THE OSPREYNature Journal of Newfoundland and Labrador

Spring 2009Volume 40, number 2

Natural History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador

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Executive HOME WORK

To be confirmed President

To be confirmed Vice-president

Rita Anderson Past President rita@play.psych.mun.ca 895-2564 737-8771

Marjorie Evans Treasurer marjjevans@nl.rogers.com 722-1925

Don Steele Secretary dsteele@mun.ca 754-0455 689-4613

Directors

Carolyn Walsh Membership cwalsh@play.psych.mun.ca 745-5534 737-4738

Ed Hayden Osprey Editor edhayden.osprey@gmail.com 738-0358 729-1342

Dave Snow Indoor Program wildtour@nfld.com 754-4094 722-3123

R. J. (John) Gibson Fish rjgibson@nf.sympatico.ca 726-2498

Len Zedel Oil zedel@physics.mun.ca 754-3321 737-3106

Allan Stein arstein@mun.ca 895-2056

John Jacobs jjacobs@mun.ca 738-3147 737-8194

Bobbi Maher bobbimayer@yahoo.com

Raoul Andersen randerse@mun.ca 722-3192 737-8964

Lois Bateman Humber Rep lbateman@swgc.mun.ca

THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

P.O. Box 1013, St. John’s, NL A1C 5M3Website: www.nhs.nf.ca e-mail: nhs@nhs.nf.ca

Board of Directors March 2009 - 2010

The Osprey is published quarterly by the Natural History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador. Opin-ions expressed in The Osprey are those of the author and do not reflect necessarily those of the editor or of the society. Letters, articles, photographs, illustrations and reviews of books about any aspect of natural history are welcome. Please submit documents in Microsoft Word through e-mail attachment using American Psychological Association (APA) style. Submit images and tables as separate files, not embedded in the text. Provide docu-ments in a format compatible with photocopying in black and white. Writers replicating the work of others, includ-ing photographs and illustrations, should acquire permission in writing to reprint that work in The Osprey. The

editor reserves the right to make changes to submissions.

The Natural History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador is the provincial affiliate of Na-ture Canada, a non-profit conservation organi-zation whose mission is to protect and conserve wildlife and habitats in Canada by engaging people and advocating on behalf of nature.

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Cover photo by Joe Brazil: Black bear approaching group of photographers at Konrad Lake, Labrador

ContentsThe Editor’s Note Ed Hayden 4 Society Matters Ed Hayden 5 Annual General Meeting Report Rita Anderson 7

Black Bear Encounters at Konrad Brook Michael Burzynski 9

Quarterly Bug Dave Larsen 12

Kids’ Corner: Be a Pitcher Plant Jumbo Book of Nature Science 13

Sustainable Forests and Sustainable Communities Mark and Fraser Carpenter 14

Charlie Horwood Lady Slipper Orchid Walk Karen Herzberg 19

Night Sky: July and August 2009 Fred Smith 20 Our City Rivers: How Far Have We Progressed? R. John Gibson 22

Nature Note -- In 1606, a Paris lawyer named Mark Lescarbot ... 25

Multiclavula in Newfoundland and Labrador Andrus Voitk and Esteri Ohenoja 26

Baile Birdathon Anne Hughes 29

Winter Season (2008-09 in St. Pierre et Miquelon Roger Etcheberry 30

NHS Gift Ideas 34Tuck/Walters Award Nomination 34 Membership Application and Renewal 35

Volume 40, Number 2 spring 2009 ISSN 0710-4847 Publication Mail Registration # 8302

THE OSPREYNATURE JOURNAL OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

Please submit articles for the next edition of The Osprey to:edhayden.osprey@gmail.com by August 30, 2009.

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OutdoorsThe Editor’s Note

With the exceptionally warm spring this year, the plants and birds are early by several weeks. And for the first time, I’ve got tenants – a pair of Tree Swallows that started building a nest in my back yard June 1, with chicks appearing July 4. Binoculars are never far from our dining table this summer. Another highlight this season has been locating a Black-backed Woodpecker’s nest in the Goulds, with help from birding enthusiast Anne Hughes, who told me about this when she dropped by to pick up a donation I’d promised to the Baille Birdathon (see her list of birds on p. 29). I kept a respectful distance and stayed for only a brief period to avoid undue stress on the mom-to-be. Just as described in The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America, large patches of flaked bark, to uncover insect larvae, was evident on the tree near the nest. Thank you Anne for this rare treat – a first for me.

This spring and early summer have been wonderful because of so many fantastic outdoor activities and the many volunteers who give so generously of their time and expertise. At John Gibson’s terrific workshop at South Brook in Bowering Park, a follow up to his stream ecology series this spring, we had great fun admiring aquatic insect larvae we found in the stream, including black flies, midges and mayflies. The Wildflower Society’s interpretive walks after work every second Wednesday, with Leila and Howard Clase and Jonn Maunder, have been a delight. In addition to providing a lists of plants to be found along the Grand Concourse trails and mapping the spread of aliens, the walks provide experience in identifying common plants at all stages of growth. As well, I thoroughly enjoyed John Maunder’s delightful botanical interpretive hike with the East Coast Trail Association at Tinkers Point Path, from Tors Cove to Mobile. Tourists and residents alike who participate in these events are in awe of the beauty of our outdoors, as each outing gives pause to reflect anew on the intricacies of nature.

In this edition, you’ll be thrilled with Michael

Burzynski’s report of his encounters with a black bear at Konrad Brook (I could hardly wait to see what happened). Mark and Fraser Carpenter present a thoughtful essay on sustainable forests and sustainable communities. John Gibson pulls no punches in sharing why he’s not happy with the horrendous engineering practices that interfere with migration in city rivers. Andrus Voitk reports on two members of the small genus Multiclavula, one relatively common and one not, along with stunning photos. Fred Smith provides his night sky interpretation for July and August, Dave Larsen’s bug this month is the Knapweed Gallfly and Roger Etcheberry is back with his winter season report from St. Pierre et Miquelon.

I’m eagerly looking forward to vacation now. I’m going on my first summer field trip with the Wildflower Society this year – five days of traipsing around the Avalon Peninsula, from the Hawke Hills barrens to the Haricot salt marsh and the beach bar at Point Verde (no, this is not a pub), admiring plants in their various habitats with such a genial crew. Then, I’m off for a week of swimming and trouting in ponds and brooks around Petite Forte, cooking mussels on the beach and hiking up drokes to scenic lookouts. As if that weren’t enough beauteous bounty for one vacation, I’m taking a cruise with my family to the resettled communities down near the bottom of Placentia Bay to walk the land and see the sights our ancestors walked before they resettled from there to Petite Forte, initially in the 1800’s. Ahhh, summer outdoors, bring it on!

I wish readers a terrific two months, with lots of time to spend outdoors paying attention to summer. When I’m back working at the Osprey in September, I look forward to hearing from you and to seeing your articles, photos and illustrations for the next edition.

Ed HaydenEditor

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Environmental ActionLong Pond Clean Up The society held its annual clean up of Long Pond on May 2, with about a dozen volunteers. Skirting the water’s edge with friends, seeing the ducks’ point of view and crouching and stretching in among the willows to reach those bits of plastic and paper for half a day each year has become an event I wouldn’t miss. Later, perhaps the following weekend, hiking the Long Pond trail and seeing not a shred of litter brings excessive joy to the heart. Many bags of debris were collected, along with a stack of lumber. Thanks to all who participated, particularly to John Gibson, who organized this event, and to St. John’s Clean and Beautiful and Pippy Park Commission for providing bags and picking up the trash.

Hyper-abundant Species in Our National ParksThe second two-day session on hyper-abundant species within the Newfoundland National Parks -- Gros Morne and Terra Nova -- was held in Gander on May 28 and 29, 2009. Allan Stein represented the society at the meeting. The first meeting, held in Gros Morne the previous autumn, focused on recognizing and assessing the damage being done to the park ecosystems by invasive, mainly introduced species, including plants, such as Canada Thistle, and animals, such as hares, squirrels and moose. The inevitable conclusion was that the last-named introduced species, the moose, was overwhelmingly the most serious.

The May meeting focused on approaches to solving or mitigating the damage being done by the moose. Those huge ungulates are far too numerous on our island, especially in the parks, where they have not even been pruned by annual hunts. Possible approaches were discussed and assessed, with the conclusion that culling the excess animals is

Society MattersCOMPILED By ED HAyDEN

necessary. Just how that will be done has yet to be decided. After well over a century of protecting and preserving wildlife, perhaps especially huge, charismatic animals, National Parks’ representatives have had difficulty accepting a cull of moose. It will be interesting seeing the public response!

Allan promises us an Osprey article in due course.

EducationLeatherback Turtles On May 21, 2009, at the Botanical Garden, Dr. Jack Lawson gave a fascinating overview of leatherback turtles in our waters and an update of his latest research findings. Leatherback turtles predate the dinosaurs and are the only reptile regularly sighted in the waters around Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Charlie Horwood Memorial Lady Slipper Orchid Walk was led by Allan Stein on June 6. It is interesting to note that this date was three to four weeks earlier than normal, but yet the Lady Slipper Orchids were in full bloom. This is an indication of our unusually early and warm spring. See report and photos by Karen Herzberg on page 19.

Stream Ecology and Aquatic InsectsOn behalf of the society, John Gibson submitted his final report of the Introduction to Stream Ecology Workshop and thanks for the Unilever-Evergreen Aquatic Stewardship and Conservation Grant in the amount of $1,000. We provided a popular stream ecology course to 22 students, who were very appreciative. There were three sessions, held over three weeks. The first session covered basic stream ecology – stream hydrology, stream morphology, types and adaptations of invertebrates and fish to various segments of the stream and sources and effects of nutrients. In the

The society presents a free indoor program on the third Thursday of each month, except July and August, at the MUN Botanical Garden at 8 p.m. and field events at various locations throughout the year. The board of directors is active in promoting natural history and protecting the environment.

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second session, the fish fauna of the province was described, with distributions on the island and on the mainland related to the glacial history. The third session dealt with the city rivers, the relative production in various reaches and habitats, damage that has been done over the years and successful enhancement techniques. The talks were illustrated with John Gibson’s slides, of which he has a large collection from over the years, and two videos. As an extension of the course, John led an enjoyable field trip at South Brook in Bowering Park on June 18th to collect and identify stream invertebrates (see photo below).

