocyanins, which are responsible for pink, red and purple colours, act as sunscreens to prevent damage to leaves from excess light in the Fall. Both theories are just that, theories, and scientists are still debating the question.

Nature is full of mysteries and a never-ending source of wondrous discoveries. As Frank Lloyd Wright says, “Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.”

Have a safe and happy holiday season. The next Nature Notes will be in the new year. S.G.

Raptors seize and devour living prey (except for vultures that dine on carrion) and are well equipped for their predator role. Apart from amazing aerial skills, three things make raptors expert and efficient hunters: keen eyesight to locate prey, powerful talons to grasp and kill, and a sharp hooked beak to rip apart their meal. Hawks and eagles are in the family of accipitridae – diurnal birds of prey with hooked beaks and hooked talons. Accipiters (true hawks) have small heads, short rounded wings and long tails. Buteos (buzzard hawks) have a stocky build and a wide tail. They include Red-tailed Hawks, Swainson’s Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, Short-tailed Hawks and Northern Harriers, also known as Marsh Hawks – and all of them can be seen above the Rouge Park at one time or another. If you are lucky you may also spot a Goshawk or a Common Nighthawk. The latter leaves its daytime hiding places on the ground late in the day and rises to truly prodigious heights in the darkening sky. It is hunting for flying insects, admittedly small food for such a big bird, but insects make up in quantity what they lack in size, The Goshawk is a large, powerful, bold and strong bird, one of the accipiters that hunt by direct attack rather than by the watchful waiting-for-prey that is common to most large hawks. After my son and I had participated in creating a special Goshawk habitat several years ago, I was happy to see this magnificent raptor nesting at its new habitat near the Rouge River. I also observed some at bird counts in the park.

Occasionally one sees a Bald Eagle soaring over the Rouge Park. The Natives say it is a good omen. The Bald Eagle is the largest of Canada’s raptors and obviously it is not bald. Its name comes from the old English word balde which means white. Males and females both have a distinctive large white head and a dark-brown body. Young birds have brown heads and may not develop adult colouring for five years. Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles are the only two of 59 eagle species world-wide that call Canada home.

It only makes sense that such a large raptor would build the biggest nest. With a width of more than two metres, matching their wingspan, and a depth of four to six metres, eagle nests are really whoppers. You can find them on the top of the tallest trees – pines, Red Oaks or Black Maples – near bodies of water. In Ontario, the Endangered Species Act protects Bald Eagles and their nests.

Northern Harriers, about the size of a crow, are the only harrier species found in North America. They have long tails and a wingspan of about one metre. Males are smoky-gray with a white belly. Females and immature birds are brown with buff-coloured underparts. Both sexes have a white patch on the base of the tail. We have a few Northern Harriers in the Rouge. They are usually seen around the Beare Hill landfill site and over the wetlands. They hold their narrow wings in a shallow V-shape as they glide over open fields and marshes, flying low so they are easy to spot and identify.

Vultures are scavengers – nature’s clean-up crews – that can often be seen soaring high up in wide circles. The blackish, eagle-like birds have naked heads, which makes them less beautiful but easy to distinguish from other birds of prey. They belong to the family of cathartidae. Falcons have their own subfamily (falconinae) and Ospreys are in the pandionidae family, while owls are strigidae, except Barn Owls, which are tytonidae. Falcons have long, pointed wings and long tails. The falcon family includes kestrels, robin-size swift-flying Merlins, Gyrfalcons and Peregrine Falcons. The Ospreys are fish eaters and their eggs used to be highly favoured by egg collectors in the 19th century. It’s not surprising, because Osprey eggs have a pale pinkish cinnamon ground colour, heavily endowed with rich chestnut-coloured spots – irresistible to diehard oologists.

Then there are those loveable darlings, the owls. In the Rouge Park we often see and/or hear Short-eared and Long-eared Owls, and occasionally some Hawk Owls around the wetlands. Once I had a long, silent conversation with a Great Horned Owl at a bend in the river where we often have lunch with school groups. I had flushed it out as I rounded a curve in the trail and it then sat for a long time on the branch of a coniferous tree, watching me while I looked back and admired the bird’s beautiful plumage. I had a camera along but it never occurred to me to use it. Finally, I quietly walked away before my presence would cause a stress for the bird.

In 2004/05 we had an irruption from Great Grays when the dearth of suitable food at their normal habitat caused them to look elsewhere. Compounding the dilemma was the fact that for that period there were no nests because Great Grays use abandoned Goshawk nests. But Goshawks left the Assiniboine Forest (where Great Grays normally live) due to human activties (logging, etc.) and one whole generation was lost – no Goshawk nests = no Great Grays breeding.

