2012 Christmas Bird Count Announced!

Saturday

December 22

Birds can be counted during the 24 hours of Saturday December 22nd.

This is roughly the count circle.

There is a field watch and a feeder watch data collection opportunities. Come join us.

Details and information read more

Now the White pine seams Frosty!!

Today I drove past the large White pine with a seam from top to bottom, 


It was covered in frost.  The entire area is covered in frost. 

                                                                

It is so pretty to see the area covered in a white frosting covering everything.

I also stopped and took some closer pictures of a younger White pine that was covered in old man jack frost. 

 I bought a Sony digital video camera and I just can't wait to find something interesting in the forest to film. A 10 second video of the forest growing may  be a little boring, but maybe I will get to film a tree being used by a forest creature.

Thinking about Earth Day.  This year the Earth Day theme will work well with the UN International Year of Forests. Get a tree on Earth Day and plant it in the spring, a forest is created one tree at a time!


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Black Ash Blue Sky Frosty Morning

Black Ash Blue Sky Frosty Morning

February 05, 2010. The sky was so blue, more blue then a ripe blue berry on a sunny forest floor - that is pretty blue!

Everywhere the trees are covered in a coat of frost as the temperature dipped below -20C last night. As the sun comes up the dark conifer melt quickly, while the branches of the hardwood retain the frost.

Two big black ash in the swamp contrast with the sky.

You can take a picture, but you just can not capture the whole frosty setting.

These 2 black ash are very close the the largest black ash on the Timmins Honour Role of Trees.

These 2 are located about 24 km south of the 144 - 101 intersection. Here is a map of the location if you want to go look at them yourself.

Frozen Muddy Mark

Buy your own tree

Birch Bonsai start of Winter

We now have snow in Timmins. I think it will stay this time.

My little tree has been outside waiting for the cold. The buds look healthy and the stem is green.

The plan is to leave it outside until it is below -20C then bring it into the house and store in a cool dark place for a little while before bringing it into the heat to start the growth cycle over again.

Day 01 entry

Month 05 entry

You can buy your own tree to make your own bonsai at Millson Forestry Service. If you do not see the species you want let them know and maybe they can start what you want.

White Birch Tar - Do It Yourself

I made birch tar.

I was super surprised how much tar a little bit of birch bark produced.

I stuffed a coffee can full of birch bark. Put it in a fire for an hour and out came about third of a soup can of birch tar. Maybe I am leaving out a few small details about the process, since the entire process would be better described with an entire web page with many pictures. It will follow soon.

The tar was similar to the tar I would put on the bottom of my wooden cross-country skis. Smelled the same and felt the same.

I boiled down the tar until I ended up with more of solid when it cooled. A brittle solid.

Solid birch bark tar.

The huge amount of tar in the bark must be why the wood will rot before the bark. Often I find tubes of birch bark with the wood gone and the bark in good condition.

Look at other posts below and you will see many examples of birch tubes.

Want to have a birch tube of your own, check out this site.

Arbor Day 2009 Yesterday

It was a little cool on Arbor Day, but it would have been perfect if we were actually in the field planting trees.

This year we split up to be in 3 different locations. East end at the water park on Porcupine Lake, Gillies lake and west end at Mountjoy Historic Park. I was at the Mountjoy park with Ben and Kiri.

The last couple of years we have been asking for a donation to cover the cost of the tree seedlings and as a way of raising money for the Wintergreen Fund for Conservation. Millson Forestry Service gives us a very good deal on the trees, but they are not free.

Your donation also got your name entered into a draw for a bat box and a swallow house. Good homes for great bug eaters!

If you missed Arbor day and still want tree seedlings you can get many different sizes and species at the store. Seed soource is important. Trees that come from a local seed source will do better then those that come from a seed source other then here. Trees do not like to move north

, that is why tree seedling from local seed source will always do better then outside sources.

A little more then 1000 white spruce tree seedlings were handed out. That is another 1000 trees going in the ground to help the environment and help keep Timmins beautiful. Many told me they would also plant one at "camp".

"The best time to plant a tree is 100years ago, the second best is today"

Kiri, a Katimavik participant from Nova Scotia has been with us for the week, want to try her hand at creating a bonsai, or maybe she will just plant it here in Timmins before she leaves.

May 19th - Snow - Come on!

Woke this morning to the wonderful, pretty snow coating everything. It was a little unexpected, but this is Timmins.

I had planted 2 sunflowers in the garden the night before, they were about 20cm tall and in good health. I was surprised today to see them still alive.  

We got the bikes out this weekend and went for a bike ride. I guess I should have made the kids put them in the shed. Mine is in the shed.

In the bush we again have ice in the low shaded areas. This little bird was poking along the ice looking for bugs.  I got a picture and looked in my bird book in the truck. I was unable to say for sure what it was. I will have to look in a differesnt book to be sure.

Do you know what it is? One of you must know. Give me your best guess.

The weather guy tells us warm weather is coming.

Great Horny Toads

Not a great horny toad, but it is the first toad of spring. this little guy was just sitting in the grass beside a small pond beside Gillies lake.

I think the little creature must have just crawled out of it's winter hiding place. It just sat there. the dog gave it a little push with his nose , but no response. I gave it a little push just to see if it would move forward, but it was only interested in absorbing the little bit of  warmth from the sun that was beaming between the clouds. I think it will have to sit for a couple more days until some warmer weather. enature a great site for making identifications of creatures tells me there are 2 types of american toad, but does not discuss the difference. I wonder what it is?

While I took pictures of the toad Roll'n had his head stuck in a hole on the side of the pond. I am sure a muskrat must live there. He likes to play with muskrats. When I was ready to leave he had worked his way into the burrow so that his entire head was not to be seen.