FinanceThe society has filed a suit in Newfoundland

Supreme Court against former treasurer Jacqueline Feltham in relation to misappropriating society funds.

MiscellaneousWeb Site RedesignVolunteer Aaron Goulding has submitted a draft design of a new web site to Carolyn Walsh for society review at www.nhs.nf.ca.

MembershipEd Hayden has requested a free quarter-page advertisement in Atlantic Business Magazine to attract new members to the society. The donation of twenty free ad spaces to community groups in Atlantic Canada is part of the magazine’s 20th anniversary celebration.

John Gibson at work beneath the stone bridge at South Brook. Photo by John Jacobs.

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1. President’s Report: Rita E. Anderson2. Motion to create a new membership category (Lifetime Membership and fee = 15 X Regular fee)3. Treasurer’s Report: Don Steele4. Nominations5. Other business

PRESIDENT’S REPORTHappy Spring! Once again, many, many thanks to our members and friends who have donated their time and effort to create and deliver interesting indoor programs and outdoor events and to the MUN Botanical Garden for allowing us to meet in this comfortable, friendly space. On behalf of the Board and all members of the Society, I wish to extend special thanks to Don Steele and Paul Linegar for their generous expenditures of time and energy on behalf of the needs of the Society. We wouldn’t be where we are now had it not been for them. A thousand thanks.

Some Program Highlights Indoor Program (Title - Speaker)

Apr. An Introduction to the Birds of Newfoundland - Ken KnowlesMay Pacific Salmon: Insights into the Life History and Ecology of Pacific Salmonids - Peter

WestleyJun A Natural History Walk on the South Brook Trail (Bowring Park) - John Jacobs and Allan

SteinSep How Do you Place a Value on a Pond? - Nick Burnaby, John Gibson, John Jacobs and Don

SteeleOct Restoring Fish Habitat along the Labrador Highway - Ken HannafordNov Blue Octopus and Unicorn Fish: Notes on the Natural History of the Indian Ocean island

of Rodrigues - John GreenDec Annual Nature Lover’s Christmas Party (with all environmental groups in St. John’s)Jan The Voyages of Joshua - In Darwin’s Wake - Mark and Fraser CarpenterFeb Life of the Eastern Arctic - Ken Knowles

Outdoor Program (Activity - Leader)May 3 Annual Long Pond Clean-up - John Gibson and membersJune 7 Warbler Walk at LaManche Provincial Park - Karen and Gene HerzbergJune 22 Annual Charlie Horwood Lady Slipper Walk - Allan SteinJuly 19. Parks Day: Animals, Plants, and Trees of the Three Pond Barrens (with CPAWS

and Friends of Pippy Park)July 23 Leopard Marsh Orchids and Fogarty’s Marsh - Charlie Horwood, Jr.Sept 13 Spaniard’s Bay Shorebirds - Gene HerzbergSept 21 A Visit to Sandy Pond, Long Harbour - John JacobsOct 18 Brown Trout Spawning in South Brook (Bowring Park) - John GibsonDec 26 St. John’s (and others) Christmas Bird Count

Workshop (Activity - leader)March 2, 9, 16 An Introduction to Stream Ecology - John Gibson

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGPresident’s Report

March 19, 2009

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The OspreyEditors Ed Hayden and Kate Scarth put in long hours revitalizing the Osprey and bringing it up to date. They made a great team through December when Kate resigned so that she could move on to graduate studies. Thank you Kate for everything! And a huge thanks to Ed for continuing on, developing new skills, and bring new life to the Osprey. Note: If you want to receive the Osprey electronically (in color), contact Carolyn Walsh by e-mail: cwalsh@play.psych.mun.ca). Activities and Representations Reviewing project registrations, environmental impact statements (EIS) and environmental protection plans (EPP); writing letters; and attending meetings and workshops. Many different individuals, especially John Gibson, John Jacobs, Don Steele, and Allan Stein, donated much time and energy addressing a large number of critical issues including: reviewing EISs and EPPs: Long Harbour Commercial Nickel Processing Plant (Revised EIS and the EPP for the construction phase), the Grassy Point (Placentia Bay) Liquid Natural Gas Transshipment Facility EPP, the Lower Churchill Hydroelectric Generation Project (many aspects, including a grant of $10,400 from Phase II Participant Funding program). Letters/Comments: Comments on the proposed extension of Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, the Salmonier cottage development proposal, and the Port au Port 2009 Proposed Exploration Programs, the proposed destruction of Sandy Pond (Long Harbour). Requesting a full EIS for the Labrador-Island Transmission Link. Letters in support of the proposed Mealy Mountains National Park, the MUN Botanical Garden NSERC PromoScience application, and the PAA Grassroots Ecoregion education program application.Attending meetings & workshops: Energy Alternatives Workshop; the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve.Representing the Society on provincial, municipal, and non-governmental committees: Numerous people, especially John Gibson, John Jacobs, Don

Steele, and Allan Stein.Collaboration - with Gail Fraser and the Alder Institute on efforts to obtain data on drill cuttings and produced water: various letters to CNOPBSt. John’s Wellness Coalition - John JacobsNLEN - Marjorie EvansNature Canada - Canadian Nature Network Forum Meeting, Monthly Conference Calls - Rita Anderson; Save our Boreal Birds Campaign

WebsiteWe should soon have a revitalized website thanks to the efforts of Carolyn Walsh and volunteer webmaster Aaron Goulding.

Notices and Upcoming EventsMushroom Foray 2009Foray Newfoundland and Labrador, a not-for-profitorganization conducting amateur mushroom for-ays, is proud to announce Incursio millecastens, the Thousand-Breaking Foray. What a way to celebrate Darwin 200! September 11-13, 2009, at Max Simms Camp. At the end of Mushroom Foray 2008, the tally for the provincial cumulative list was 952 species. Mushroom Foray 2009 is ready to break through 1,000. Information and registration forms for the 2009 Foray, along with reports of 2008 Lab-rador forays, reports of past forays and species lists are posted at www.nlmushrooms.ca.

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In the summer of 2008, Foray Newfoundland Labrador was invited by the Wildlife Division of

the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Environment and Conservation to conduct a myco-logical inventory at a biodiversity field camp at the lake at Konrad Brook, southwest of Nain, Labrador. The beach campsite had previously been used by provincial fisheries biologists. They mentioned that there had been a problem bear there a year or two earlier, but they thought that it would no longer be a danger. On July 21st, four members of the team (Claudia Hanel—Provincial Botanist, Andrus Voitk—Chairman of Foray NL, Anne Marceau—

Foray NL, and Michael Burzynski—Parks Canada biologist) were flown by floatplane from Goose Bay to Konrad Lake, landing around 1:00 pm.

Before we had even left the plane, we spotted fresh bear tracks on the beach—left by a mid-sized sow and her cub. Once the floatplane was unloaded and had taken off, we had to move the camp equipment down the beach to a site that was large enough to accommodate our tents. While this was underway, I unlocked one of the gun cases, removed a 12-gauge shotgun provided by the Wildlife Division, and loaded it with two rubber bullets and two slugs. I

Black Bear Encounters:Konrad Brook Biodiversity Field Camp, Labrador

Michael Burzynski

The forested valley of Konrad Brook. Treeline and highland tundra are visible in the distance. Photo by Michael Burzynski

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also strapped a pouch of bear bangers to my belt. After a couple of hours of work the campsite was partially set up, and the team decided to take a rest by strolling up the lakeshore towards the river. Unfortunately I did not take the shotgun. Claudia and Anne were ahead by about a hundred metres and rounded a turn beside a patch of alders and willows.

Anne had just been telling Claudia how this was exactly the kind of place that one was warned to avoid in Torngat Mountains National Park (north-ern Labrador) because black bears hide in shrubs to ambush caribou, when Claudia spotted a bear about 30 metres in front of them. Claudia shouted “Bear!” and the two turned, walking briskly back towards Andrus and me. We could see Anne and Claudia moving down the beach with the bear breaking into a run behind them. It approached to within about 20 metres of them as I opened the bear banger pouch, loaded a banger, and fired it over their heads. The explosion slowed the bear, and it ran into the bushes that lined the upper beach. Anne and Claudia continued to walk to-wards us. The bear started to run after them again, and a second banger sent it into the bushes once more, briefly. Anne and Claudia reached us, and as we moved backwards towards our camp I launched a third banger, at which point the bear merely strolled towards the bushes, then turned, and stood and watched us. Leaving the loaded bear banger, I ran back to the camp and got the shotgun.

Our dilemma was that the bear had acted aggres-sively, had quickly become habituated to bear bangers, and showed no fear of us. This was our first day at the camp, and we did not want the bear to leave without knowing that we could be dan-gerous to it. At this point, the bear was standing watching us from about 100 metres away. Andrus and I ran at the bear yelling and waving our arms, trying to scare it away. We approached to about 60 metres, and it calmly sat down and kept watching us. I could not take a shot without the possibility of hitting it in the face and injuring it, but it shifted slightly, exposing a flank, and I fired a rubber bullet

at it. The bear leapt into the bushes, and was gone. It was a mid-sized animal, and appeared to be in good condition. Its tracks did not show any abnor-malities.

We set up the camp taking all of the normal bear precautions: food coolers were hung as high as we could from trees, about 7 metres off the ground; no food or scented products were stored in sleeping tents; the work tent and eating area were about 30 metres away from the cluster of sleeping tents; all food wastes and packaging were burned, and wash water was disposed of in a sand pit far down the beach. Because of the bear threat, the latrine had to be constructed closer to the camp and to the lake than we would have preferred, but the sandy soil provided good aeration for breakdown. No one was left alone at the camp, and the group travelled ev-erywhere together with a loaded shotgun. A second loaded shotgun was always accessible at the camp, and everyone was trained in gun use and safety. At night, Andrus and I slept with flashlights and loaded shotguns ready in our tents.

