cara_poulsen's Journal

Time and Date: (19/11/10) | 1215 – 1315
Duration: 60 minutes
Location: Hendrie Park, Burlington, Ontario
Weather: Temperature = 2 C; Cloud Cover = 75%, Precipitation = None, Wind = 3 (Beaufort Scale)
Habitat/Vegetation: Deciduous Forest, Wetland

On November 10th, 2019, I went for a hike at Hendrie Park with my sister and my dog, Kai. Coming from the parking lot, I noticed what I have always called a Woolly Caterpillar, which I later found out through iNaturalist becomes an Isabella Tiger Moth. Their orange and black banding as a caterpillar is distinctive. While my sister took my dog around, I stayed behind at the head of the trail to photograph a Cedar Waxwing. These are some of my favourite birds because of their yellow-tipped tails, how their breast fades from reddish-orange to a more yellow colour, and the black band around their eyes that makes them so unique. I saw about 6 or 7 of them over the course of the hike. We also saw a lot of Eastern Grey Squirrels, which is somewhat of a misnomer considering many of them are black, as well as Eastern Chipmunks, which were busy gathering nuts and seeds in their ever-expanding mouths to last them the winter. It’s safe to say, however, that with all the visitors Hendrie Park gets for bird feeding that these guys definitely weren’t going hungry!

Along the beginning of the trail, many birds were flying in between trees, including Blue Jays and Black-Capped Chickadees. I learned to identify the calls of these birds in a field course I took in second year, and to be honest they are some of the only calls I can consistently remember after field season. As I reached the boardwalk over the wetland, roughly 10 Mallards were eating the duckweed that floated at the top of the water, most of them males, in addition to a large Trumpeter Swan that was tagged with the label P67. I’ve been seeing these swans for several years now, usually at LaSalle Park, where they also mingle with Mute Swans, which don’t have the black beak and feet of Trumpeters but have orange colouring instead. These large birds were once hunted to extirpation in Southern Ontario, and have been reintroduced in order to re-establish their population. Other species, which were harder to get good pictures of, included the Downy Woodpecker and the Northern Cardinal. The Cardinal was obviously male, as we are taught from a young age that the males are brightly coloured, and I identified the woodpecker as female because she lacked the red plumage at the back of her head. It’s also hard to differentiate between Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, however DOWO are small and tend to have a short beak, while HAWO are large with beaks almost as long as their head.

Time and Date: (19/10/26) | 1030 – 1200
Duration: 90 minutes
Location: Bruce Peninsula National Park, Tobermory, Ontario
Weather: Temperature = 9 C; Cloud Cover = 25%, Precipitation = None, Wind = 3 (Beaufort Scale)
Habitat/Vegetation: Alvar, Woodland, Wetland (Bog/Fen), Beach

On my camping trip with the Parks Canada Club to the Bruce Peninsula National Park, we went for a hike on October 26th, 2019. We went through several types of habitats, starting with a wetland covered by raised boardwalk. There were about 20 of us, so in general it was difficult to observe wildlife, however on our way from the parking lot my friend Krista found an unfortunately dead Dekay’s Brownsnake that had likely been hit by a car. I believe it may have been crossing from the wetland side over to the forest side while looking for a hibernaculum site, as this happened in late October, and it looked recently dead. Just before the boardwalk started, I also found what I later identified (using iNaturalist) as a Spotted Cucumber Beetle, sunning itself on a plant. This is potentially because many insects are ectothermal, and need to obtain heat from the environment.

From the boardwalk, I could see Purple Pitcher Plants. I learned about these carnivorous plants in a second year field course in Tobermory, which was how I recognized them; their reddish-purple hue and pitcher shape were unmistakable. They use their shape to collect water when it rains and attract insects, which is a very interesting adaptation (potentially due to the thin, nutrient-poor soils of alvarous wetlands).

