What's Alive in Hamilton!

Sharp Lobed Hepatica

The natural areas inventory project is quickly gearing up for our final field season. This year we will be checking out many of the natural areas on the Hamilton/Halton border in Waterdown and East Flamborough. There are quite a few wetlands, valleys, escarpment talus, and deciduous upland sites in this area which we are excited to survey. Most of the spring flowers are now in bloom, so it won’t be long until our ecological land classification crew is out surveying the forests, thickets, meadows, and wetlands. But for now, check out your local natural areas for these spring ephemerals!

Bloodroot

Squirrel Corn

A spring ephemeral is a perennial forest wildflower that blooms in early spring and produces seeds before summer. These flowers take advantage of the sunlight that hits the forest floor before the trees produce their leaves

You may have heard that many birds are back from their wintering grounds down south. Keep an eye out for chimney swifts, red-bellied woodpeckers, and orioles which have all been heard and seen this spring. 

Juvenile Brown Snake

Our frog and toad monitoring program has had a quick start. With the warm temperatures lately, these amphibians have been calling all over the City of Hamilton. Spring peepers, wood frogs, chorus frogs, and American toads are common at this time of the year. Keep your ears open and you may start to hear leopard frogs, green frogs, and grey tree frogs.

And don’t forget that this is the time of the year that snakes are on the move too! Here is a juvenile brown snake that I saw on a walk through the Dundas Valley.

Keep checking the website for more updates on the Natural Areas Inventory Project.

Nicholas Schwetz

NAI Coordinator

Hamilton Conservation Authority

Help HCA win $25,000 with the Shell Fuelling Change Challenge! Vote for What's Alive in Hamilton and we can continue to educate our community and help protect the environment in Hamilton. http://fuellingchange.com/main/project/411/Whats-Alive-in-Hamilton

One week’s notice…. Spring is here!

Next week the calendar tells us that spring has finally arrived. The ground hog may have mentioned it about five weeks ago (in case you missed the announcement).

Unlike the last few years where migrating birds returned in January and gardens sprouted in February, this past winter took us back to when winters had snow and Jack Frost occasionally did take a nibble at your nose. The arrival of spring this year also bodes well for a healthy season. As we speak the vernal pools are active with amphibian activity and the endangered Jefferson Salamanders are on the move! It is breeding season for Jeffy and that comes with road closures in some areas to protect the paths they take to reach their breeding grounds.

Now, Jefferson Salamanders don’t make much noise and, while their movement heralds the arrival of spring, they are not the most commonly-noticed of creatures. One creature you will notice is the Red-Winged Blackbird. Traditionally, another first sign of spring is their migratory return from the Southern States.  Keep a look out near wet areas such as wetlands and shorelines populated by tall grasses or cattails and bulrushes. They’ll start looking for dance partners as soon as they return, so their calls will be frequent and easily heard. Just watch out once they start nesting because they defend their nests vigorously!

It’s not just the little ones we watch for this month. Along the north shores of Lake Erie from Windsor to Point Pelee, mass migrations of raptors are a birder’s delight. Closer to home, the Niagara Peninsula Hawk Watch is underway with the big day coming up at Beamer Memorial Conservation Area in the Niagara Region on Good Friday. But really, anywhere along the Niagara Escarpment and the lake shores this time of year is an excellent opportunity to see large birds such as bald eagles, swans, herons, falcons and hawks on their way back to Ontario.

A few weeks from now you might even get lucky enough to see the “clouds” of Broad-winged hawks and my friends the Turkey Vultures as they migrate en masse. Last year’s count of Turkey Vultures estimated more than 20,000 traveling through Niagara and more than 100,000 through Western Ontario!

So if you’re waiting for the flowery signs of spring… they’re coming, but it’s the feathery signs that come first! 

Chris Hamilton

Information Officer

Hamilton Conservation Authority

Sunny-Day Morning

People say you’re either an early bird, or a night owl, and some just need a little motivation for either. I have no motivation for a late night; but I may be able to convince you of an early morning trek. I would recommend the following as I am learning natural beauty may warm the heart, but the body still gets cold.

•          Layers of warm clothing ( especially in the winter months)
•          Warm boots
•          Mittens that can enable you to still snap a picture
•          A camera
•          Access to lake Ontario waterfront
•          And my favorite, an oversized travel mug filled to the brim with caffeine

Now the convincing...

Lake Ontario in itself is breath taking; a fresh water ocean; but to witness the day waking up and the sun reflecting off its water, and sometimes sprawling out onto the sandy or snowy covered shores is beautiful. 