Irruptions (sudden temporary increases in the local population of migrating birds) also occur once in a while when Snowy Owls come that far south because it is a bad lemming year in their home territory. I have seen them both in the Rouge and at the Leslie Spit.

Most owls are nocturnal birds of prey with large heads, flattened faces forming facial disks, and large, forward-facing and immovable eyes. Like hawks, they have hooked bills and hooked claws, and many species have feathered feet. Except Hawk Owls and Snowy Owls, they fly noiselessly, surprising their prey by stealth. Their feather colours are similar for both sexes, but female owls are larger and heavier than males. Owls hunt and eat small birds, rodents, reptiles and fish.

To me the most fascinating feature about owls is their eyes. They are exceptionally large for their body size. An Eastern Screech Owl’s eye weighs 7½ grams; that’s roughly 4% of its body weight. Compare that to a human eyeball, which weighs 28 grams, less than 1% of our total body weight. Among Canadian owls, the largest eyes belong to the Great Horned Owl, Canada’s most widespread species, and the country’s second-largest owl. Great Horneds play an integral role in the stability of ecosystems. They have long, brown or grayish fluffy feathers with conspicuous barring, large ear tufts, huge piercing yellow eyes set in a broad face, and females weigh up to 2 kg. They are year-round residents here, nest in the winter, and incubate eggs well before the snow disappears.

There are many myths about owls. They are well adapted to their lifestyle, but wise they are not. In fact, as bird brains go, they are among the more dim-witted of our feathered friends, way below the intelligence of ravens, crows, magpies and some jays. One myth says that owls can perceive much quieter sounds than other birds. The truth is that owls have sharper hearing at low levels than other birds, but their ability to pick up sounds in the lower range is no better than that of humans. Another myth is that owls can pinpoint the location of a sound with unmatched accuracy, due to the fact that their ears are located on their heads in such a way that one is higher up and the other lower down, to enable stereophonic hearing. But while owls do have excellent pinpointing abilities, those of humans are actually better. Owls do indeed have extremely sharp eyesight and exceptional nocturnal vision, but scientists claim that owls may actually memorize their surroundings in order to avoid obstacles. Most owls hunt at night because that’s when their prey species are most active and because they have no nighttime competition from other raptors, notably hawks and eagles.

Myths or facts, it is obvious that owls are stunning birds. So are the other raptors mentioned above. One can never get tired of watching these superb killing machines and admiring their graceful beauty and awesome powers. They teach us a lot about nature.

Take a walk in one of our many parks, conservation areas or wetlands and watch for Ospreys, colourful Wood Ducks and lovely Pink Lady Slippers among the autumn leaves, or maybe even a turtle sitting on a log to catch a few warm rays of the weakening sun. Embrace the wild joy of living and experience the Fall season in all its glory, when the days become more comfortable and nature is at her most beautiful. Happy hiking! S.G.

Sources: Canadian Wildlife Federation, Toronto and Region Conservation, The Raven (Strickland, Algonquin Park), Ontario Nature, Bird Studies Canada, Owls aren’t Wise (Shedd), Peterson Field Guide of Eastern Birds, and personal field notes.

Wildlife goes and flourishes where there is suitable and supporting habitat. Create a wetland, and amphibians and reptiles will come. Create a garden, and all kinds of critters will show up, from insects, birds, butterflies, beetles, slugs and ants to those migrants from Central America, the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds that love suburban gardens and settle, from May to October, when the living is easy and nectar is in abundance.

This summer, we also found in our garden a Cecropia Moth (see photo above) with a wingspan of 15 cm. This is Ontario’s largest moth, one of the world’s 150,000 moth species that outnumber their day-flying relatives, butterflies, 10:1. They only live a few days and their main activity during that short adult lifespan is mating. During that time Cecropias do not eat at all – they haven’t got time. Male Cecropias can smell a female as far as 11 km away. When they find her they hurry to get things done.

As we all know, there are many areas in the world that support an exclusive flora and fauna. The Galapagos Islands, Australia, and the world’s fourth-largest island off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar, come to mind.

As I found out during my exploratory journey in 2004, Madagascar is a very special place. It is one of the planet’s last great tropical wildernesses, still unspoiled by tourism, and home to 5% of all plant and animal species. More than 70% of them cannot be found anywhere else on earth. What’s more, new species are being discovered all the time – 615 of them just within the last dozen years, according to a recent report from the World Wildlife Fund that is very active in Madagascar – among them 28 new lemur species discovered since 1999.