On July 23rd we were joined by Finnish arctic-al-pine mushroom specialist, Esteri Ohenoja. Since we were conducting a mycological and vascular plant survey, we had to hike into the surrounding dense forest, up the tree-lined rivers, and onto the hilltop tundra during the following week. It quickly be-came clear that it is not possible for one person to safely carry a loaded shotgun, constantly watch for bears, and conduct a bioinventory. To add to the difficulty we had to deal with an amazing density of blackflies (some of which were 5 mm long) and mosquitoes, and with weather that dropped from 30°C to 5°C part way through the week.

The second bear incident occurred twelve days later. At this point five members of a second camp had joined us (Isabelle Schmelzer, Joe Brazil, Jeff Good-year, Jim Goudie and Meherzad Romer) and our departure from Konrad Lake had been delayed by dense low cloud.

Around 9:15 am on August 2, a large bear was seen

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at the far northern end of the beach, near the site of the first incident (about 500 metres away from our camp). The bear ambled down the beach to-wards us, and several of our group started to photo-graph it from the northern edge of the camp. I went to take a look, but left the shotgun behind, feeling that people thought that I was overly anxious about the potential bear threat. However, I did take the bear bangers with me. As the bear got closer, the helicopter pilot started to worry that it might dam-age his machine, and I became very uncomfortable about the way that the bear was acting. I gave the bear bangers to Isabelle, then I ran back to get the shotgun. I returned just as the bear moved under the helicopter’s tail and faced the group of eight onlookers from about 15 metres away.

Suddenly the bear charged. Unfortunately, there was a line of people between the bear and me. Isa-belle fired the banger over the water, away from the helicopter. The explosion made the bear veer into the alders along the upper beach. Rustling through the bushes, the bear attempted to flank us (there was a well-worn bear trail there, I later discovered). I climbed up on a large driftwood log so that I could see the bear, and when it was at the end of the log, about 7 metres away, I fired a rubber bullet—hitting the bear just behind the shoulder. The bear imme-diately turned and raced away, and I fired a second rubber bullet after it (which was probably deflected by the bushes). The bear did not return before we left the next afternoon. I went into the alders and did not find any signs of blood where the bear was hit by the first shot, so despite the close range it probably did not break the bear’s skin. Photographs of the incident (see front cover) show a stereotypical predatory approach: the bear’s head was lowered, it moved directly towards its intended prey, kept its eyes fixed firmly on us, and charged when close enough.

This bear seemed intent on capturing prey. It may not have had any previous contact with humans, or it may have been chased off with bangers before and realized that they were not dangerous. It cer-tainly showed no fear of us—just like the first bear.

Loud noises (shouting and bear bangers) were not deterrents to either animal. Even a group of eight people was not enough to dissuade the second bear from its charge. Labrador black bears have a very short summer in which to put on fat for the com-ing winter. They have also been described as more carnivorous than other black bear populations. I believe that we encountered two different animals, and their predatory approaches may be typical of black bears in isolated parts of Labrador.

We encountered bears on several other occasions during the bioinventory. We were collecting on the high barrens to the south of the end of Kon-rad Lake, and had moved from open tundra and a brook into a small valley filled with dwarf birch and alder. The cover was just over a metre tall, and Anne again mentioned that it was potential bear ambush habitat. As we broke out of the birches at the valley rim, we saw a mid-sized black bear run-ning away from us. It may have been in the birches and bolted when it saw us, or it may have been moving towards us over the tundra and heard or smelled us before we saw it. Its rapid retreat was what we have come to expect in Atlantic Canada during black bear-human interactions. A fourth bear was spotted from the helicopter near a fly-in sample site on the north side of the valley, but it bolted when the helicopter flew over it. Eleven more black bears were seen during a one-hour heli-copter trip to Nain.

The blackflies at Konrad Lake were horrendous—we wore bug jackets every day, almost all day. Climb-ing and bushwhacking in steaming bug jackets was bad. Then the weather turned and we had to wear raincoats over the bug jackets and build fires to stay warm. Low cloud shut down flights throughout coastal Labrador, delaying our escape for five days, and forcing us to wait hour by hour for weather reports. On top of that, we had the constant bear threat. When it was all over, we had spent 14 days at Konrad Lake, we had explored an extraordinarily beautiful area unknown to mycologists, and we had had unforgettable experiences. However, nobody was sad to leave.

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Knapweeds (genus Centaurea) are a diverse group of Old World plants. A number of species have been introduced (both accidently and purposefully) into North America, where some are highly regarded

ornamental plants whereas others are weeds. Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) is a common weed along roadsides, disturbed areas and pastures of settled areas of Newfoundland. It is an attractive perennial with stiff stems of about a half meter tall, a rounded bushy form when growing in the open and abundant purple flowers produced in mid-summer. The dead stalks tend to remain upright overwinter and produce interesting form, as each stalk is usually tipped with a dry seed head. Although not an aggressive weed, Black Knapweed does crowd out other plants and is poisonous to livestock, both green as well as in hay, so its presence in hay fields degrades the crop.

Anytime over the winter, pick a knapweed seed head. Give it a firm squeeze and if it feels solid break it open. you will find the flower disc on which there are a number of bracts and seeds, but the hard structure is a gall formed by a fly larvae. The gall is so hard that you may have to open it with a knife. Within the gall are one or more vertical chambers, each of which contains a white maggot which has a large brown plate on the upper end which blocks a hole to the outside. The brown plate is on the rear end of the maggot which lies in the chamber head down and uses the rear plug to control air and water movement into the gall chamber. Each maggot fed on a developing seed in the flower head the previous summer. After feeding, the maggots stay in their gall in a state of diapause, that is, arrested development, so that they do not transform into a pupa or a fly until they have had a prolonged exposure to cold temperatures. In the spring, diapause is broken and the maggot resumes development, giving rise to a fly that appears about the time knapweed is in bloom. The adult flies are lovely insects, dark brown and white with brown-spotted wings. The males are especially vain about their colors and sit on the flowers, stretching and twisting their wings in a show of finery. However, these displays are serious, driving away other males and attracting females which mate and lay eggs into the developing flower. Females are easily recognized, as their abdomen is drawn out into a long point which allows them to place the egg down by the developing seed. On hatching, larval feeding induces the plant to grow up and around the larvae, producing a gall.

Each flower head can contain up to 30 or more seeds. However, the presence of maggots reduces seed production and a heavily galled head may have 20 or more maggots and only a few seeds. Interestingly, the maggots don’t completely prevent seed production and, therefore, while reducing the reproductive potential of the plant, they don’t eliminate it, thus achieving a sort of balance between using the host but not eliminating it.

In the rangelands of western North America, Russian Knapweed (Centaurea repens) is a major weed. It is also a perennial and produces numerous flowers per plant. However, the flowers are small and with only a few seeds in each. A related species of gall-fly has been introduced in an attempt to control the weed through seed reduction. The insect is successful in this, but vegetative reproduction of the weed through creeping roots means the fly only slows the plants’ spread. However, other insects that feed on the plant have been introduced and a community of knapweed feeders established, which together are reducing knapweed abundance.

The Quarterly Bug

Knapweed gall fly - Urophora jaceana (Typhretidae, Diptera)

Dave Larson

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Kids’ Corner

Reprinted, with permission, from The Jumbo Book of Nature Science Material from The Jumbo Book of Nature Science, written by Pamela Hickman and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists and illustrated by Judie Shore, is used by permission of Kids Can Press Ltd., Toronto. Text © 1996 Pamela Hickman and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists. Illustration © 1996 Judie Shore. www.kidscanpress.com

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INTRODUCTION

As the debate over the future of forests on the Eastport Peninsula moved toward the discus-

sion of management options, our company shared its global perspective, based on years of interna-tional experience in order to improve the decision-making process on the local level. Thus far, there has been great rhetoric on the subject of sustainable management (Government of NL 2003: Sustainable Forest Management Strategy) but very little tangi-ble progress. yet what happens to our forests today determines their sustainability for our children’s children.

It is our view that the way we have been managing our forests is no longer good enough. In our area, we can walk through the country while contemplat-ing that from this area came the timber to build schooners and churches, run saw mills, send cargos of birch junks and hoop poles to St. John’s and load steamers with ties and pit props for Europe. It’s gone – over-harvested. If we are going to be able to sustain our local communities, we are going to have to change our relationship with our forest.

COMMUNITy FORESTS– THE INTERNAL ECONOMyIn indigenous land claims settlements around the world, there is another kind of accounting taking place; one that recognises the internal economy of people and importance of ‘place’. Sustainability of place is much more complex than seasonal jobs, and measures wealth by how much labour stays in the community. This requires a long-term commit-ment to the inclusive landscape and seascape, and less focus on exports. For example, the Eastport Peninsula in Newfoundland today still derives its viability in large measure from the same indigenous resource base that attracted the original European inhabitants. Using the accounting of governments and industry (GDP), community life should, in theory, not have been sustainable on the peninsula, with its marginal fishery, impoverished soils and sub-arctic, coastal forest. But the peninsula has

remained stable and modestly prosperous by intui-tively creating economic solutions from a complex mix of forestry, fishing, farming and tourism. Today free fire wood, a rabbit in the slip and logs to build a shed mean the difference between being able to remain at home for seasonal work in tourism, local construction and at the fish plant, or moving to Alberta.

Since 1988 our company ‘Doryman Marine’ has used local forest products for construction, heat, building traditional wooden boats, and custom yacht interiors. Without these intangible ‘subsi-dies’ from the local environment of the peninsula, our company would never have been competitive globally, given the inherent disadvantages of doing business in outport Newfoundland. Not only did this keep two full-time jobs on the peninsula, but woods work meant hiring unemployed fishermen to haul out logs and marginally employed farmers to saw them. These activities fly under the radar of ACOA and the Economic Recovery Commission, but all the dollars earned and spent remain within the internal local economy of the peninsula. This contrasts sharply with the emerging trend to remov-al and export of forest resources en masse to other towns or countries while providing only short-term seasonal local work, largely eliminated by mechani-cal harvesters.