Confederation Park or Fifty Point C.A. are excellent for this activity offering trails, parking, ample photo opportunities, and kilometers of prime real estate on the waterfront for the morning show. I find it’s a great way to start; we rush all day cherishing the moments we find to ourselves, to collect, and go again. Why not start the day with a moment to yourself, while enjoying a grand view?

If this is your first early morning trek down to the lake, don’t be surprised at how many of us are out there walking and watching the world wake up with full mugs, and a “Morning!” for passerbys’

Cari Hobbs

Assistant Superintendent

Confederation Park

Rules of Engagement: Courtship and Marriage in Early Canada

Dearest Etta,

The delightful hours I have passed in your society have left an impression on my mind that is altogether indelible, and cannot be effaced even by time itself.  The frequent opportunities I have possessed, of observing the thousand acts of amiability and kindness which mark the daily tenor of your life, have ripened my feelings of affectionate regard into a passion at once ardent and sincere, until I have at length associated my hope of future happiness with the idea of you as a life partner, in them.  Believe me, dearest Etta, this is no puerile fancy, but the matured results of a long and warmly cherished admiration of your many charms of person and mind.  It is love - pure devoted love, and I feel confident that your knowledge of my character will lead you to ascribe my motives to their true source.  Might I then implore you to consult your own heart, and should this avowal of my fervent and honourable passion for you be crowned with your acceptance and approval, to grant me permission to refer the matter to your parents.  Anxiously awaiting your answer, I am, dearest Etta, Your Sincere and Faithful Lover, George Courtright.  Wednesday October 20th, 1894. 

Poor George.  He must have agonized over that letter for days, carefully crafting a marriage proposal that would convince his darling Etta of his love, commitment and suitability as a husband.  We can imagine Etta, perhaps unfolding the letter with trembling hands, reading it several times and weighing each word, each phrase.  She would likely not have been surprised by this turn of events, as it would have unfolded as part of a complex, but well understood, process for finding one's life partner.  We do not know what her answer might have been, but we can be sure that she would have measured George's proposal carefully, taking into consideration not only her own hopes, dreams and preferences, but those of her family and community.

Since Canada's earliest days of settlement, the trials of finding a spouse has been a theme consistently chronicled in diary accounts, letters and journals, providing a fascinating window into how early Canadians met, courted and married.  They help us to understand what was considered acceptable behaviour, the influence of parents and neighbours and the strategies that were necessary to navigate the sometimes treacherous social terrain.

Just what were early Canadians looking for in a mate?  Prior to the 19th century, economic considerations were a strong factor in the selection of a husband or wife.  Eventually, however, the concept of marrying for love crept into the equation, and by the early to mid-19th century, the idea of a spouse as a companion was widely accepted.  Women were encouraged to look for a man with not only good financial prospects, but also someone who would be kind, temperate and hard-working.  Men typically sought women who were even-tempered, patient and capable of engaging in intelligent conversation.

The importance of a spouse as friend is reflected in the 1854 letter of Caroline Hewlett, who commented on the broken engagement her niece Jane Price.   "From all I heard of Mr. Campbell he appeared to me from his youth, habits, and insufficiency of means, to be wholly unworthy of Jane, who ought in her husband to have have a man of equal talent with herself, a companion and friend..." 

Meeting a life partner was a long process that in many ways began in childhood.  Social gatherings that brought together people of all ages, such as religious functions, skating parties, community picnics and work bees were all opportunities for people get to know one another within their social sphere.  Parental and community approval was extremely important, as couples would depend upon the assistance and support of family and friends throughout their married lives.

Once a potential partner was identified, parental consent secured and intentions clearly stated, courtship could begin in earnest.  This was an intense period when a couple would really get to know one another, spending many hours discussing a wide range of topics, to ensure compatibility.  Engagements could last for many months, or even longer if the man required time to settle debts, secure a property or settle into reliable employment.  Once a pledge to marry was made, only very exceptional circumstances would allow the engagement to be broken, a circumstance typically met with strong family and community disapproval.

The long and considered courtship process in nineteenth century Canada, grounded as it was in family and community approval, seems to have greatly increased one's chances of a happy, or at least workable, marriage.  Someone who clearly married for love and companionship, Susanna Moodie, wrote to her sister Catherine in July 1856, after twenty-five years of marriage: "Time lengthens while he is away.  Will age never diminish my love for this man?"

Lisa Hunter

Programme Co-ordinator

Westfield Heritage Village

Come to Westfield Heritage Village on Family Day, Monday, February 18 from 12:30 - 4:00 to help celebrate a winter wedding and learn the fascinating stories of love, courtship and marriage in Early Canada.

