To:  All Members

It is with regret that we report the passing of Larry Kissau, a long time member and friend of PHFN, on March 11, 2006.   Our sincere condolences are exteded to Ute and family.  Ute and Larry have attended most of our meetings during the last 10 years, a three hour round trip in often less than ideal driving conditions.  Larry was a committed environmentalist and nature lover.  He will be greatly missed by all of us.

At the March 14 PHFN General Meeting Mr. Sandy Guse detailed the procedure followed in conducting a land search for missing persons.   Mr. Guse is a 30 year volunteer in Search & Rescue out of Thunder Bay and is an instructor of survival techniques in the wilderness.   He is a "search master" and has led teams of 30+ S&R volunteers in the past.

He strongly recommended that anyone heading into the bush follow common sense steps to ensure their safe return:  let someone know where you are going and when you are scheduled to return, take with you tools to serve your personal needs as well as compass, map of area, GPS unit, and should you become geographically misplaced, to stand still and hug a tree until panic subsides.

Mr. Guse outlined the procedures taken in land searches. (1) O.P.P. or police agency of jurisdiction gets the call of a missing person(s), (2) officers are sent to caller to obtain more information, (3) they go to the vehicle/campsite, last known location, (4) contact the S&R team in the area (Soo/Espanola) who then work under the O.P.P. or the volunteer civilian search manager and conduct the actual search.

All S&R personnel are unpaid volunteers who must supply their own time, equipment and gas.  The only compensation paid for is Air Search and Rescue.

Jim Lindamood presented Mr. Guse with a copy of bush pilot George Theriault's autobiography, "Trespassing in God's Country" in appreciation for his presentation.

Jim Lindamood, along with Penokeans Dorothy Kutt, Gerrit Hamer, Clarence Paris and Scott Helman attended, on February 21, a talk given at a meeting of the Massey Nature Study Group by Dr. Joe Hamer, Cambrian College.

Dr. Hamer reported both successes and failures with the re-introduction of elk.  No more can be brought into the area because of a transportation ban. Elk in western provinces suffer from a wasting disease that is transmissible.  Also, there have been losses because of the stress of transport itself.  Of the 60 elk brought into the Blind River area, 47 remain, all apparently healthy.

Elk are ungulates, even toed members of the deer family.  Their distinctive antlers are shed yearly.  They have no upper incisors, are ruminates, eat grasses and herbs, poplar, aspen, and in winter browse on maple buds, twigs and cedar.  Their hooves leave rounded tracks smaller than moose tracks.  The male elk bugle, cows and calves whistle.  The rut begins at the end of August and peaks in mid-September.  Gestation is 8½ months and normally only one calf is born in mid-May or early June.  Deer and moose often produce twins.  The bull elk keeps a harem of about 12 cows.

Elk can impact farming since they will take advantage of hay or silage.  They are not nimble (like deer) and lean against fences until they break to gain access to farm fields.

Body shape and colour are distinctive: dark mane in winter and rut, white rump is unique.  Losses are attributed to road-kill, drowning, hunting/poaching, malnutrition and disease.  Source of local population: Elk Island, 25 km east of Edmonton.  There is apparently no DNA difference between western and eastern herds.  Elk Island had no large predators untill 2003 (mountian lions).  The local herd has no defence against wolves or other predators, and 80% stay within 20 km of their release area.  Five elk were recently seen in the Quirke Lake/Panel Mine area.

Trip leaders should be contacted for specific dates and particulars.  There will be sign-up sheets available at the appropriate General Meetings.  Should there be any changes necessary, they will be posted on the PHFN website.

April 2006

North Shore Migratory Birds
Lloyd McCabe advises that Mr. Erwin Meissner will lead a "North Shore Migratory Birds" trip in late April beginning in Spanish and ending in Massey.   Sign-up sheets will be available at the PHFN meeting on April 11.  Specific date and car-pool information can be obtained by calling Lloyd at 461-9521

This month's picture was taken from the CD "Things Great and Small" produced by Larry and Ute Kissau
-Webmaster

Terry Carr advises that on March 21, he and 12 participants visited two landfill sites; Elliot Lake and Blind River.   The highlight of the trip was the sighting of a red tailed hawk in addition to 70 - 100 crows and ravens at the Elliot Lake site.   At Blind River an immature bald eagle was spotted along with the ubiquitous crows and ravens.