The Eastport Peninsula today is enjoying a modest construction boom but, for the first time in his-tory, the majority of the lumber is coming from off the peninsula, and most of it from outside New-foundland. Construction wages are, by Canadian standards, rock bottom. The carpenter who once augmented those wages by cutting firewood for the local market and logs for next season’s work is having to take a serious look at leaving the area and finding better pay. What has held the skilled work-ers in the local community in the past is the subsidy provided by access to forest products, not com-petitive wages that are beyond the economy of the peninsula to sustain. This demonstrates the com-plexity of the feedback loops from forest to commu-

Sustainable forests and sustainable communities: The future for forests and communities on the Eastport Peninsula of Newfoundland

Mark and Fraser Carpenter

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nity. How to ascribe a dollar value to this economy is irrelevant – it has existed since time out of mind. But once a tipping point is reached, that is, once for a hundred ill-defined reasons the economic quality of life is no longer viable for enough families, the community dies. We stress the importance of a study of the role of the forest in the internal economy of a forest management district as a prerequisite for any forest management planning. This is important because many of our rural communities supported sustaina-ble forestry operations for many generations; hence, this history is the key to understanding what works and what does not work.

HISTORy OF A FOREST– AN ENVIRONMEN-TAL PERSPECTIVEThere is a huge difference between managing trees and understanding forests, and this is why in 1992 the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers empha-sized the need to adopt ecosystem-based planning into forest management. The apparent national need to integrate other ecological interests into planning is because only holistic management strategies will be successful. Management that ig-nores the environmental history of the forest while endeavouring to serve a short-term social welfare agenda will, in the end, fail to serve the forest or sustainable communities.

The simplistic view is of forests as standing crops of fibre with a rotation cycle, yield curve, and harvesting schedule, and this betrays a profound misunderstanding of what a forest is. A forest is an entity greater than the sum of its parts; a point along a continuum that stretches, in the case of Newfoundland, back to the end of the last glacia-tion and forward into an era of changing climate. To say that a tree 60 years of age is mature and must be harvested to maximise yield; to assume that this implies this tree will be replaced in kind in another 60 years is a comfortable delusion of 20th century forest management. The forests first encountered

in Newfoundland by Europeans were the product of thousands of years of post-glacial evolution, and ma-jor herbivores such as Snowshoe Hare and Moose had not arrived. The impact of these herbivores is not going to be appreciated by one generation of forest managers. It is important to understand that our early exploitation of Newfoundland’s forests and expectations for their recovery were predicated on an anomalous herbivore-free environment. Regardless, large tracts of eastern Newfoundland, es-pecially the Avalon, were eradicated of commercial forests, many replaced by Kalmia heath lands, and the original pine clad hills are gone.

Only on preferential inland sites does Newfound-land’s boreal forest approach the diversity and productivity of mainland forests. Many areas nearer the coast, such as the Eastport Peninsula, would have been late in developing forest cover during the post-glacial era, and have still not built an inventory of soils and nutrients sufficient to support multi-rotational harvesting. Key points to understand about this forest’s history within living memory are that: 1) catastrophic fires created a one-off oppor-tunity for Black Spruce regeneration in the absence of Kalmia in central Newfoundland; and 2) the introduction of moose has virtually eliminated fir, birch, aspen and other hardwood species from stock recruitment. The forest we are familiar with today is a post-fire, pre-moose artefact that will not return. Like Humpty Dumpty, the fragments of this forest, shattered by commercial, small-scale logging and domestic cutting, can never be put back together again in their “natural” state.

FUTURE PRODUCTIVITyThe forest harvesting plans developed by the De-partment of Natural Resources (Forestry Branch) are predicated on the assumption that any stand ca-pable of producing 30 cubic metres of fibre per hec-tare a year at a rotational age of 60 years constitutes a commercial exploitable resource. We question the concept that a mature forest constitutes a stand of harvestable trees and that, once that biomass is

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removed, a similar mature forest of mature trees will return in its place.

All around the sub-Arctic, the balsam fir is under pressure from warming temperatures, invasive insect species moving north, and increased fire hazards re-sulting from less precipitation and warmer organic soils, and in Newfoundland is failing to regenerate because of over-browsing by moose, as evidenced in Terra Nova National Park after 50 years. No for-est planning that encompasses a rotation of even 60 years can now ignore this headlong collision, but we are ignoring it because government is mak-ing productivity decisions based on 20th century methodology and outdated paradigms. Any plan for commercial logging that promises reforestation is suspect because it is the forest that needs replacing, not just trees.

Outside of Terra Nova National Park (TNNP), we can find no evidence that a serious study of our terrestrial ecosystems has ever been undertaken; and it should be said that the work in TNNP has never been directed at the subject of applied silvi-culture. Our moose are managed for such absurdly high hunter success rates that forest regeneration is unsustainable, that is, if we are truly interested in maintaining our “natural” forests. Until such time as we truly understand the natural forest ecology, and what the implications are to factors such as climate change and introduced herbivores, we have no basis for presuming we can manage our forest “sustainably.” These five-year cutting plans are not based on science.

NATURAL ECOLOGy VERSUS INDUSTRIALI-ZATION OF THE FORESTCommercial logging is an industrial agenda, whereas a forest is a biological reality. This large-scale logging answers to economics, whereas forests are defined by ecology. Science clearly tells us that industrial forests have reduced biodiversity and re-silience to perturbations. The boreal forest exists in a dynamic state, often termed gap dynamics, which is to say multi-generational, because generation after

generation of mature trees cycle through the forest over long-term periods, and science now knows that such forests undisturbed by humans qualify as ‘old growth.’ While destruction in situ by fire, wind-throw and insects are part of the normal course of events, the wholesale removal of biomass through clear-cut logging is without precedent in nature and, by definition, compromises the future productivity of the forest. In other words the concept of rota-tional logging is not in keeping with the ecology of the forest and, hence, is not ecosystem-based plan-ning.

The district forest management plans proposed by the Department of Natural Resources (Forestry Branch), now supposedly approved up to 2011, are all about building roads and cutting trees. Global experience teaches that trees don’t make a forest and that access roads eventually preclude both. How can you presume to manage trees if you don’t understand forests? The study of the ecology of our forests is now imperative. The European Union re-quires any forest products imported to EU-member countries be accompanied by an audited certificate attesting to the sustainability of the source forest. Our responsibility is to hold the government ac-countable to world standards of sustainability that are backed up with solid science. It is the threat of industrial logging that removes forests from an entire generation of Newfoundlanders. We have no choice but insist on community-based management if we truly want rural Newfoundland to survive.

FOREST MANAGEMENT – WHAT, FOR WHOM AND WHENTo allow a sustainable cut that respects the forest’s productive capacity and the social and economic needs of our communities requires a harvest plan based on the internal economy of the local com-munities and, secondarily, what the district might export for other commercial ventures. We need to add a healthy margin of error, such as a 100- to 120-year rotation, a time frame prudently reflecting the age of maturity of our balsam fir forests.

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Cutting that involves the broader community in the management of their forest is an investment in future generations by creating a culture of conser-vation and custodial management in contrast to a social welfare agenda underlying the Department of Natural Resources proposal for the Eastport area. We believe there is far greater value in investing this money in locally managed forests whose first prior-ity is to serve the internal economy of the local com-munities. A sustainable working forest supporting local communities should need minimal interven-tions.

PUBLIC LANDS – TRADITIONAL TRAILS, ROADS AND ACCESS“Hike our trails” is synonymous with tourism these days, and what goes unsaid is that the hiker just might want to stay for lunch at a local restaurant, rent a cabin for a few days, go on a boat tour, or visit one of the other attractions in the area. Hence the forest contributes to the internal economy of the communities.

Building access roads destroys the traditional fabric of the landscape and opens up the country to a host of plagues that always accompany resource extrac-tion: increased motorised traffic, increased fire risk, pressure on wildlife, introduction of invasive plant species, and bisection of habitats and wildlife ter-ritories while, at the same time, creating kilometres of ‘edge’ habitat. In every country, in every case, the long-term damage done to forest ecosystems and the communities that depend on them results not so much from what comes down the road in the initial resource extraction phase, activities that are subject to environmental regulation and monitoring, but what comes up the road in years to come in the way of uncontrolled development and exploitation. Af-ter traditional trails have been cut by skidder ruts, after the country has been left wide open by graded access roads, after the natural viewscapes from our roads and scenic lookouts have been reduced to slash, then what will the highway signs say if you value nature and want to enjoy it?

TOURISM – SUSTAINABLE RESOURCE-BASED INDUSTRyWhat does adventure and the eco-tourism industry really sell? Food and sleep can be bought anyplace, so it must be something intangible, something like sandy beaches, pristine natural viewscapes, quiet trails, and tidy, self-sufficient communities. There must be a reality to this phenomenon because a second generation of visitors is returning. But this is predicated on the land and sea contributing intangible values to the internal economy of the local communities. Tourists and expatriates don’t come to look at logging trucks, clear cuts and slash piles. They don’t stroll down dusty access roads dodging kids on ATV’s or jump across skidder ruts where summer rains wash forest soils down into the local salmon spawning gravels. Travel this small globe and witness the wanton destruction of nature. Relatively pristine nature is Newfoundland and Labrador’s most valued resource.

Tourism is sustainable but not on a 60-year regen-eration cycle. What is the value of the wood that could be extracted in the short term (less subsidies, tax write-offs and accounting for resource deprecia-tion) compared to the gross value of tourism per annum? Whatever figure you choose, if you want jobs, let the trees stand; don’t build roads, don’t do anything. If you want more jobs – sustainable jobs on a year-over-year horizon – log locally, build trails; manage the forest to remain in perpetuity for the future. GLOBAL ECONOMICS – LIVING IN THE REAL WORLDLook around you. Everything you see was probably made somewhere else – somewhere with the raw materials, technology or labour force that made that product competitive globally. Why would we want to clear-cut our local forests to produce pel-lets, poor-quality, utility-grade lumber or pulp for a hundred-year-old mill with the highest fibre costs in Canada? The world isn’t exactly short of common lumber or pulp. If managed exotic pine forests in

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New Zealand, with a 30-year rotation, aren’t being replanted because markets are glutted, then why would anybody clear-cut our low-productivity forests with such a dismal outlook for regeneration? The answer might lie in Newfoundland’s long history of running social welfare programs on the back of natural resources without any consideration for global or environmental realities.