Prepared with information from:
Noёl, Francoise, Family Life and Sociability in Upper and Lower Canada, 1790-1870.  McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.
Young, John H.  Our Deportment: Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society, F. B. Dickerson and Co., Hamilton, Ontario, 1881.
Azoulay, Dan.  Hearts and Minds:  Canadian Romance at the Dawn of the Modern Era 1900-1930, University of Calgary Press, 2011.

A wetland a day keeps the water in our bay

February 2^nd isn’t just about groundhogs and shadows. It’s also World Wetlands Day, the day the Convention on Wetlands was adopted in 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. To read more about Ramsar Convention of Wetlands, please click here.

World Wetlands Day 2013 focused on the relationship between water and wetlands  and reflected on the interdependence between water and wetlands and the key role that wetlands play. Wetlands - marshes, bogs, fens and swamps - are an essential part of the water cycle and they play an important role in ensuring water quality. Wetlands are places we want to protect as primary sources of vital drinking water.

Wetlands are also essential to our environment - they filter pollutants from our water, help control floods, and provide habitat for numerous wildlife species, including many on the endangered list. A total of 33 per cent of Ontario and 14 per cent of Canada is wetland. Unfortunately, as much as 80 per cent of Ontario's wetlands have been lost to urbanization.

Here in Hamilton, we are fortunate to have one of the largest – and relatively undisturbed -  swamps in southwestern Ontario, the Beverly Swamp.  Located in Flamborough, this wetland is the source area for Spencer, Grindstone and Fairchild creeks and features a rich diversity of plant and animal life, including some that are rare to the Hamilton region.

We also are fortunate to have the Copetown Bog, a biologically significant bog that contains plants representative of Arctic muskeg vegetation, such as cranberries, pitcher plants, and sundew plants. "Summit Bog" is a wetland containing an island of sphagnum moss floating atop a bed of peat. Plants that prefer wet, acidic, and nutrient-poor conditions grow in and around the area. Because of its sensitivity, public use is not encouraged. However, the bog can be viewed from the Hamilton-to-Brantford Rail Trail, located just east of Highway 52 at Copetown.

The Vinemount Swamp is the largest wetland in the east end of the City of Hamilton and offers visitors a chance to see a wetland up close.  It encompasses the headwaters of both Stoney Creek and Forty Mile Creek and provides a significant amount of discharge to those streams. Although it does not rival the Beverly Swamp in overall size, it does have many similar features.  It’s definitely a place close to the City where you can get away to the quiet and beauty of Nature in minutes.

So the next time you use water to brush your teeth, make your coffee or shower in the morning, think about the wetland the water most likely spent part of its life slowly filtering through.  And imagine what your life would be like without the abundance of water and wetlands that Hamilton has to offer.

To learn more about wetlands and their importance in our ecosystems please visit: http://www.mnr.gov.on.ca/en/Business/Biodiversity/2ColumnSubPage/STDPROD_070619.html

Lindsay Davidson

HCA Information Officer

Hamilton Conservation Authority

Winter brings a chance to rediscover camping

Camping?  In the winter?  Are you nuts?  That’s what I hear when I talk about visiting my local Conservation Area or Provincial Park to camp this time of year.  To be honest, I would say it too before I tried it. 

It’s probably the best time to go camping.  You get the pick of the litter when it comes to campsites, and you don’t have to call a year in advance to book it!  

 It is so peaceful and beautiful this time of year.   The campsites aren’t packed and you really only see the serious campers out, not the partiers like you get in the summer months.  The people that you do come across are also some of the nicest campers you will meet.  They’re also there camping because they enjoy being outdoors and love the peaceful feeling of being in nature.  I’ve actually made some great friendships with families out at the parks.   

We’ve travelled with our new friends on camping trips throughout Southern Ontario.  We met at Valens LakeConservation Area and frequent there the most as it is the closest and a bias favourite of mine.  There actually aren’t that many camping spots open this time of year and Valens Lake is the closest in Southern Ontario.  In the winter, you still have most of the comforts of summer camping with laundry facilities, heated washrooms with flush toilets and hot showers.  Most of us have trailers now with heat and electricity, but you will see a true “Winter Warriors” camping out in a tent or hammock on these winter weekends. 

It is always relaxing for me to come out and enjoy a non-stressful weekend away (even if it only took me 30 minutes to get away) after dealing with a very busy week.  The quiet winter days and nights at the park just let the stress melt away…and hopefully that’s all that’s melting.

We love that we’ve got to see some snow this year.  We’ve had one good cross country ski day and we’re just itching to lace up our ice skates.  So, if you haven’t given winter camping a try yet – don’t knock it till you do.  Come prepared for the weather and you’ll have an excellent time.  We may even see you next year as one of the Valens Lake Winter Camping Program participants.

