Hi everyone:
I was trying to track something down to make sure that it really exists! Some years ago I was at a public building of some sort (I think it was a nature interpretive centre) and their waste water system was treated on-site and then released into a cattail-bordered pond that had been "built" to accept the discharge. I am sure that it was in Atlantic Canada..... I originally thought it was at Cape Jourimain, but that does not seem to be the case.....
Has anyone else come across this, or something similar?
Pat
Patrick Kelly
159 Town Road
Falmouth NS B0P 1L0
Canada
(902) 472-2322
Carol and I decided to get away for a couple of days so we rented a
cottage in Digby this week. I made a list of the birds we might see from
the eBird RBA site. On the way there we didn't see the Eurasian Collared
Dove in Melvern Square or the Red-shouldered Hawk in Brickton. The next
day we drove to Arcadia where we sat for a few hours not seeing the
Harris Sparrow. On the way home Friday we didn't see the Dickcissel in
Lunenburg or the Yellow-throated Warbler in Chester. On top of all
this, I lost one of my hearing aids. Not your idyllic vacation.
Don
--
Don MacNeill donmacneill(a)bellaliant.net
Dear All,
As a footnote to care of planted beech; lawns, hedges etc. and
assuming that water deficit is a problem; it would help to apply mulch
annually in spring when soil is moist to a disc 10' to 15' diameter
centered on the trunk; shredded leaves, straw or hay and as a poor
substitute sawdust. All will slow water loss by evaporation from soil
and eventually rot and increase water holding capacity of the soil.
Dave
Dear All,
Early in 2021 there was concern about a Beech tree leaf miner. Can
someone tell me how that ended.?
In the Kentville area, except for one patch of trees in a location
normally wet year round and entirely dependent upon rainfall but bone
dry when I walked to it,they have fared well.
Dave
Dear All,
I posted the following on Facebook and it was taken down twice in
spite of my disclaimer so I am submitting it to NatureNS. Perhaps
dripping wet; perhaps not.
I am by no means either a medical doctor or virus specialist but I
suspect that being infected by the mild variant of Covid, Omicron, might
act as a vaccine shot against Covid.
This follows from the history of the first vaccine. An astute medical
doctor noticed that milkmaids who got Cowpox did not get infected by the
far more dangerous Smallpox. And, drawing on memory, he made the first
Smallpox vaccine from liquid obtained from Smallpox sores and called it
vaccine from the Latin for cows which I think is Vacca.
Dave Kentville
The recent death of E. O. Wilson naturally led me to think about ants. I
have long supposed that ants would survive any habitat disruption due to
the innate power of hive wisdom.
When ants become aware of a threat they don't protest or stage
marches; they act. I don't have notes but it has been at least 20 years
(perhaps >30) since I have seen a smoke like column of ants leaving
their hill for a mating flight.
The first time I saw one of these columns I was at Moosehorn Lake;
at the road end where Raccoons dug up Painted Turtle eggs each year
until no eggs were laid there and the column of "smoke" was near remains
of an old sawmill to the east. When I got there the smoke column became
a stream of ants flowing uphill in a mating flight. I happened to be
home when another column of ants emerged once from a hidden ant hill on
a bank in the lawn.
Another time I was able to observe an ant mating flight, which
continued from late morning until early afternoon, by standing in the
shade of the house. One can not see individual ants but ant activity is
evidenced by the glitter of sunlight (apparently) reflecting from the
wings of falling dead males. (At the time I thought the glitter was from
shed wings). Shortly after, many birds gathered in a large Ash tree and
made much chatter while I assume feeding on ants.
Once I found live ants in the pith at the very top of an Ash tree
so checked to see how they got there; reached the pith at tip by
tunneling up through pith of tree from below ground. Pileated Woodpecker
feeding holes in Poplar or Spruce usually signal ant entry from below
ground and the inner lower sections of dead trees are sometimes loose
incomplete cylinders of wood; the residues of the combined action of
decay and ant feeding.
I don't know whether ants are able to digest wood or only the
fungal hyphae which grow on the surfaces of tunneled wood. Carpenter
ants sometimes get into house timbers suggesting an ability to digest
some fraction at least of the wood. But eventually a tree, especially
Poplar and Spruce, may become little more than a pipe which contains
loose residues of the original.
One leaning poplar which I cut several years ago, while there was
still enough sound wood to avoid a hung tree, was a pipe of sound wood
about 2" thick and 25" diameter at the butt encasing a core of rotting
wood rich in fungal growth.
I normally cut wood to 16" length and stack it in tiers where cut
to season for at least one year; protected by a strip of black
polyethylene. These used to quickly become ant apartments but recently
many tiers have no ants. This may simply reflect an increase in
partially hollow trees. Since about 1990 my Spruce have been dying
faster than I and two friends can salvage them. And in Kentville many
conifers have died in recent decades both native and introduced: all
good ant apartments; above and below ground.
Roughly half of the carbon, and ant fodder, in a tree is below
ground.
Writing about ants is like eating peanuts; once you get started it
is difficult to stop.