All over the world, indigenous people are putting the destruction of their forests front and centre on the world stage in an effort to garner the protection their own governments are unwilling or unable to provide. If we expect to gain sustainability standards for our cause, we are going to have to change the way we harvest our own forests, and if we respect the realities of global economics and the global move towards environmental sustainability, we can have jobs, wood, and a living forest to pass on to generations yet unborn.

DO MANAGEMENT PLANS REPRESENT COM-MUNITy VALUES?The five-year forest management plans lack even suf-ficient buffer zones around rivers, streams, ponds and wetlands to protect biodiversity and valued resources, such as salmon spawning habitat and songbird species. The proposed cutting plans make no accounting of the future of any given stand be-yond the extraction phase. How do we ensure there remain sufficient habitats for animals, other plants and birds? Whose idea was it to allow commercial logging within such short distances of communities where fuel-wood cutting is already at a premium? If this wood even were to exist in the real world, it is surely the common property of those who have cut in their own back yards since time out of mind. A community-based managed forest would have plenty of ‘real’ ground-truthed data to work with. Implicit in the proposed cutting plans is the pervasive myth that the forest is over mature, and at risk of immi-nent geriatric death by fire, insects, or senile demen-tia. One is left to wonder how our forest survived

over the thousands of years before our arrival to supervise nature’s work. Most of all, over-mature stands of forest are not an impediment to forest pro-ductivity over time, and, in fact, most of the land-scape biodiversity rests in here, and many species, such as caribou and endangered lichens, depend on these forests.

MANAGED FORESTS – THE NEW OPPORTU-NITyToday there is an opportunity to rally around the threat of commercial logging and create for our-selves community-based model forests that allow us to sustainably and profitably manage our forest for generations to come. This isn’t about losing short-term jobs that might have come out of a five-year harvesting plan – rather, it is about creating long-term jobs and opportunities in a forest managed for sustainable local use. It’s time to stop watching our forest trucked down the road to feed distant mills and markets, and empower the internal economy of our local community areas with fuel, logs and opportunity for micro businesses. What is exported are value-added products manufactured and extract-ed by small-scale entrepreneurs who, as is always the case, make the least demand of the resource for the highest return at the community and family level.

To make this happen, we need to coalesce around the concept of sustainable management and draw upon outside expertise willing and able to help us. In this day and age, communities willing to embrace sustainable management are preserving outport traditions and forests in the face of big government and big business and their rapacious designs. But to make this happen, we will have to take on the man-tle of managers and the rhetoric of sustainability. It is our hope to help evolve such a paradigm shift.

Mark and Fraser CarpenterDoryman MarineBurnside, NL(709) 677-3973dorymanmarine@hotmail.com

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Charlie Horwood Memorial Lady Slipper Orchid Walk

Karen Herzberg

The Charlie Horwood Memorial Lady Slipper Orchid Walk was led by Allan Stein on June 6th. Several hundred pink lady slippers were found at the Mt. Scio area next to the MUN small animal facility and the radio tower. Curi-ously this year the plants were all much shorter than usual, likely due to the early warm tempera-tures this spring. In many cases the lady slippers were just barely peeking above the flowering blue-berry plants. Photos by Karen Herzberg.

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The Night Sky July – August 2009

The star chart above shows the sky in eastern Newfoundland at 11:30 pm on 1 August 2009. The chart will be useful for July and August. You will notice that the chart shows East on the left and West on the right. The chart is intended to be held over the head looking up at the sky. Hold the chart up to the sky and rotate the chart until North on the chart points towards North from your location. Note the Moon subtends an angle of 0.5 degrees and since the moon is easy to identify it is used as a reference in the commentary for the chart.

WARNING: Never point binoculars or telescopes at the sun. Serious eye damage will result.

For more information contact frsmith@mun.ca

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Star Chart Commentary July - August 2009 By Frederick R. Smith

THE PLANETS IN JULY 2009

Mercury is too close to the sun for observing this month.

Venus is still an early morning planet. In mid- July you will find it to the left of the bright star Aldebaran in Taurus. Higher up in that area you will find Mars and higher up the Pleiades. Also in mid-July the moon will be in this area. It is time to get out the binoculars and camera.

Mars rises about a half hour before the sun and will be below the Pleiades.

Jupiter is in Capricorn and rises in the south-east before sunset. It will be easy to find being the brightest object in the area. It will rise as Saturn sets. On 13 July Jupiter will be 0.6 degrees south of Neptune.

Saturn is low in the sky in the west at sunset. If you have a telescope you will see the rings tilted a little less than 3 degrees and by the end of the month even less. The rings are almost edge on.

THE MOON IN JULY

7 Full Moon. This will be the smallest moon in 2009 7 Moon at apogee 15 Last Quarter Moon 0.5 degrees north of Pleiades 21 Moon at perigee. Expect high tides. 22 New Moon 28 First Quarter

OBSERVATIONS 28 Delta Aquarid meteor shower

THE PLANETS IN AUGUST 2009

Mercury is visible low in the west just after sunset. It will be very near the star Regulus at the beginning of the month. Saturn will be on the upper left of Mercury.

Venus is still an early morning planet rising in the ENE an hour before the sun.

Mars is a morning planet, rises in the NE about 1:30 am at the beginning of the month and a little earlier by the end of the month.

Jupiter, at the beginning of the month, rises before sunset and by the time it is dark the bright planet can be easily seen in the south east. At mid-month Jupiter will rise at sunset and set at sunrise and cross your north-south line at mid-night. It is at opposition. For those who like to observe Jupiter’s four large moons, at the beginning of the month the planet will be close, in direction, to a background star and “appear” to have another moon for a few days.

Saturn will be too close to the horizon at sunset for observation.

THE MOON IN AUGUST

4 Moon at apogee 5-6 Penumbral lunar eclipse no visible change. Full moon 13 Last Quarter 14 Moon 0.5 degrees N of Pleiades 17 Moon 1.7 degrees north of Venus 19 Moon at perigee 20 New Moon27 First Quarter 31 Moon at apogee

OBSERVATIONS 12 Perseid meteor shower peaks

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In St. John’s we are blessed with beautiful natural waterways, providing opportunities for recreation, and general enjoyment of nature. Studies have shown that in undamaged and restored sections of the city rivers, the biomass (weight per unit area) of trout is greater than recorded elsewhere. Such green areas and association with nature in cities have been shown to be beneficial for health, and are to be cherished. In earlier years less enlightened souls appeared to regard this as a challenge, and in the name of progress channelized or put underground many lovely streams. I have a copy of a letter written by the late Don Barton for the Natural History Society (NHS) in 1968 in which he laments “the turning of O’Leary’s Brook into a ditch, the filling of the Long Pond Marshes …. The destruction of Burton’s Pond…..a branch of the Virginia River has been ditched and put underground …….The Virginia River was a good trout stream one year ago, and in addition had a heavy run of small sea trout.” In a

submission by the NHS to the St. John’s Municipal Plan in 1984 by Bill Montevecchi and Don Steele, they suggest that the system of streams and ponds and their surroundings should be recognized as the jewels they are within the city and treated with the respect they deserve. The Rennies and Waterford rivers are unique natural wonders within the city that enhance property values, provide recreation and relaxation areas through a major portion of the city and support a diversity of fish, bird and other wildlife. It is in the city’s best interest to preserve these beautiful waterways. To view these rivers as simply a drainage device which can be defiled by channelization, unbuffered storm sewers and the clearance of bank-side vegetation will be a misguided course of immense proportions. In response to stream destruction, several environmental groups (Rennies River Committee, Friends and Lovers of the Waterford River, Virginia River Conservation Society, SAEN and Natural History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador) undertook remedial

Our city rivers:how far have we progressed?

R. John Gibson

A tributary of Flynn’s Brook, April 23, 2009. Note storm sewer outfall directly into the stream, culverts as barriers to migra-tion, and vertical gabions (which eventually collapse).

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work in damaged streams to restore, where possible, the natural habitats by in-stream structures, such as boulder clusters, and by planting bank-side vegetation. In 1981 the city commissioned a sub-committee of the Beautification Committee on Streams, Ponds and Linear Parks, and later a Waterways Conservation Committee. The NHS was represented on these committees. Many of the recommendations of these committees were implemented. Federal, provincial and city authorities undertook a number of studies. Subsequently the Department of Fisheries and Oceans published a useful report on guidelines for protection of fish habitat in the city (deGraaf 1983). However, problems persist. Our society, amongst others, has endeavoured over the years to emphasise the value of our city rivers, with studies, field trips, presentations and publications. We have provided information on conserving rivers as living ecosystems, by conserving diversity of habitat, including bank-side vegetation, for the benefit of

stream life, habitat for all stages of fish, associated flora and fauna, and the use of natural streams for metabolizing nutrients and toxins down the length of the stream. Nevertheless, presently there is a lack of both communication and cooperation with city authorities. As the city expands, destructive practices continue, streams are channelized, and storm sewers are incorrectly installed, aggravating potential flooding and lowering water quality. Developers simply ignore guidelines. Adequate legislation for the protection and preservation of our urban water resources presently exists under the federal government’s Fisheries Act. However, there seems to be difficulty enforcing the regulations. The proper treatment of streams and waterways has been known for a very long time, e.g., controlling bank erosion with sloping banks and vegetation (Binns 1986) and protection of the aquatic environment (DFO 1978, 1998). In the minutes of the City’s Waterway Conservation Committee held on February 25, 1987, storm sewer outflows were discussed, and “information

A standard intrusive and ugly storm sewer outfall, constructed on the Rennies River trail this spring.

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respecting Conservation Areas in Ontario was provided, as well as some abstracts regarding modern concepts in urban drainage, for the committee’s information and study. It was pointed out that stabilization of water discharge is the key in terms of maintaining and enhancing fish habitat in a stream.” There was at one time interest by the city in improving our waterways, but unfortunately this committee was disbanded. I have a report by the Environmental Protection Service (Environment Canada), published in 1988. It is a very thorough study of the city rivers, including water chemistry and pollution analyses. They reported that “discharges from storm sewers during wet and dry weather represent the primary source of contaminants. These discharges are subject to the province’s Environmental (Water and Sewer) control regulations. The impact of these discharges on receiving waters dictates that attention be given to their compliance with freshwater aquatic life and recreational guidelines.”