Joanna Sanche

Assistant Superintendent

Valens Lake Conservation Area

Hamilton Conservation Authority 

Let it Freeze!...Ice Fishing 2013

If there was ever an ice fisherman’s parody of a winter themed song – I’m sure it would go something like this…Let it Freeze, Let it Freeze, Let it Freeze.

Here in southern Ontario, we all know that 2012 was not a great year for those inflicted with the passion of angling through an 8 inch diameter holes cut in the ice.  I count myself among this peculiar but adventurous group of people.  We are outdoor enthusiasts who love the challenge and the lure that comes with the territory of ice fishing.

Yet here we sit once again, gear that has been checked and re-checked again, while above average temperatures, open waters abound, and a weather forecast that seems intent on keeping us on the shoreline…it is enough to keep you awake at night just hoping for Jack Frost to stick around for a while.

My home go-to lake Valens Lake Conservation Area failed to make safe ice in 2012 for the first time on record.  Are these all signs of things to come?  How far north will you have to travel to satisfy that primal urge to be one with nature and wet a line all at the same time?  Only time will tell and we will be there, waiting with baited breath – so to speak.

With dreams of panfish and northern pike swimming in our heads – 2013 just has to produce the hard water we crave and need so we can once again be on top.  The promise of freezing cold nights combined with an official start to the NHL season, are two of the kinds of ice that this Canadian is hoping for under his Christmas tree this year.

Gordon R. Costie

Superintendent

Valens Lake Conservation Area

Seeing Yellow at Your Bird Feeders

White Winged Crossbill - All About Birds

This fall/ early winter seems to be giving us some pretty good hints about what will be around the bird feeders this winter.

Already, birders are seeing winter finches making their appearance in southern Ontario and points south. The so-called winter finches do not show up every winter, because their nomadic travel patterns are determined by the seed crops available to them in northern forests. Not only the seeds of pines and spruce, but also the seeds of hardwood trees, are important winter foods to the winter finches in their normal northern range. Some years, the food supplies in the north are lacking, so many of the birds move south for the winter to find what they need.

Red Crossbill - All About Birds

Not all of the so-called northern finches are finches, but bird watchers sort of clump a number of them together. Generally, we are talking about White Winged Crossbills, Red Crossbills, Pine Grosbeaks, Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls and Evening Grosbeaks.

Winter finches share a couple of common behaviours. They generally are gregarious, hang out in groups and are nomadic and follow the food. In years when food is lacking in the north, many move south.

Pine Siskin - All About Birds

One of the most nomadic and unpredictable of the winter finches is the Evening Grosbeak. It is also one of our most beautiful birds. Its nesting range is generally from Algonquin Park and north, and, for the last two decades, very few Evening Grosbeaks have been seen in Southern Ontario.  This winter may be a chance for most people — especially Hamilton youths — to see their first ever EveningGrosbeak. The males sport bright yellows, whites and browns in their plumage. The females and juveniles are more subdued.

The Evening Grosbeak is always calling, which makes the lives of bird watchers much easier. We hear them flying over or chattering to one another when they are feeding. To learn their song, go to http://www.birdjam.com/birdsong.php?id=39.

Pine Grosbeak - All About Birds

Where will you find them? One of their favourite foods after your feeder is the seeds of Manitoba Maples and ash trees. They also enjoy the trees that hold onto their fruits, like Highbush Cranberry , Mountain Ash and wild crab apples.

The Evening Grosbeak has been selected by the American Birding Association as the Bird of the Year for 2012.  And now it’s coming south to live up to its name.

Once people start to know this bird is around, the sales of bird feeders and sun flower seeds will surely increase. They are just delightful to watch and to listen to. The Grosbeaks have heavy beaks and are adept at eating seeds and breaking open the pits of Choke and Pin Cherries. Few other birds have the strength in their bills to open these pits.

Common Redpoll - All About Birds

Bob Curry, author of Birds of Hamilton, reports that in 1972 there was a major flight of Evening Grosbeaks through Southern Ontario, but, since then, the bird has become rare in Hamilton and surrounding areas. Between 2002 and 2005 only two of these fine birds were seen in the Hamilton Bird Study Area.  So far this fall, birders are starting to report sightings from across the northeastern United States and Southern Ontario. So we are well on our way to seeing a strong showing.

Evening Grosbeak - All About Birds

The Evening Grosbeak is the easiest of the winter finches to identify. This winter, keep a bird guide handy while watching your backyard feeder, because there is an excellent chance that other winter finches will be showing up along with the Grosbeaks. There are excellent feeding areas for the winter finches throughout Hamilton conservation areas. As we hear about them, we will try to let everyone know where to look. 

Don’t be surprised if they show up in your neighbourhood.

BRUCE MACKENZIE 

HCA Manager of Operations & Customer Service