The PHFN meets on every second Tuesday of the month from September to May.......except in December when we hold our Christmas Potluck.

January 14, 2003 - General Meeting

February 11, 2003 - General Meeting

March 11, 2003 - General Meeting

April 8, 2003 - General Meeting

May 13, 2003 - Annual Meeting

Newsletters: The club will issue 4 in 2002 - 2003 (September, November, February, and May)

The next General Meeting of 2002-2003 will be held on Tuesday, November 12, 2002.  There will be a newsletter issued just prior to this meeting.  Deadlines for articles for the February newsletter will be Sunday, January 26, 2003.  Email articles to

Dear Members: November 2002

The Fall colours are nearly gone, there is a chill in the air, some birds have started to return to backyard feeders, and we are into month three of another season of the Penokean Hills Field Naturalists club.   We have had two monthly general meetings with excellent speakers, and November's meeting promises to be just as interesting.

Renewals of membership fees is in progress, with no increase in the fee schedule, and we hope that members will renew by the end of November.   Our Christmas Pot Luck luncheon normally held in December, is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, November 30^th, but that date could change, depending on membership renewal, and where the luncheon is held.   A committee still has to be formed to organize the event.

The PHFN will be hosting the Annual FON Spring conference on the first weekend in May of 2003.   A committee has been formed to arrange for this most important event, and it is hoped that the schedule may include an invitation to club members to meet with FON representatives during part of this weekend.  This will be determined in the new year, as details are solidified.

Another very popular item on the agenda for the PHFN is the Annual Christmas Bird Count.   This is held in December, and usually one of our former presidents, Terry Carr, organizes this event, and I'm sure he will be doing so again this year.   Most of our members take part by "backyard feeder watching".  Last year's count by PHFN members, yielded the highest numbers of birds observed since the club started this one day event both officially and unofficially, some 5 or 6 years ago.

Our Board of Directors is looking for individuals ( members in good standing ) to fill two vacancies, and we would entertain any nominations or volunteers who would be interested in joining the Board.   Please contact any Board member if this would be of interest to you.

Till next issue,

Ev

In the late afternoon of Thursday 12^th September, a group of 20 members and guests set out from the Brunswick Walk parking lot for a trip of exploration to an area south of Massey.  The search was for the second largest bird in North America, the Sandhill Crane, Grus canadensis, 4 to 5 foot tall with a 6 to7 foot wingspan.  Only the Whooping Crane is larger.

The day was fine, with a light, warm, westerly wind but by the time we reached the target area, the wind had picked up quite a bit.  This would prove to be somewhat to our advantage as, in a convoy of seven vehicles, some doors were bound to slam when we stopped, and this would normally spook the Sandhills.  With the wind, sound was whisked away, which enabled us to get quite close to the birds.  It did, however, ruffle our feathers a bit!

This area, south of Massey, is open farmland, suiting Sandhills fine for the purpose of scavenging among the stubble for food to build up their strength as they congregated for the autumn flight south to winter in the southern USA and Mexico.  Thousands of birds assemble here and there are usually a number of Canada Geese mixed in with them and even Snow Geese have been seen.  This is a good area too to find birds of prey earlier in the daytime.

At the first place we stopped, there were quite a number of Cranes - I believe Audrey counted 70 odd - and most of us stayed there for quite a while watching fascinated as more arrived, looking like parachutists with their dark gray legs extended as if to reach for the ground long before they were near enough to touch.  We were close enough to see their featherless red crowns and long, fluffy tertiary (tail) feathers.

Some of our people had gone on to find out if the grass was any greener in the next field and, sure enough, came back to report a massive accumulation further on. So many birds there were when the rest of us arrived that it was impossible to count but a further complication had set in - the wind was blowing the heady aroma of newly spread manure straight at us!  Being good naturalists, we stuck it out and were rewarded by a continuous panorama of birds coming and going, visiting their relations no doubt, as these birds mate for life.  The spotting scope was set up at this point to get a really close-up look.