The report describes and recommends a number of control strategies, none of which I believe has been implemented. In describing previous damage and, in particular, channelization, the report notes that “the ability of the Rennies River system to provide fish habitat has been seriously compromised. These alterations have also exacerbated the flooding problem in the watershed by increasing the hydraulic efficiency of the stream and by the destruction of the natural retentive features (bogs, ponds, marshes) in the system.” The report mentions that outflows can be designed to blend in with their environment to minimize their detrimental impact on aesthetics. Also a buffer zone of rock rubble and vegetation at the point of discharge can mitigate the impacts of dry and wet weather flows to receiving waters. As an example of my concern, and what prompted me on April 23rd to write this article, is what I saw while driving down Commonwealth Avenue in Mount Pearl when I glanced down Flynn’s Brook as I crossed it. I was horrified to see

Flynn’s Brook, April 23, 2009

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what ignorant asses have done to this brook. This brook is one of the few that still has abundant brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) stocks, due to an inaccessible waterfall where it enters the Waterford River. In most of our city rivers, the brown trout (Salmo trutta) has outcompeted the native brook trout. Some years ago one fall, Beni Malone took me to see brook trout spawning in this brook. I have never seen so many at one time before (at least a hundred, although we did not count them). In the pools and under the bank, at first one saw many small white stripes. These were, of course, the white stripes on the leading edges of the pectoral and pelvic fins. It was a marvelous sight which I will never forget. This section is now a lifeless ditch, with trees and bank-side vegetation removed and the stream channelized (see photos), destroyed evidently last fall and this spring. Also new storm sewers from a new development are led directly into the stream (now a ditch). Any attempt to incorporate recommended retention devices for storm sewers (catch basins, holding ponds or even constructing them to run through vegetation to collect sediments back from the stream) is ignored, and the standard ugly concrete eyesore constructed for the outlets. One wonders why, despite adequate regulations, clear guidelines and modern environmental awareness, there is still incompetent treatment of our waterways. Probably developers don’t know the difference, and engineers and planners who presumably authorize the work, with their interests and training, could not care less about a natural stream. They apparently do not have the foggiest idea how streams’ ecosystems work, but do not bother to seek advice from professional stream ecologists or collaborate with scientists and environmental groups. Is this ignorance, or just arrogance? How do we get them into the 21st century? We must somehow let councilors and politicians know that the majority of us are unhappy with the trivialization of the natural environment, and that city waterways must not be regarded simply as open sewers, but given the

respect they are due.

ReferencesBinns, N.A. 1985. Stabilizing eroding stream banks

in Wyoming. Wyoming Game and Fish Department. 42 pp.

deGraaf, D. 1983. Urban Development: Guidelines for protection of Fish Habitat in Insular Newfoundland. Canada, Department of Fisheries and Oceans. LGL Ltd., St. John’s. 95 pp.

Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 1978. Guidelines for Land Development and Protection of the Aquatic Environment. Fisheries and Marine Service Technical Report No. 807. 55 pp.

Gosse, M.M., A.S. Power, D.E. Hyslop, and S.L. Pierce. 1998. Guidelines for Protection of Freshwater Fish Habitat in Newfoundland and Labrador. Department of Fisheries and Oceans. 113 pp.

R. John Gibsonrjgibson@nf.sympatico.ca

Nature Note

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A lichen is an organism created by a physical and physiological incorporation of two or

more organisms into one new structure, resulting in a different morphological shape from that of the component organisms; one of the partners (symbionts) is always a fungus and the other(s) an alga and/or a cyanobacterium 1. The lichen is known by the name of the fungus because the fungus is the dominant partner in this arrangement: it encloses its smaller symbiont(s) in fungal tissue to form the new organism and determines the shape of the lichen thallus (lichen “leaf”). The partners may be able to exist independently, although in most cases they are obligate associates, unable to live without a symbiont. Because both partners as well as their associations have evolved in varied ways at varied times, lichens do not form a phylogenetic, evolutionary or taxonomic group, but are defined by their physiology. Most of the fungi that form lichens are ascomycetes (sac fungi); about one-half of all ascomycetes are only found as lichens. Only some 20 basidiomycetes (fungi that usually make fruiting bodies with a cap and stem—mushrooms) form lichens. Genus Multiclavula was proposed by Ron Petersen, a member of our Foray faculty in 2006, to include a group of club shaped mushrooms with some microscopic similarities, all but one seemingly obligate associates of other organisms 2. The lichenized members of the genus straddle the lichen border: they enclose their algal partners in small capsules of mycelial tissue, but virtually unstructured, these algal capsules appear as a green granular scum on the surfaces where the mushroom fruits 3 (Botrydina in older lichen texts). Both symbionts remain recognizable by their separate morphology. Thus, as far as the definition of lichen is concerned, the combination of obligate symbionts is present, but the relationship is so loose that it is doubtful whether this combination can

be considered a new organism, as opposed to two closely allied but separate organisms. We probably have only two species of this small genus in Newfoundland and Labrador, M. mucida and M. vernalis. The former is sufficiently common to be described in texts for our region by Barron 4 and McNeil 5, as well as in many texts from other regions in North America. Rare in Europe and threatened in many countries 6, it seems to be found on all continents, save Antarctica. M. vernalis is also reported globally, but limited to arcto-alpine habitats, often as a pioneer species in moist pioneer soils. (Pioneer soils are soils newly formed from the crumbling of rock caused by constant freeze and thaw, and pioneer species are the first species of complex organisms to move into these soils, after algae and bacteria.) In North America, it is an eastern species and has been reported from western Labrador in 1963 7. In 2008 we collected M. mucida from the Corduroy Pond Trail near Grand Falls-Windsor and the Notre Dame Park Ski Trail, both in central Newfoundland, and M. vernalis from two places in central Labrador, both within 3 km of our base camp at Konrad Brook Pond (56° 13’ 08.4” N, 62° 46’ 37.6” W). Both were in depressed moist areas of relatively bare soil, although not true pioneer soil. Figure 1 shows both species in situ. We offer this communication because both

1. occupy an interesting place at the edges of the lichen world,

2. are likely the only species of the genus in our province and

3. are rare: M. mucida in much of the world and M. vernalis here.

Multiclavula mucida (Fries) PetersenCap: 0.2-0.5 x 0.5-1.5 mm, fusiform, occasionally branched, often bent, sticky (note adherence of small debris) pale yellow or pinkish with darker pointed tip. Stem: white translucent, about one-half as thin and short as cap, arising from small

Multiclavula in Newfoundland and Labrador Andrus Voitk 1, Esteri Ohenoja 2

1 Humber Village, Newfoundland and Labrador2 Botanical Museum, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland

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area of white mycelium. Habitat: hardwood or mixed forest. Substrate: barkless log, probably hardwood, covered with green scum of Coccomyxa. Habit: Gregarious. Season: Throughout the season, summer and fall. Multiclavula vernalis (Schweinitz) PetersenCap: 1-8 x 10-27 mm, clavate to truncate, with furrows and knobs, glabrous, pale orange, tip sometimes white. Stem: 2-5 x 5-10 mm, cylindrical,

often bent, white, arising from very small area of white mycelium. Habitat: moist areas of bare soil. Substrate: bare soil covered with green scum of Coccomyxa. Habit: Gregarious. Season: entire season (short summer). DiscussionThe question of whether these organisms are true lichens or not may be somewhat confusing. Perhaps it is easier to consider them as an extreme form of

Figure 1. Multiclavula mucida, top, photographed in Central Newfoundland and M. vernalis, bottom, photographed in central Labrador.

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ectomycorrhizal fungi. Ectomycorrhizal fungi form a mutualistic relationship with plants (symbionts), most commonly trees. They give water and minerals from the soil to the tree in return for some sugars. This exchange occurs through the mycelial mantle around root tips, a covering of these by a layer of mycelial tissue. Obviously, this is not possible if the symbiont is a unicellular organism like an alga. In this case, might the thin envelope around the entire organism be the equivalent of the mycelial mantle? Genetic studies have placed Multiclavula in the Cantharellales—the cantharelloid clade—a group containing the genera Catharellus, Clavulina, Craterellus, Hydnum, Sistotrema and others 8. All of the other genera in that clade are ectomycorrhizal fungi. A lichen might seem an odd misfit in that company until one accepts the idea that in the case of Multiclavula the ectomycorrhizal association is modified for a unicellular organism. For a fertile imagination, aided by similar speculations of Kuo 9, these two multiclavulas provide fodder to ponder mushroom evolution further. The step from a “true” coral mushroom to a single-stranded coral like M. mucida is easy to accept. Since both are multiclavulas, the step from M. mucida to M. vernalis is a given. The similarity of some of the stouter, more furrowed M. vernalis to the larger Clavariadelphus pistillaris and C. truncatus is difficult to miss. It seems a small step from the clefts and their intervening ridges of M. vernalis to the more defined ones of C. pistillaris and from there to the defined folds of Gomphus. The step from Gomphus to Cantharellus is again small. Finally, by this stage the progress from chanterelle to a gilled mushroom does not require much additional imagination. For more information about our forays and their results, please visit our website <www.nlmushrooms.ca>, where you will find reports and species lists for all our forays.SummaryTwo members of the small genus Multiclavula, one relatively common and one relatively uncommon,

found in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2008, are reported. Contemplation on their physiology and morphology opens some questions, if not insights, into the nature of lichens and allows for some speculation about the evolutionary relationships of fungi.References

1. Brodo IM, Sharnoff SD, Sharnoff S: Lichens of North America. Yale University Press, New Haven CT; 2001.

2. Petersen RH: Notes on clavarioid fungi. VII. Redefinition of the Clavaria vernalis-C. mucida complex. The American Midland Naturalist, 77:205-221; 1967.

