NATURE STUFF NEWSLETTER FOR THE MONTH OF JULY, 2012

After over five hours of grooming six kilometres of trails on Main Duck Island, four volunteers lifted the heavy walk behind rotary brush mower from the dock and back into the boat for the trip back to the mainland. As the boat and our 12 volunteers left the harbour and entered Lake Ontario, I unconsciously grabbed hold of both handlebars of the mower as my mind wandered away for a moment to something else – maybe a future project, or perhaps if my wife and dog were waiting for me at home. Suddenly, I became aware of some lighthearted laughter from the volunteers. “Look at Terry. He’s been behind the mower so long, he can’t let go of it!” Why do senior volunteers work like they do, on what was the hottest day so far this year? And most of us there that day were seniors. Is it because we don’t know any better, or we are simply used to long hours and focussing on the job at hand? Whatever it is, I was so pleased to be part of a team that just wouldn’t stop as pruners clacked and another smaller mower tackled a single one kilometre trail, not once, but four times, to achieve the desired width. It’s operator from Ameliasburgh was soaked with perspiration, but he soldiered on until I waved my arms as a signal to break for lunch. Chainsaws hummed as trees fallen over winter were cleared from the trails, and my big rotary mower challenged a length of trail near the lighthouse, overgrown with locusts, wild grapes and wild raspberries, opening it up so visitors to this historic island could make it the very tip where it overlooks a long ago boiler from the shipwreck, the Navajo.

Main Duck Island is steeped in history and I have been doing boat tours over there since the late 1990s. This will be the first time in almost 15 years that volunteers have mowed the trails. Walking will be a pleasure on our tours this summer. From July 11th through to August 29th, I have the pleasure once again of teaming up with Sandbanks Vacations out of Bloomfield and Ducks Dive Charters at Prince Edward Point, in leading weekly boat tours out to this historic island. The tours will run every Wednesday, weather permitting and provided we have at least 8 passengers (maximum 11). If the weather on Wednesday isn’t favourable, then we will go on Thursday. The day begins at 8:00 a.m. sharp as we leave the Ducks Dive Charters harbour and head for Main Duck Island, a trip that takes about 1.5 hours. Once we land, I will tell everyone about the history of the island before we begin our walk to the lighthouse, a distance of about 3.5 km. First, we will make a side trip over to the site where Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles, had his summer retreat. Dulles owned the island during the 1950s. Then, we will head to the lighthouse where we will enjoy lunch and have a chance to explore this point of land which also contains the abandoned lightkeeper’s house. We will take a leisurely stroll back to the harbour via a more direct route, and spend some time around the harbour where we will check out the area where a row of commercial fishermen shanties once stood, along with the foundations of two houses of two other former owners, Claude Cole and Robert Hart. Learn about what’s in store at our new MAIN DUCK ISLAND web page.

July 1st also marks the end of our regular Monday Evening guided hikes, a series that began in 1996. The May and June series this year marked the beginning of a new era when the series was run entirely through NatureStuff Tours, having formerly been offered through Quinte Conservation. While the decision to do so was made too late last fall to change much in the way of new destinations this year, we did manage to squeeze in a couple evening hikes in the Trenton and Brighton areas. In 2013, all of the evening hike locations will be held pretty much outside the Quinte Conservation watershed, and we will be exploring new destinations in the Lower Trent Conservation watershed as well as a few toward Kingston. A few destinations we have in mind is the Lower Trent Trail from Frankford to Batawa, Bata Island, some locations in Trenton and basically, wherever our whims now dictate we want to go. Since we are no longer restricted to the Quinte Conservation watershed, this has affected our full day hikes too, and one of the more ambitious hikes we have in mind for next year is the 12-km Tetsmine Trail in Frontenac Provincial Park. The Northumberland Forest is also on our list as well as a location off Queensboro Road near Actinolite. Lots of good stuff in store for next year so be sure to stay tuned to this newsletter and to the regular updates that I send out weekly for more news on these interpretive guided walks.

Some updates to the NatureStuff website in addition to the regular monthly updates in the BIRDING section on Places To Bird, Birdfeeding and What’s In the County his Month. Most notably, are descriptions of some of the guided hikes we have had along with a collage of photos. You will find these hike reports listed under EVENTS. Under OTHER NATURE, the Foraging page looks at teas we can mix up this summer from plants that grow in your backyard. Taste is in the mouth of the beholder so a few of these may be questionable to some! The LODGING section has 10 accommodations that cater to birders and naturalists in general, and the most recent additions to this page have been Jackson’s Falls Inn and Wildwood Acres. Coffee lovers will want to have a look at THIS COFFEE IS FOR THE BIRDS web page as there has been an addition of a brand new Central American Decaf coffee added to the selection. On a weekly basis, there are new photos and we thank our photographer friends for sending their favourite photos along for inclusion. Keep checking the website regularly as changes are made almost daily.

Please Note: Everything in the above text that is in full caps and highlighted are direct links to the specific website page. E-mail and website link below are also clickable. Photo credits and descriptions can be seen by “mousing over” the photos.

And Man created the plastic bag and the tin and aluminum can and the cellophane wrapper and the paper plate, and this was good because Man could then take his automobile and buy all his food in one place and He could save that which was good to eat in the refrigerator and throw away that which had no further use. And soon the earth was covered with plastic bags and aluminum cans and paper plates and disposable bottles and there was nowhere to sit down or walk, and Man shook his head and cried: "Look at this Godawful mess."

Art Buchwald, 1970

Terry Sprague

NATURE STUFF - Tours & Things