Sandhill Cranes have a habit of lifting off in small groups and flying a short distance before returning to Terra Firma and all the activity is accompanied by the strange rattling and cooing noises they make.  This unmistakable sound is the result of having a trachea (windpipe) which has been likened to a French Horn.  Another characteristic is their mating dance, where they leap 6 to 8 feet off the ground with spread wings, head extended and this can be seen at all times of the year.  The wind, however must have been too strong on that day for the fun and frolic to occur, as little of this behaviour was seen.

After a good hours observation where some people tried to walk slowly towards the birds trying, in vain to get better camera shots, the wind and smell got the better of us and we headed for home.  Six Turkey Vultures ominously circling overhead might also have had something to do with that decision.   A plethora of restaurants on the way back provided an evening meal for many but I wonder what the waiters thought of the strange aroma rising from their customers!!!

Submitted by Dave Young

A VISIT TO DREAMLAND

Gisela's Cedar Point paradise was the venue for an outing on Wednesday, 18^th September. Gisela Roemer, a member of the PHFN, lives all year round on a rocky promontory on the north shore of Lake Huron just east of Thessalon.  In the few years she has lived there, she has converted the original cottage into an ecological dream for she is totally self sufficient for lighting, heat and power.  On a rise to the rear of the house stands an array of photo cell panels and a tall mast with a wind generator on top.  Cables from these lead to a monitoring and control hut which also doubles as a drying room and is animal proof, as critters are apt to eat the insulation from exposed wires.

Gisela has also repaired and extended an access road of some 3 km which, much to our delight, enabled the fittest of us to hike the 3 km in comfort and, for those not so fit, to go in a vehicle.   The path is delightful, travelling through mixed woodland and open, rocky areas and finally breaking through the trees for glimpses of the big water.  The beautiful, sunny weather that day added to nature's glory.  The late fall this year made for just a few colours in the maples and birches, although some of the ubiquitous pin cherries had started to wear their flaming apparel.   As Gisela has no motorised vehicle, she either rides her bicycle, walks or takes her kayak to shop in Thessalon.  In the winter she skis or hikes.

Many animals come close to the house and, during lunch on the deck, Gisela showed us photo's of an ancient Blandings turtle which had recently visited.  Later we were to spot a group of these rare turtles sunning themselves on the other side of the nearby inlet.  The club's spotting scope came in handy for this once more.  Kingfishers were in the trees also on the other bank.  A walk over the rocks on this extensive property revealed many interesting plants, some of which grew extremely close to the ground in these barren conditions.  It was noted that the lake level was quite a bit higher this year as, last year at this time, it was possible to walk between what are now a myriad of small islands.

We were finally forced by the constrictions of time to leave this wonderful place and a pair of Rough Legged Hawks came to see us along the trail out to the mundane, ordinary world.  Thank you Gisela for a wonderful outing!

Submitted by Dave Young

On Sunday morning September 29, 2002, eight people met Rob Henderson in the Brunswick Walk parking lot to start a geology field trip.  Rob start his descriptions right in the parking lot as he pointed out the exposures of Matinenda sandstone that underlies much of Elliot Lake.  He bent his pad of paper to show us the general form of the Quirke Syncline, an ancient valley shaped structure in which the sedimentary rocks of our area are layered on top of each other like the pages of his pad.

We then travelled south to the small monument marking the first drilling discovery of uranium in the are where Rob pointed out the occurrence of lava which underlies the Matinenda formation.  We walked across the road to the former Buckles Mine site for a better look at the Matinenda Formation to see the joints and cracks in the formation.  Then back into town to see another exposure of the Matinenda near Huron Lodge.  We walked to the parking lot behind the Bell building to see an exposure of the McKim formation which has some quartz veins running thought it.