3. Oberwinkler F: Fungus-alga interactions in Basidiolichens. Beihefte zur Nova Hedwigia 79:739-774. Festschrift J Poelt. 739-774; 1984

4. Barron G: Mushrooms of Ontario and eastern Canada. Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton AB; 1999.

5. McNeil R: Le grand livre des champignons du Québec et de l�est du Canada. Editions Michel Quintin, Waterloo QC; 2006.

6. Randlane T, Jüriado I et al: Lichens in the new Red List of Estonia. Folia cryptogramma estonica, 44:113-120; 2008.

7. Kallio P, Kankainen E: Notes on the macromycetes of Finnish Lapland and adjacent Finnmark. Ann. Univ. Turku A II 32: 178-235, 1964.

8. Moncalvo JM, Nilsson RH et al: The cantharelloid clade: dealing with incongruent gene trees and phylogenetic reconstruction methods. Mycologia, 98:937-948; 2006.

9. Kuo M: The evolution of a great-big headache: “understanding” mushroom taxonomy and phylogeny. TheMushroomExpert.Com web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/kuo_05.html; 2003.

LegendFigure 1. Multiclavula mucida, top, photographed in Central Newfoundland and M. vernalis, bottom, photographed in central Labrador. Note the green scum (Botrydina) covering the substrate in both cases, unmistakable but less obvious on the mud of the lower photo. Also note the similarity of some of the more mature M. vernalis specimens to Clavariadelphus pistillaris or truncatus.

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Baillie Birdathon May 30, 2009 (6:00am – 5:00pm)

Anne HughesKenny’s PondBarn Swallow American CrowMallardAmerican Black DuckRock PigeonEuropean StarlingRing-billed GullHerring Gull

Virginia LakeNorthern PintailYellow WarblerCommon GrackleGreat Black-backed GullSpotted SandpiperAmerican RobinDark-eyed Junco

Lundrigan’s MarshAmerican BitternSwamp SparrowAmerican GoldfinchWilson’s Snipe

Quidi Vidi LakeGlaucous GullIceland GullSong Sparrow

Blackhead/Cape SpearNorthern GannetBlack-legged KittiwakeCommon MurreBlack GuillemotBald EagleSavannah SparrowCommon YellowthroatHermit ThrushBoreal ChickadeeRuby-crowned KingletGolden-crowned KingletYellow-rumped WarblerBlackpoll WarblerBlack & White WarblerWilson’s WarblerNorthern WaterthrushWhite-throated SparrowFox SparrowPurple Finch

Maddox Cove & GouldsAmerican RedstartBlue Jay

Common TernTree SwallowBank SwallowOspreyHouse Sparrow

MobileEastern Kingbird

St. Michael’sNorthern FulmarAtlantic PuffinRazorbillDouble-crested CormorantBlack-capped Chickadee

La Manche Provincial ParkBlack-throated Green WarblerTennessee WarblerCommon RavenNorthern Flicker

Cape BroyleCommon Loon

FerrylandCanada GooseBelted Kingfisher

RenewsWilletGreater YellowlegsGreen-winged Teal

Bear CoveRed-breasted MerganserPine Grosbeak

Biscay BayWhite-winged ScoterSurf Scoter

TrepasseyRing-necked DuckLong-Tailed Duck

St. Catherine’sGrey Jay

TOTAL = 71 Species

Weather: overcast with sunny breaks, then rain beginning around noon. SE wind 15 – 40; Temp. 5 – 8 degrees

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The CBC took place in Miquelon on December 20; we found 49 species for 6098 individuals. In St-Pierre, 50 species for 4517 individuals were tallied on December 14. The details won’t be provided here, except for rare species, as all the data is now available on Audubon website. I was absent from the islands between late January and mid-March.

Red-throated Loon: Three observations in December, one off Mirande lake on Dec. 3 (RE); One in St. Pierre on December 14, and 3 in Miquelon on December 20 (CBC)Common Loon: No concentration reported although the bird was present as usual around the islands. In fact, I just realized that, contrary to the heading above, it is hard to avoid mentioning the CBC as many people are out on that day resulting in highest number recorded, this was the case in Miquelon with 54 birds on December 20 while 5 only were tallied in St. Pierre on December 14 (m. ob.).Red-necked Grebe: Where are the concentrations of some past years ? 42 were in St. Pierre on December 14 (CBC). Few birds were reported elsewhere except 28 off Cape Miquelon on December 30 (RE).Double-crested Cormorant: 3 in Miquelon on December 14 (LJ) and 2 in St. Pierre (CBC).Great Cormorant: There was a maximum of 44 in St. Pierre on December 14, probably more, as observers reported 21 cormorant species (m. ob.). One of the favourite area for the species, from fall to spring, is Cape Miquelon where 28 were present on December 30 (RE).Great blue Heron: One in St. Pierre between December 13 and December 28 (PHA/PA/PB) came close to the latest record date of December 29 in the year 2000.Snow Goose: The individual that arrived in St. Pierre last July spent the whole winter there (m. ob.).Canada Goose: Somewhat odd are these records for St. Pierre this winter: one near the town on Dec. 27 (PB); 1 on the southern part of the island on Jan. 14 and 15 (LJ). 4 in the harbour on January

29 and 30 (PB/LJ).Wood Duck: One female in St. Pierre on December 10 and 12 (PHA) offered a first CBC record for St. Pierre on December 14, last seen on December 21 (PA).American Wigeon: On in St. Pierre on December 12 (PB) was joined by another bird on December 10, both stayed to the end of the period (PB/PA).American Black duck: Highest numbers at Grand Barachois were as follow: 687 on December 4 (LJ); about 600 on January 9 (RE). No census in February. As usual, when Grand Barachois is partly frozen, some of the birds move to another area. So, on January 20 there were 477 at Grand Barachois and 90 near the village of Miquelon (LJ). One hundred were near the village on February 1 (LJ). In St. Pierre they were respectively 50 and 80 on February 11 and 16 (BL). In St. Pierre this time near the town there was a group of about 14 throughout the season, in company with domestic fowl (PA).Mallard: One female was in St. Pierre from December 4 to February 24 (PA).Northern Pintail: All data for St. Pierre : one female appeared near the town on December 30 (PA/PB) and one was at Ile aux Marins (near St. Pierre ) on January 9 (LJ). There was a male on January 14 (LJ) and two males between February 4 and 28 (LJ).Green-winged Teal: One male was in St. Pierre on January 3 (BL).Greater Scaup: About 70 birds spent the winter on the salt pond near the village of Miquelon (RE) although there was a maximum of 87 birds on Feb. 21 (LJ). One bird was in St. Pierre on Jan. 18 (FPA/PA) and 23 (JD).King Eider: One adult male was photographed in St. Pierre in a flock of Common Eiders on January 13 (LJ).Common Eider: Maximum numbers for St. Pierre : 5300 on December 29 (BL), about 4000 on January 13 and about 3000 on February 15 (BL). Maximum for Miquelon: About 3000 were off the cape of Miquelon on December 29 (LJ); about 3200, same area on January 31 (BL). One report

The winter season (2008/2009) in St-Pierre et Miquelon

Roger Etcheberry

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only in February : 700 birds of Mirande Lake on the 24th). It is worth noting that while the 5300 were seen in St. Pierre by BL, LJ had about 3000 off Cape Miquelon for a grand total of more than 8000 birds.Harlequin Duck: All data for St. Pierre 40 were off the south-west coast on December 7 (PHA) while 17 only were seen during the CBC a week later. Maximum was 48, same area on December 17 (LJ). Few were present in January with 2 reports only for respectively 8 and 2 birds on January 13 and 29 (LJ/BL). There was a maximum of 32 birds on February 16 (BL).Surf Scoter: Few reports. 200 birds were seen on December 20 near the north-eastern corner of the Isthmus (LJ/SA). about 15 were off Mirande lake on December 30 (RE). White-winged Scoter: Data probably do not reflect reality. About 100 off Mirande lake on December 3 and 4 (RE). 146 counted during the CBC while 386 were “Scoter sp.” reflecting below average weather conditions. 4 were reported by BL at Ile aux Marins (near St. Pierre) on February 27 (BL).Black Scoter: Four birds were with Common Eiders off St. Pierre on December 14 (LJ). 150 were tallied during the CBC, near the north-east coast of the Isthmus, close to the maximum of 186 back in 1979 !Long-tailed Duck: About as usual, although, as mentioned for several years in a row now, it seems somewhat on the low side (m. ob.). Bufflehead: Rather rare in St. Pierre, one male was present between Dec. 1 and 11 (PB/LJ/PA) while it was joined by a second one. Both provided a first for St. Pierre CBC. Last seen for that island on January 9 (PA). One male and one female were at Grand Barachois on December 20 (LJ/SA).Common Goldeneye: About as usual, they were slightly above 100 at Grand Barachois throughout the season (LJ/RE). They were at least 150 on January 15 (RE).Barrow’s Goldeneye : One male was at Grand Barachois on December 2 and 21 (LJ).Hooded Merganser: The female that was in St.