His white face was blackened with poop and mud, he smelled so bad!

We got home and into the bath he went. He hates baths, he hates water for that matter. He will not swim and walks around puddles on the road.

Observation - Cold Day in May

Woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground. May long weekend, never fails.

Not close to being the record. This morning it was -2C. The record -7.2C was set in 1956. I would prefer the 1962 record high of 33.3C.

Need fire wood to keep yourself warm? Here is the Millson May Special

Delta class teaching old Muddy Mark

Once again the Delta class from Timmins High and Vocational School came for a tour of the greenhouse complex.

I enjoy having the older kids that ask good questions and have that keen interest to understand the forest.

I was surprised that they knew the White pine is Ontario's arboreal emblem, our provincial tree. 

Wonder about the other Ontario Emblems and Symbols

It was a perfect day for the class to come. In true teenager style they wore running shoes and even one in shorts, while the dusting of snow fell from the sky onto the muddy, very muddy ground. You just got'a love rubber boots!

While walking from the back to the front the class taught me about (oh I know I am not going to get this right but here is my stab at it) potoku, a cree word. It is the area between the snow and the ground where the mice and little creatures forage for food.  We could see in the field where this happened this past winter. You could see the trail on the ground from hole to hole.

The greenhouse is green and very hot. It is wonderful to come into the greenhouse on such cold days. Ask the people working there how nice it is . . . cloudy days are not bad, but it can get pretty hot in there on sunny days.

I wonder what they were impressed by the most?

Beauty in the Boreal

Snow is beautiful, you have to love it! If you do not love it you may cry.

March 29th here in Timmins a snow fall record was broken. 20.0 cm of snow fell, breaking the old record of 16.8 cm which fell March 29th, 1975.

This year to date 340 cm have fallen on the trees here in Timmins. That is the amount that has fallen on my driveway too. I have moved a lot of snow this year.

Today another 10 cm fell and more is coming.

Ya just got'ta love it.

My Favorite Bird - Pileated Woodpecker

Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus.

Today was a very bright very cold day. All the snow on the ground and in the trees reflecting everywhere.

Then, there swooping across the road, a familiar bird. It is the unmistakable flight path of the Pileated woodpecker. I call to another machine operator to look at the bird, just as it glides across the road again. He tells me it looks like a bird to him.

I have been trying to get a good picture of the bird for many years, so many years that it was back in the film days when I finally got close. I was armed with a 200mm lens on my 35mm camera traveling almost silent on a trail with cross-country skies.

A pileated woodpecker swooped in just in front of me. I was able to ski very close. Closest I have ever been able to get. The bird "worked with me" turning the head and showing off the bright red colours in the sunshine.

I smile and only take a couple of pictures, which is unusual since shooting off a roll of film during a ski was easy to do.

I smile and talk to the bird asking how he knew. "How do you know?" "What little birdie told you?"

"HOW DO YOU KNOW I HAVE BLACK AND WHITE FILM IN THE CAMERA TODAY!!!?"

I did put the picture in the forestry yearbook I did at Sault College. Ever couple of years when I flip the pages and see the picture it still mkaes me smile.

eNature

All About Birds

Ancient Forest Research Report No. 15

Summary of Forest Management
Guidelines for the Provision of Pileated
Woodpecker Habitat

Muddys' Emporium

Same place - different temperature

My computer has been in the shop, I have it back now but it is going back to get fixed properly.

Timmins has been in a cold snap. I grabbed my snowshoes and went for a walk down to the lake where I had been in September. Roll'n lead the way for a little while. The snow was too deep for him to travel easily, so I ran past him so he

could get into my snowshoe tracks. Roll'n, like many dogs, wants to be in the lead.

It has been cold!! Not record breaking cold, but the wind sure

makes it feel record breaking.

January 14th the temperature was recorded at -35.9C, the record cold was set in 1994 at -41.0C
January 15th the temperature was recorded at -37.6C, the record cold was set in 1965 at -41.6C

Both days the school buses were cancelled due to the wind chill. The wind on both days made it feel below -45C

Not much activity in the bush at those temperatures. Harvest equipment that was parked over night would not start the next morning. The birds are on the move as they continue to look for food. The moose tracks that are common in the area are wind swept and days old.

Summer photo mapped
Winter photo mapped

Oh deer - they are only metres away

The kids and I had fun building a deer blind in the back yard.

Every evening at about 5:30 the deer walk through the woods at the back of the yard. We built a wall and put a sheet over us so the deer would walk right past us.

Worked great he first night when the first group of deer walked close to us. When the second group of deer came close a strange sound that seemed to be coming from behind caught my attention.

I could not resist I had to take a look. When I ducked out from under the sheet it must have spooked the gang of 9 deer. While walking up the hill I dicovered the noise I was interested in was actually the daughters stomach. We should have eaten before we came down.

The next evening 3 deer ran through the yard just as I started to go down to the blind. We waited for an hour for the big gang to arrive, but they never showed.

Roll'n had to sit this one out. The first evening we were here he got to chase the deer, but they are so fast he only get of look at which direction they went and never saw them again. He did not run after them for too long.

Hope everyone is having fun this holiday season.

Winter WonderLand

Snow has arrived in the Great White North.

The white pine, which is the arboreal emblem of Ontario, look good with a dusting of snow.

In the background is McKeown Lake. Today Roll'n and I walked about 5 kilometers in the snow. The snow is not deep enough for snowshoes yet, but sometimes the snow is up to my knees. Roll'n needs to jump sometimes making him look like a running deer.

I do have my snowshoes in the truck with me now, just in case I need them.

Black-capped chickadees and a single woodpecker traveling together worked their way past me while they searched for food in the trees.