The island split off from the African continent during the Jurassic period about 165 million years ago — 100 million years before the Rocky Mountains were formed – and it then broke free from India about 85 million years later. Humans moved there only about 1,600 years ago, giving the plants and animals a long time to evolve in isolation. This unique circumstance has inspired some scientists to call Madagascar the eighth continent. In fact, Peter Tyson, the online editor of the PBS series ‘Nova’ and a regular contributor to science magazines, has written a fascinating book about the island with just that title: Madagascar, the Eighth Continent – life, death, and discovery in the lost world of Madagascar (HarperCollins, 2001). I highly recommend it for reading if you are interested in that country’s spell-binding secrets.

One of these is the fact that many animal species never made it to the island. There are no large cats, no jackals, hyenas or foxes, no rabbits, weasels, toads or salamanders. The place of hedgehogs is taken by the tenrec, and there are no adders, vipers or cobras and, as difficult to believe as this may sound, no worms. There are no apes or monkeys on the island either. This creates “niches” taken up by unique species endemic to the island, not only lemurs but also half of the world’s chameleon species, some 800 moth and butterfly species, 115 of the 250 bird species that live on Madagascar, 275 reptile species, and 176 of the 178 frog species, the only amphibians on the island.There are some 10,000 native flowering plants and 130 species of palm trees – more than anywhere else in the world.

And there are no woodpeckers. Their place is taken by the nocturnal big-eyed Aye-Aye who, with the bizarrely elongated middle finger on its hands, extracts larvae and insect grubs from tree bark. It detects its food by listening to the sound of an insect grub chewing its way through the wood. If the Aye-Aye cannot hear anything, it delicately taps the bark, listening with the skill of a piano tuner for the change in sound that indicates a hollow where a larva may be lurking.

Of all the unusual animals that live in the forests of Madagascar, the Aye-Aye must surely be the strangest. On the other hand, the closely related lemurs are decidedly the most adorable. In 2004, there were 51 taxa of lemurs, all 100% indigenous. An international research station for the study of biodiversity (Centre Val Bio) at the edge of Ranomafana National Park, that still has some of Madagascar’s shrinking prime forest, concentrates on lemur research. At least 12 species live in the park, including Sifakas, Red-bellied, Red-fronted, Ruffed Lemurs and three species of Bamboo Lemurs. The park also contains nocturnal Mouse Lemurs, the world’s smallest primates, and Dwarf Lemurs. Originally, there were 67 types of lemurs on the island, some of them as large as a human. Due to habitat loss within the last 1,000 years, eight genera, comprising 15 species, have vanished forever, some disappearing long before humans arrived. The remaining ones vary in size and shape and some of them are very rare and on the verge of extinction. One of the latter is the Golden Lemur; there are only a handful left in the wild. I saw this magnificent lemur (in captivity) at Lemur Gardens just south of the country’s capital, Antananarivo. However, Madagascar still has 33 types of lemurs in the wild.

The largest of them is the short-tailed Indri, which feeds on 80 different kinds of leaves and lives up to 70 years. Indris are reproductive only during the first half of their lives. The second half is devoted to passing on knowledge about food types and sources. Indris mate for life and travel in family groups. The young are born in May, stay two months on their mother’s back, start to discern leaves and to jump when they are about five months old. It takes them two to three months to master perfect landings. But they quickly join their elders in making an eerie racket, a siren-like sound that reverberates through the forest in the early morning hours, as I found out in Perinet.

Brown Lemurs are fruit eaters and often have to travel vast distances because some trees only bear fruit every other year. The diet of Sifakas changes with the season. They often walk upright and sideways on their hind legs, using their long tails for balance. The Ring-tailed Lemurs have feet adapted to rock climbing. You may have watched “Lemur Street” on TVOntario, a delightful series about the lives of Ring-tailed Lemurs. It was filmed in the Berenty Reserve, where I spent a few days and nights with these adorable creatures. I also met them again in Isalo National Park and on Lemur Island, where they frolic amidst other lemur species.

All lemurs are territorial, use scent marks and vocalization to communicate, and have strong family bonds. They are a matriarchal society. Their only natural predator is the Fossa, one of the deadliest carnivors on the planet. It belongs to the mongoose family, and in Madagascar it fills the ecological niche of leopards and cheetahs, although it is only about as large as a fox. It is the island’s top predator and I was lucky to see three of these very elusive and ferocious looking animals in a nature reserve on the island.

Of course, there are no lemurs in the Rouge Valley, although the Toronto Zoo used to have some in the past. But for once I thought I could be allowed to write about animals that are not native. I hope you will agree. Those lemurs stole my heart – and now you know a little bit more about them too.