We drove north along Highway 108 to stop where the snowmobile trail crosses the highway to see an exposure of McKim with distinctive bedding planes in the sandstone, formed when the sand was laid down as an ancient river brought the sand into the sea in narrow bands with small amounts of silt between the bands.

A short drive northwards around the bend brought us to a sequence of intruded igneous Nipissing diabase which surrounded an exposure of Bruce conglomerate.  This is distinctive due to the inclusions (clasts) of small white rocks in the conglomerate.  Other conglomerates have pinkish inclusions or a mix of various coloured stones in their makeup.

A short ways uphill along the highway we saw some of the oldest limestone in the world.  The rocks in the Elliot Lake area are well over two billion years old and relatively undeformed from their original placement.  We could see the alternate bands of limestone with mud streaks between them.  Some geology group had cut into the rocks with a rock saw and left small samples behind.  I picked up a nice sample to use in our geology classes at the Institute for Learning in Retirement.  You can see both the weathered surface with tiny garnets included plus the smooth fresh cut surface with its alternating bands of white limestone and dark gray mud layers.  Further north another dike of Nipissing diabase had intruded with its originally hot magma which cooked the limestone (technically a skarn) and produced many small garnets and other dark gems, all too small and worthless for jewellery.

Another short drive to the top of TV hill brought us to a fine exposure of the world famous Gowganda formation.  This is a massive conglomerate formed under glacial conditions where the glaciers pushed vast amounts of broken rock from the nearby mountains into the sea along the cost of the Canadian Shield.  The name comes from the town of Gowganda north of Cobalt where the rocks were first described.

One of the most massive exposures of Gowganda formation is at Rooster Rock where Stanrock mine once stood.   Along the Stanrock Road (1.8 km) we stopped to look at an exposure of varved argillite.  This black rock was formed in deep water when the ancient mountains were well worn down and only small silt or mud particles were washed to the sea.

The next longer trip took us up Panel mine road to stop at the old entrance to Quirke 2 Mine Site.  There we saw the northern portion of the Bruce Limestone of the Espanola formation.  The rocks of the Quirk Syncline (a valley) curve downward to the north on the south limb near Elliot Lake, reach their deepest depths along a line through South Bay of Dunlop Lake and under the Stanrock Road, then curve upward more steeply on the north limb of the syncline to reach the surface again along Panel Mine Road.  The limestone and mud structures along Panel Mine Road demonstrate some of the drying (desiccation) features of shallow waters which existed in those ancient times.  There are some interesting features such as mud dikes, flame structures and other layered formations.

A final stop about 4 km along Panel Mine Road brought us to the Pecors argillite with a distinctive drop stone rafted in floating glacial ice.  About 10 feet away the Pecors formation sat on top of the Ramsey Lake conglomerate.  This too has distinctive features from other conglomerates to let well-trained geologists distinguish the formation, reading the rocks like pages in a book.

Submitted by Jim Reckahn.

The picture in the September newsletter is the Barometer Earthstar.

This Mushroom is described as a roughened, roundish ball encircled by cracked, starlike rays which close in dry weather.

The spore sac is nearly round, with an irregular mouthlike opening at the top; felty-rough; becoming gray to brown.  The spore mass is white and becomes brownish and powdery.

The rays, one to two inches long, 6 to 12 in number, form from smooth, grayish-brown skin covering the spore sac, splitting into starlike rays and opening in wet weather.  It also opens when held in my hand.  They are up-right at first, curving back and becoming distinctly cracked and closing in dry weather.

This mushroom is usually found in groups in sandy soil near conifers and at first may look more like a spider or starfish than a mushroom and is the only mushroom in this family that opens and closes in response to the weather.  The season for this mushroom is September to November.

This mushroom was found in the Mississagi Delta.

Submitted by Audrey Parker-Lowe.

GENERAL MEETING SEPTEMBER 10^TH, 2002

SIGHTINGS REPORT

GENERAL MEETING OCTOBER 8^TH, 2002

SIGHTINGS REPORT