Bill Mayne and Dan Humeniuk have now added sound to their photography, which will be a great asset to their endeavours.   We trust that PHFN will be the beneficiary at one or several of our upcoming meetings??

The 10th annual Ontario Nocturnal Owl Survey was conducted on Little White River Road, a 20 km strip between the two bridges.   Ten stops were made in all, and only at the last stop did Terry hear one barred owl.  His report has been sent to Bird Studies Canada at Long Point. See our website for details (Message Board).

Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday May 9, 2006 at the Moose Family Centre.

One of the most joyous sounds of spring is a chorus of Spring Peepers.  If you walk along the Sanctuary causeway just after dark some night soon, you will be almost deafened by male Peepers calling all females within hailing distance.   Considering they are nocturnal frogs of 25 - 30 mm in length, their loud chorus from trees and shrubs along the Cattail Marsh testifies to the numbers that must be there, and to the power of the mating instinct.

Wonderfully equipped by nature with a vocal sac almost the same size as their body, they peep approximately once a second, and sometimes amplify their sound by peeping from a fissure in the ground or from a cover of matted grasses.   But their favourite choral location seems to be perched not far above water, all for the benefit of the females since this chorus is exclusively male, the female choosing her mate by the quality of his call.

Although they are tree frogs, Peepers must live near ponds and swamps because they breed in the water.   Pseudoacris crucifer, the Northern Spring Peeper, can be shades of brown or olive or grey, with markings on the back which form a rough "X".  They have some colour changing ability and can darken or lighten depending on circumstances.  Their toe pads are large to aid in climbing.

Mating takes place from March to June.  Spring Peepers breed around three years of age, so the chorus you hear is made by the veterans of several Sanctuary winters who have made it through a state of partly frozen hibernation while being dug into mud or burrowed under logs or loose tree bark.  Peepers' bodies freeze, but their cells don't rupture because they contain concentrated sugars which act as Peeper anti-freeze.

After Spring Peepers breed in the water, 800 - 1,000 eggs are laid on underwater sticks and plants.  The eggs hatch into tadpoles in 6 to 12 days, a tadpole actually being larger than an adult Peeper, and in a few more weeks, the tadpoles turn into adult Spring Peepers who live in the woods.

Adult Spring Peepers eat ants, beetles, moth larvae, flies and spiders.  They are the prey of Sanctuary inhabitants such as snakes, birds, skunks, foxes, bullfrogs, cats and visitors such as dogs.  And, because they are so small, they are also preyed upon by carnivirous insects such as giant water bugs.  Infant mortality can be problematic.   Although Spring Peepers tend to breed in fishless waters, that doesn't always happen, and as you might imagine, those eggs and tadpoles make a fine diet for fish and turtles.

With the melting of snow and ice, and an abundance of water everywhere, Spring Peepers are highly susceptible to surface water runoff which can carry chemicals, pesticides and/or silt, all of which can be lethal to eggs, tadpoles and adults.  As a Sanctuary, I aim to be informed about each of the species within my borders.  I know that I want to do my best to protect what one writer called "the amphibian equivalent of the Chorale in Beethoven's 9th Symphony".

Stop the spread of destructive pests by not moving firewood or other types of wood from regulated areas.

These include: Trees, Nursery Stock, Pruned Branches, Logs and Forest Products with bark attached.

A particular threat is the presence of The Asian Long-horned Beetle in the Toronto/Vaughn area in Ontario, and The Emerald Ash Borer in Southwestern Ontario.

For further information visit the Canadian Food Inspection Agency website at www.inspection.gc.ca (after entering site choose "Invasive Alien Species" from the "Hot Topics" menu)