As mentioned earlier, in Madagascar Aye-Ayes take the place of woodpeckers. But fortunately here we have woodpeckers, mainly the Downy and the similar-looking but slightly larger Hairy, the Red-headed Woodpecker, which I have seen in Algonquin Park, and the magnificent Pileated Wood-peckers, which live in the Rouge Valley. Also belonging to the family of woodpeckers are the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and the Northern Flicker.

They all find their food in trees by pecking and hammering at the rate of 15 times per second. To stop them from beating their brains out they have “shock-absorber” adaptations that protect their head and neck against impact damage. They also have a relatively long barbed and tubular tongue for penetrating small holes in tree barks to capture their prey. Woodpeckers fill an important role in forest ecosystems by eating vast numbers of bark- and wood-boring insects that are detrimental to the health of trees. Unfortunately, none of the woodpeckers here have yet developed a taste for the larvae of the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. So we must continue to be vigilant.

S.G.

Tidbits and Anniversaries

Forests    In February the United Nations declared 2011 to be the Year of the Forest. In Canada we have good reason to celebrate: Our country is home to 10% of the world’s forests. In fact, half of Canada is covered by trees. Forests are essential to our quality of life. As “the lungs of the earth” forests purify the air we breathe and the water we drink. Forests also provide life-saving medicines, regulate flooding, and help people reduce their energy consumption by shading buildings and screening winds. The net cooling effect of one young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air-conditioners operating 20 hours a day.

The world’s tallest tree, a Redwood in California, is 124 m high. The largest living thing on earth is a giant Sequoia, also in California, which weighs more than 10 Blue Whales. Some Bristlecone Pines are as old as 5,000 years. They were alive before the Egyptian pyramids were built.

On a worldwide basis, the livelihood of more than 1.6 billion people depends on forests. Forests are home to millions of people around the world and to 80% of our terrestrial biodiversity. In Madagascar, large areas have been deforested, resulting in devastating erosion, although more than 10% of the forest is still standing; prime forest is reduced to only 1%. In Brazil, about 20% of the rainforest has already been destroyed, but there is also some good news: last year, Amazon deforestation dropped to its lowest pace in 22 years, and 80% of landowners in the Amazon must now maintain standing forest on 80% of their property by law. There is still time – not much, but some – to save the world’s forests.

Fish    More good news: during the last five years, three million fish were released into Duffins Creek in Pickering for the “Bring Back the Salmon” initiative of Ontario electric utilities. Ontario Power Generation has agreed to become the lead sponsor in the program to restore a wild, self-sustaining population of Atlantic Salmon to Lake Ontario and its tributaries. The program is managed by the Toronto Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) and the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters in partnership with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

Birds    Researchers have discovered that the Great Snipe could well be the fastest bird on earth — over long distance at least. After following the birds’ migration south from Sweden to Central Africa, it was discovered that the birds fly nonstop over distances of around 6,760 km at a startling 97 km/h. Many birds fly either very far or very fast, but it is not common for a bird to do both. The Peregrine Falcon reaches a phenomenal 322 km/h, but only while diving to catch its prey. Arctic Terns fly farther than any other bird during their migration – around 80,500 km – from the Arctic to the Antarctic and back again. But they don’t fly at great speed.

Rouge Park    The idea of making the Rouge Park Canada’s first Urban National Park is gaining momentum. It is now on the federal government’s agenda and Environment Minister Peter Kent promised to work out a procedure plan over the summer.

80 years    Ontario Nature, formerly the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, and the umbrella organization for more than 100 naturalists groups, is celebrating its 80th anniversary. Ontario Nature does lots of great work in conservation and deserves all the support it can get.

100 years    Parks Canada turned 100 this year. It looks after 42 national parks, 167 national historic sites, and four marine areas. It was established in 1911 as the world’s first national parks service, 26 years after Banff became Canada’s first national park, followed by Glacier, Yoho, Waterton Lakes and St.Lawrence Islands. The latter is the smallest, while Wood Buffalo is the largest – bigger than Switzerland. One of our newest national parks is Kluane in the Yukon. It contains the largest ice cap outside the polar region and the world’s highest coastal mountains.

Celebrate Canada Parks Day on July 16th.

Sources: Canadian Wildlife Service, Canadian Wildlife Federation, World Wildlife Fund, Nature Canada, Ontario Nature, Bird Studies Canada, Facts and Fallacies (Reader’s Digest), Wild in the City (Bennet and Tiner), The World of Mammals (Taglianti), International Wildlife Encyclopedia, Vol.1 (Burton), Maclean’s, Parks Canada, and travel notes.