What’s going on out on the land?
Spruce Pineapple Galls
For a few years I have come across a gall on Spruces all over the Eramosa River Valley. Most of the Spruces are Norway Spruces , but I have also found them on White Spruce. They were mysterious to me so I looked them up a couple of years ago and learned that they were called the Pineapple Spruce Gall, or Spruce Pineapple Gall, or Eastern Spruce Gall depending on who you’re asking, but that was where my knowledge ended. Recently, after coming across them again, I decided I needed to learn a little bit more about them.
Poplar Vagabond Gall Aphid
I have been keeping a Question Book for years. It’s the greatest textbook I have ever owned. Each loving volume has been authored in partnership between the land and my own geysering, never-settling, curiosity. There have been many questions answered through research in my own library, the local university library, and online. For as many questions which have been answered, there are pages of unanswered mysteries. This is not for lack of searching, but perhaps the research has not come out yet, or I just don’t know where to look. Luckily today will be an indepth answer as to what the hell I have seen growing on the Poplar trees.
Wolf Trees, Stink Horns and Carrion Beetles
As I looked down at the leaf litter, I noticed quick movement and a small flash of orange and my heart began to sing. My hand shot so fast into the gooey death stenched Cedar leaves faster than anyone could see. Before anyone registered what I had done I was cradling a critter in my closed palm and I felt them defecate their lunch of corpse into my palm. Again kids, never do as I do.
Field Botanists of Ontario Trip Report for Main Tract Mushroom I.D. workshop
Pulling in to the parking area at Main Tract, the biggest of the tracts of the Dufferin County Forest (coming in at 607 hectares or 1,501 acres), my first thought was that I was way too early.
We were supposed to meet for 9:50am, and I was arriving early for 9:30. It was going to be my first outing with the FBO and I really wanted to arrive on time. Luckily I did arrive early as the parking lot was sandy which meant some good time looking for bird and invertibrate tracks while waiting for my fellow fungal nerds.
Eastern Tent Caterpillar Egg Masses
We were in the midst of a mock evaluation at Mono Cliffs provincial park, making our way slowly through an old orchard which had been left to rewild, when Tamara called our evaluator Alexis over to ask if she could suggest a question for the evaluation. Only thing I heard from their quick conversation was “this will be a hard one”. They directed our attention to the end of an Apple branch where a small jeweled formation wrapped around a thin twig, like a bangle or elaborate armband. This broad ring or twig-band, about 3 cm long, seemed to be made up of smaller gemlike circles of gold lacquered together. These smaller circles were about .6 mm in diameter and tightly packed together. There could’ve been 200 of the small gold circles wrapped in this small shiny bundle. I made a guess right away that it must be an egg mass, but I didn’t know who made it. It was mysterious to me. I wrote out my answer and shared it with Tamara and waited for the big reveal.
Fungi on Black Walnut
I was out with the Learn The Land class at Arkell Springs the other day where we were looking at some trees and shrubs in their winter attire, when we came across a Black Walnut with a strange looking growth coming out of one of the twigs. We wondered about it for a while and then moved on. My partner and I ended up going back the following day to investigate some more.
Oak Apple Galls at Lake of Bays
Someone in our tracking crew had found a small, pale brown, hollow papery orb with spots on the surface with a couple of holes in it. I recognized it as an Oak Apple Gall, which my partner and I had found last year at Backus Woods. It wasn’t a green one, but it must be the same thing, right?
Last year, I may have looked up a bit on the Oak Apple Gall, but I no longer remember much. It’s like meeting someone again, but not remembering much of the details of your previous conversation. I had to ask some questions again, and here is some of what I have learned.
A Short Note On Sapsucker Ecologies
About 1o minutes North of Orangeville, along the fence line of Bruce Trail at Dunby rd, there are a couple of American Mountain Ash trees. These trees are related to the other Sorbus species from around the world, but this one is native to the area. Shorter trees, compound leaves, bright red fruit all help to identify these trees in the warmer months. But in the Winter and early Spring when the leaves and fruit have fallen, the bark becomes a great focal point for local ecologies.
The rows of small holes of various age and sizes freckle the bark like oversized lenticels. It kind of looks like a canker or fungal infection, but it’s not. It is actually the work of a meticulous and skilled member of the Picidae family; the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a bird which I have not seen that often, but I have come across their sign quite a bit.
Tracking Bugs and Trees, 2022.03.05
On the drive up to Mono Cliffs, Maddie and I were talking in the car about some things we really wanted to pay attention to today. I was talking about trees and wanting to pay attention to what is going on around the trees, who is interacting with the trees, and who may be living on the trees. She had mentioned a desire to focus on bird tracks and sign, especially after focusing on Wild Turkeys for the past year. Little did we know…
Frost Cracking
A couple of years ago on a trail which circled Sasajewun Lake at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Station, we came across a few trees that I thought had been struck by lightning. I saw fissures in the tree, some shallow, some deeper. These fissures wrapped in a long loose spiral around the trunk of the tree from fairly high up most of the way down. Many different tree species had these fissures and many were near the path. This is when I started to think again about lightning strikes. How did so many trees along a single path get struck by lightning? Turns out they didn’t.
Follow The Food
Knowing the plants who are in relationship with the animals we track can help us find the animals we want to learn about. They can point in the direction of where the animals are going or where they will be going. They can show us if we are in the right environment or if we need to keep looking.
This entry is pretty much a story of a recent afternoon spent tracking in the Lake of Bays region, just South West of Algonquin Park, where we spent a few hours following the food and then finding the animal.
Boyne Valley Tracking Journal, 11.12.2021
Once the two of our crew had returned from bringing a car to the next road over, we began our journey through the Boyne Valley, North of Orangeville. I had been there before. The last time was 2019 with my second year of the apprenticeship. It was a great place for trailing White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and was the first place I had ever seen Northern River Otter (Lontra canadensis) tracks. I was stoked to be back.
Who are you? Trentepohlia Algae
A couple of days ago, I found sign of orange growth spreading across some tree bark. I didn’t know what it was but had seen it many times before and had never figured it out. Finally I did. I wanted a place to deposit everything I am learning about Trentepohlia so I figured I would make a blog post and update as I learn more. Here’s what I have so far.
Tracking Journal Jan 01, 2021
There were familiarities and mysteries while out tracking with Carolyn. She asked if I wanted to go check out a some Hemlocks she knew and I, as per usual, was down. She picked me up and on route she asked if we should go look at the Beavers she’d been visiting with her family. Again, I was down.
Snail trails on Birch
A lot of questions arise while looking at Snail feeding sign on a Birch tree at the Guelph Arboretum. Why Birch? Are they eating? How are they eating? What is the direction of travel?
Sometimes the answers are out there, and it’s just about looking a little deeper to figure it out.