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April 22, 2007 - EARTH DAY (38th annual, dating from 1970) - Pat and I joined a group of about 15-20 people on a walk put on by CPAWS (Can. Parks & Wilderness Soc.), from the Kingswood area off Hammonds Plains Road, into the proposed Blue Mountain - Birch Cove Lakes wilderness area or regional park, literally in the back yard of Metro Halifax. Our walk, first on logging roads of Barrett Lumber Co. (permission gotten by Bob McDonald, our leader), and then through mostly coniferous woods and one lakeshore, took a bit over an hour to get to the summit of a mountain (Blue Mtn.?) with quite an expansive view in all directions, of Tufts Cove stacks, Bayerıs Lake super-mall, wind turbine at Goodwood?, etc. etc. Bob told us about the proposed Highway 13, which would almost bisect this large area of nearly pristine habitats for wildlife and for wilderness recreation, all to save truckers only eight minutes in their trips from Yarmouth to Truro and vice versa. April 23, 2007 - On the lawn just north of Beveridge Arts Centre, Acadia Univ., I noticed tiny plants with flower-buds of Draba verna three days ago, but then forgot to check them again until now -- oodles of tiny white open FLOWERS on these tiny short-statured plants. I reported flowers just opening on an unidentified ELM tree on April 20 -- today there were lots of open flowers, and it is an AMERICAN ELM. Nearby (near Acadia Arena), a male RED MAPLE has flower-buds just opening. However, elsewhere in Wolfville I think several female RED MAPLES are way ahead of this male tree in having lots of bright purplish-red open flowers -- but perhaps some of these are planted SILVER MAPLES? (which open their flowers well before red maples, at least here in Wolfville). Bernard Forsythe called about his back-yard BARRED OWLS: because they were early in laying eggs this year, and perhaps also because they didnıt produce any fertile eggs last year, Bernard checked his nest-box today and found three healthy NESTLINGS/owlets, the oldest a bit over a week old. AND also inside the box, and lining all four walls, were a minimum of 30 dead, headless MEADOW VOLES! [possibly a couple of these were short-tailed shrews, but Bernard shortened his check for the sake of the owls]. This corroborates what Bernard told me earlier in the year that small mammals seem to be quite abundant this year. Bernard has generously invited us there on the Wolfville Ridge for our first stop on Sundayıs joint NSBS/BNS field trip for birds in the Wolfville area. Cheers :-) from Jim in Wolfville, 542-9204 --------------------- Jim (James W.) Wolford 91 Wickwire Avenue Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4P 1W3 phone (902)542-9204 (home) fax (902)585-1059 (Acadia Univ. Biology Dept.) e-mail <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> ---------------------- ³...... the Earth .....belongs as much to those who come after us as to us; and we have no right, by anything that we do, or neglect to do, to involve them in unnecessary penalties, or to deprive them of benefits which are theirs by right.² - John Ruskin ----------------------
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