Pierre on November 23 stayed until December 14, thus providing a first for the CBC.Red-breasted Merganser: Common around the islands about as usual. Usually rare in St. Pierre, there are several reports for up to 10 individuals in February (m.ob.).Bald Eagle : About as usual. We were lucky during the Miquelon CBC with a record high of 8 adults and 7 immature. Maximum was 3 in St. Pierre on December 14. Sharp-shinned Hawk: All sighting in St. Pierre, one bird seen somewhat irregularly throughout the season (m. ob.).Northern Goshawk: All reports from Miquelon or Langlade, one bird at a time between December 2 and February 21 (LJ/BL). Merlin: A single report of one bird “obviously exhausted” on the Isthmus on February 22 (LJ).Peregrine Falcon: One in St. Pierre on December 14 (PHA/JD), one on the southern part of the Isthmus on December 20 and one in cape Miquelon on January 31 (BL).American Coot: The two birds that were near the town of St. Pierre since November 1 were last seen on December 14 (m. ob.).Black-bellied Plover: 6 birds were still on the Isthmus by December 2 (LJ). One that possibly escaped our attention during the CBC was near Grand Barachois on December 27 (RE). In St. Pierre one bird was seen on the southern part of the island between December 24 and January 16 (LJ). Red Knot: 3 birds were at Grand Barachois on December 20 (RE). Rather unusual was one in St. Pierre on January 10 (PA). Two only were near the village of Miquelon on January 20 and 23 (LJ/RE).Sanderling: 24 birds, on the Isthmus on December 14 was a record high (23 last year ! ) 3 or 4 birds were near Grand Barachois on December 27 (RE) and one was on the north-western corner of Langlade on Jan. 20 (LJ).White-Rumped Sandpiper: Three were in St. Pierre on December 1 (PB) while 2 were near Grand Barachois the next day (LJ).Purple Sandpiper: 95 tallied during the St. Pierre

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CBC were about half the number seen last year. 93 during Miquelon CBC, were not an exciting number either ! Several reports throughout the season of relatively low numbers, there was a maximum of 61 near the village of Miquelon on February 21 and 37 at Grand Barachois the same day (LJ). Dunlin: One was in St. Pierre harbour on December 1 (LJ). Three were near the north-eastern corner of the Isthmus on December 20 (LJ/SA). Wilson’s Snipe: One was in St. Pierre between January 26 and 31 (PA) and one (same ?) between February 20 and 27, same general area (PHA). Black-headed Gull: Reported only for St. Pierre, throughout the season for a maximum of 14 birds (m. ob.). Ring-billed Gull: Two adults and 1 immature were seen throughout the season near the harbour of St. Pierre (m; ob.). Iceland Gull: For reasons explained above, the highest counts were during the CBC with 110 in St. Pierre and 112 in Miquelon. Glaucous Gull: Never common here. 14 in St. Pierre on January 20 (immature 1st and 2nd winter) were rather unusual (PA). About 10 were same area on January 29 (PB).Ivory Gull : One bird was well described by Denis Detcheverry near Mirande lake on January 12. Searching for the bird the next day I found it (or another one! ) along the West coast of Miquelon. One immature was in St. Pierre harbour on January 13 (PA) and one adult on the 14 and 16 (PHA/PA).Dovekie: Either there were few observers out or no migration passed near our islands this winter ! There was a maximum of 79 birds seen during the CBC in Miquelon on December 20. A few dozens were in St. Pierre harbour in January, slowly diminishing to just a few a the end of the month (PA). Thick-billed Murre: Only the few birds coming to the harbour or near the coast are reported during the winter, a period very few people go at sea. Black Guillemot: About as usual. There was a total of 387 tallied on the two CBC.

Mourning Dove: All data for St. Pierre, a maximum of 9 birds seemed to have been present throughout the season (JD/PHA).Snowy Owl: A fairly good season for the species. We had a record high of 11 for St-Pierre CBC while 2 only were seen in Miquelon during the same event. No more report for Miquelon while a few birds were present in St. Pierre throughout the season (m. ob.). Boreal Owl: All reports for St. Pierre : one bird on January 26 (LJ). One male singing in St. Pierre on February 1 and 2 and also on the 19 (JD). One was photographed in the town on March 5 by Guy Jugan.Black-backed Woodpecker: One seen and photographed by PB in St. Pierre on December 14 was a first for this CBC. It was seen again, same area on February 2 (LJ).Northern Flicker: One only seen in St. Pierre on December 14 (FPA).Northern Shrike: One bird at a time seen in St. Pierre and in Miquelon between December 14 and January 21 (LJ). Two birds were seen in St. Pierre by LJ, in pursuit of each other and screaming, on January 30.Blue Jay: None reported for Miquelon. A few in St. Pierre for a maximum of 7 birds during the CBC (m. ob.). Horned Lark: We had a record high of 56 birds during the Miquelon CBC. A few birds over-wintered as usual in Miquelon, Isthmus and Langlade as usual (LJ/RE).Black-capped Chickadee: One bird seen only once in St. Pierre on January 11 (LJ).Boreal Chickadee: On the low side during the two CBC and in general. Red-breasted Nuthatch: A few birds (1 to 4 at a time) were in St. Pierre between December 14 and February 19 (JD/LJ/PB).Golden-crowned Kinglet: 5 reports only, few birds at a time between December 14 and February 28 (FPA/JD).American Robin: About 50 birds were near the east coast of Miquelon on December 5 (LJ). One to two individuals were seen from time to time

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between December 20 and January 16 (m. ob.). American Pipit: 9 were seen on the west coast of Langlade on December 20. One was alone near Grand Barachois on February 21 (LJ).Bohemian Waxwing: About 150 were near Mirande lake on December 3 and about 15, near the south coast of Miquelon on December 6 (LJ). About 12 were in the town of St. Pierre on December 16 (LJ). Variable numbers (between 1 to 30) were seen from time to time up to January 16 (m. ob.). Fox Sparrow: One bird was reported in several feeders throughout the season (PHA/FPA/JD). Although St. Pierre is quite small we can’t exclude that there was more than one individual present.Song Sparrow: 4 seen during Miquelon CBC was the only report for that island. 1 to 2 birds were seen regularly in St. Pierre throughout the season, as usual (m. ob.). Dark-eyed Junco: 90 during the St. Pierre CBC is second to the 107 of last year. Only 9 were seen in Miquelon during the same event. Pretty good numbers were reported at various feeders throughout the season in St. Pierre (m. ob.). Lapland Longspur: Eight birds were tallied during the Miquelon CBC, one near the village, the others on the southern part of the Isthmus. There were respectively 1 and 3 near the village on January 13 and 21 (RE).Snow Bunting: 500 during the Miquelon CBC is a record high and not a rough estimate. It happened that the addition of the data of all the observers amounted to exactly 500 ! … Fairly common throughout the season, about as usual. Dickcissel : Two birds were at PA’s feeder on December 3 and 4 and one only between December 5 and 11. and again one between December 20 and 24. Three were at DG’s feeder between December 1 and 3. Common Grackle: 5 were at FD’s feeder on December 20, and 3 throughout the rest of the season (LJ).Pine Grosbeak: Very few reports : 6 on the southern part of Miquelon on December 6 (LJ). 8, all near the east coast of Miquelon on December

20 (LJ/DG/BL/SA). About ten in St. Pierre seen by Philippe Hacala on December 20 (PA).Purple Finch : 7 reports between December 24 and February 18 all in St. Pierre 1 to 4 birds at a time (PA/FPA/PHA/JD).White-winged Crossbill: 56 during St. Pierre CBC is second to the 66 of 2001. Several reports to mid February, mostly in St. Pierre, for a maximum of 300 birds on January 28 (LJ) and 90 on January 13 (JD).Common Redpoll: 3 reports only, 1 to 8 birds, in St. Pierre only between Dec. 20 and February 19 (LJ/PB). Pine Siskin: Up to three birds only reported at feeders between December 14 and February 3 (FPA/PHA). American Goldfinch: Only 12 during the St. Pierre CBC apparently do not reflect the actual numbers as numbers reported at various feeders implies at least 50 to 60 birds present (DG/FPA/PHA/JD/PA).

Contributors: Frédéric & Patricia Allen-Mahé (FPA); Sylvie Allen-Mahé (SA); Pascal Asselin (PA); Patrick Boez (PB); Joël Detcheverry (JD) ; Dominique Gouverne: DG; Patrick Hacala (PHA); Laurent Jackman (LJ); Bruno Letournel (BL).

Miquelon, March 31, 2009Roger Etcheberry

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This award is named in memory of Dr. Leslie M. Tuck and Captain Harry Walters.

Dr. Les Tuck was Newfoundland’s first Dominion Wild-life Officer, and Harry Walters was the Director of the Newfoundland Rangers Force. Following Confederation with Canada, Dr. Tuck headed the Canadian Wildlife Service in the province—a position he held for more than twenty-five years. In the latter part of his long and distinguished career, Dr. Tuck held the L. J. Paton Research Professorship in the Psychology Department of Memorial University. He was instrumental in the reactivation of the Natural History Society in the 1950’s. Captain Harry Walters served for many years as the Head of the Newfoundland Wildlife Division, which he was instrumental in establishing.

Both Walters, working provincially, and Tuck, work-ing federally, were instrumental in establishing our province’s first seabird reserves (Funk Island, Cape St. Mary’s, Witless Bay, and Hare Bay) and the former Avalon Wilderness Area. Their combined efforts put natural history awareness, protection and apprecia-tion on a solid footing in Newfoundland and Labrador. Although they were employed in resource conserva-tion and management careers, their enthusiasm and dedication transcended their duties, and it is for these qualities that the society has chosen to honor their memory with this award.

The Tuck/Walters Award is discretionary - it does not have to be given out every year. On the other hand, it may be given to more than one recipient if the Nomi-nating Committee feels this is appropriate. Successful

candidates are individuals who have made outstanding and enduring contributions to the advancement of natu-ral history appreciation and protection in Newfoundland and Labrador, outside the parameters of their employ-ment responsibilities.

Tuck/Walters Award WinnersDr. Don Barton Gregory MitchellGeorge Brinson Michael NolanBill Davis Dr. Harold PetersDr. John Gibson Dr. Roger Tory PetersonDr. Leslie Harris Tony PowerStephen Herder Dr. Don SteeleCharlie Horwood Clyde TuckBernard Jackson Laura JacksonHenry Mann Lois BatemanJon Lien

For more information or to make a nomination for the Tuck/Walters Award, contact:Dr. Bill MontevecchiChair, Tuck/Walters Award CommitteeCognitive and Behavioral Ecology ProgramMemorial University of NewfoundlandSt. John’s, NL A1B 3X9 Telephone: 737-7673 E-mail: mont@mun.ca

Tuck/Walters AwardNominations are invited

Gift Ideas from the Natural History Society

Society Memberships - Any time is a great time to give a membership to the Natural History Society, which includes four issues of The Osprey and notices of all society functions. $25.00.

Society Lapel Pins - four-colour enamel pins reproduce the society’s The Osprey, designed by John Maunder, in blue, brown and white on a gold back: Oval. $3.00.

Society Jacket Crest - based on the original “half moon” design drawn by Newfoundland artist Regi-nald Shepherd, featuring a stylized osprey snatching a fish. Embroidered in five colours, approximately 4” wide by 1 3/4” high. $4.00.

Getting to Know the Weeds - the collected writings of Charlie Horwood, a long-serving member of the society and a thoughtful and insightful naturalist with a gift for capturing his views of the natural world in writing. 160-page book with over fifty of Charlie’s best short pieces. Soft cover. $14.95.

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