The boardwalk continued and transitioned to a trail in an alvarous forest on one side and the Georgian Bay on the other. The forest was beautiful, and comprised mostly of coniferous trees, including Tamarack and Eastern White Cedar, one of my favourite species. I was alone for this part of the hike, as our group broke up and some people went to the beach, so I had a bit more time to examine things closer, such as a large variety of mushrooms growing on a blanket of moss along the shaded path. Unfortunately, my mushroom identification skills are non-existent, and even after researching them I wasn’t able to come up with any concrete identifications, other than the fact that they’re all gilled mushrooms. Later on the trail, I met up with my friend Ale, and when I pointed out a fungus on a fallen log, he identified it as an Orange Jelly Spot, which is basically exactly what it sounds like.

After I had done a loop through the forest, I decided to explore the beach, where I found a caterpillar that I later identified as a Hickory Tussock Moth. With research, I believe that, due to its size and the time of year, it was about to pupate, which occurs in leaf litter. I’m not sure why it was in the habitat I found it in (on the beach), other than it might have been sunning itself. While heading back on the boardwalk, I also spotted a ladybug, or an Asian Lady Beetle, which was identified due to its reddish/orange body and black spots. All in all, it was a great hike, and although I didn’t see as many wildlife species as I would have liked, I had a fun time.

Time and Date: (19/09/15) | 1030 – 1300
Duration: 150 minutes
Location: Huron Natural Area, Kitchener, Ontario
Weather: Temperature = 160C; Cloud Cover = 100%, Precipitation = Light Rain, Wind = 3 (Beaufort Scale)
Habitat/Vegetation: Woodland, Grassland, and Wetland

I went for a hike with Alyssa McLaren and Raquel Reyes to the Huron Natural Area on September 15th, 2019. We started on the Huron Trail, which was characterized by deciduous trees such as staghorn sumac, red oak, big-tooth aspen, sugar maple, Manitoba maple, and European buckthorn. Along this path, most of my recorded observations were of these tree species, as well as several groundcover species such as the invasive greater celandine. Because this trail is paved and easily accessible, it is possible that this is where this and other invasive species entered the ecosystem, as it received lots of foot traffic and subsequent disturbance.

While we had yet to see any wildlife, there were multiple signs of active species along the edges of the trail. A large nest, later identified as belonging to aerial yellowjackets, was hanging from a Manitoba maple, however it seemed to be abandoned. We also found a white-tailed deer trail heading up from the path and behind a cluster of trees that had a recent hoof print in the wet mud.

As we walked through the forest we came upon a stormwater drainage basin surrounded by meadow habitat and coniferous trees. The pond was ringed with cattails, jewelweed, goldenrod, and phragmites, with duckweed floating on its surface. In the pond was a female mallard, who didn’t seem to mind us looking around. Alyssa found the chimney of a terrestrial crayfish, something I have never seen before, and would have completely missed if she hadn’t pointed it out. As we walked from the shore of the pond up towards the meadow, the soil became sandy gravel, and I found a predated turtle nest. It is likely that, due to habitat loss, turtles have changed their behaviour to live in artificial ponds and nest on their shores, however it is unclear, at least to me, how this might impact their egg clutch survival rate.

We then hiked from the Meadow Trail to the Forest Trail, where the habitat became deciduous trees that were part of an old plantation, which had a wetland to one side. In the wetland were three green frogs, classified as Anurans, resting at the water’s edge. In the forest, I decided to roll over a felled ash log and see if there was anything living underneath. I was in luck! I found my first two salamanders ever, both Eastern red-backs. I believe they were here because of the relatively small dip in the landscape that allowed for water collection, since Urodeles prefer moist habitat and can absorb water from their environment.

Unfortunately, we only saw a few bird species, likely due to the poor weather, including blue jays, black-capped chickadees, a mallard, and a northern flicker, we also heard American crows and white-breasted nuthatches, as well as several other calls that we could not identify.