Dave, Kentville
Dear All,
I recently reported that my solar panels had generated $47,800.
worth of power since July. Two friends questioned this so I examined
entries which generated this figure.
Whoops: the correct figure, for a while at least, is $478.00
Dave
Can someone identify the little flying fluffballs that come out on a
warmish winter day (and in spring and fall) and fly around in the same area
for long periods of time? They fly vertically, up and down, up and down, in
a group, and look like they are being juggled by many invisible hands...
the group can move laterally while continuing their constant vertical
movement. Are they wooly alder aphids, or something else?
Many thanks
Suzanne at Hatchet Lake
Dear All,
I recently was taken to task on Facebook and responded and then
thought that posting on Naturens would be desirable.
Dear all,
Recently I posted the following comment with regard to plants
flowering out of season; shown in quotation marks.
"Not positive to see anything blooming at the wrong time of year."
And this post was removed by admins with the following explanation for
removal.
Additional notes from the admins
David, It is time to stop being the harbinger of doom and gloom. If you
cannot say something nice about our members' photos, please say nothing.
I wish to briefly explain, with examples, some of the reasons for
my concern. Which some apparently consider to be unwarranted "gloom and
doom".
I wish to draw attention to a growing problem; a natural world in
which vital connections are sometimes failing to connect because they
have been wiped out or delayed.
There used to be an extensive colony of native bees on a sandy
bank in Kentville near the junction of Brooklyn Street and Cornwallis
Street. I noticed this in the early 50's and it thrived until one recent
year when we had a lethal combination of severe cold, a strong south
wind and no snow cover. There has since been no bees there. The same
applies to a large area on privately owned woodland in what is commonly
called Palmeter Woods. Wild bees were relatively common along many of
the roads and paths there but have gradually shrunk to zero. The same
applies to lands which were on or west of the former Kentville School
and former bee colonies along the rail trail west of Kentville.
In season, honey bees and wild bees are fairly common in my yard,
because I aim for maximum diversity, but as an example of recent
hardships in one recent summer there was only one good day when calm
warm air suitable for bee feeding coincided with open blossoms.
I bought my house about 1964 and by always keeping "Yard Waste" for
the compost piles, mowing selectively with a brush scythe and
selectively pulling overly aggressive plants have a diversity far
greater than usual for 'lawns' which frequently amount to short grass
mono-culture.
The spring of 2021 was unique in negative ways; very dry. In all
previous years earthworm activity commenced as soon as the soil thawed
near the back door where vegetation is sparse due to foot traffic so
such activity is not hidden in tall living or dead plants; earthworm
casts and composting by pulling two to many petioles part way down a
worm hole to culture edible fungal growth.
There was no earthworm activity last spring and when I dug the
garden earthworms were very scarce. Roughly less than 5% of normal.
In previous years swarms of Cluster Flies were a pest when cooked
corn was eaten outside. The life cycle of Cluster Flies depends upon
earthworms and only Yellow Jackets were attracted to cooked corn last
summer.
Leaves of Red Maple and Norway Maple developed large blotches of
discolored /dead tissue and I understand this was fairly widespread.
When I moved to Kentville in 1960, summer evenings were punctuated
by the pents of Nighthawks; they are long gone as is the warble of
Meadow Hens. And more recently bats were nearly wiped out and seldom
seen. All due I think to a common reason--"yard waste".
The food which could nurture a pyramid of diversity in every yard
is now, from most yards, trucked great distances to be composted,
indoors I understand. That really is a waste.
In my relatively small yard, mostly occupied by house, driveway,
shed, garden and tiers of wood, 146 vascular species and 23 fleshy fungi
have been moved in or have moved in to stay a while.
Climate change is not something which will occur here in the
future; it is well underway and action can be taken to slow or stop it.
Since 1980 I have used much firewood to supplement furnace oil
(e.g. in winter 20-21 the radiators came on only once so most oil was
used for domestic hot water.)
As an aside let it be noted that the capture of carbon by trees
which die and rot in the woods is zero. All of the carbon which that
tree captured during growth is returned to the atmosphere when it rots.
However if, by burning wood one consequently burns less fossil fuel then
ones carbon footprint shrinks.
But individual action can shrink carbon footprint. And if enough
people do so our natural world may be saved.
In the summer of 2021 I had the oil furnace replaced by an electric
boiler and had solar panels installed to generate power and they became
operational sometime in July. So far it has generated power worth $47,835.
And in time this may well more than cover the cost of installation
which included expensive upgrades to 1942 wiring.
Dave Webster
These from December 30:
Around 10 A.M., I was driving north on Haley Road, about to pass the end of
the runway at Yarmouth Airport, when a dark-coloured heron flew over said
end from north to south. Not sure of the species.
That same day, a knowledgeable friend is sure he saw a golden eagle flying
over Yarmouth. A day later, my brother and his daughter saw what may have
been the same bird flying low over forested area, to the east of the Ellis
Road in Chebogue. The area in question is near a slaughter house.
Several years back in January, a strongly-suspected Golden was tending the
same area. One of the slaughter house workers got close enough to see
feathered tarsi on the bird. All that was missing to confirm were photos.
