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By Howard Williams

On December 5th, two members of the Phragmites group and two volunteers from the Bryerswood Optimist Camp on Texas Road started clearing Phragmites from around the man-made pond that was being cut that morning – rather like harvesting sugarcane but in a cooler climate.

The work involved gathering the cut stands of Phragmites, some are over 2 m long, bringing them to sleds and then discharging the bundles of vegetation into a pile for later burning.
The following photographs show examples of the work and the results.

What is clear is that although the cutting may only take about 5 hours with a 2-person team (Chuck – photo above) from the Invasive Phragmites Control Centre, the gathering of the cut stands takes many more person-hours. As of mid-afternoon, there was a need for a few more hours of volunteer effort.

These two above photographs indicate the gradual clearing of Phragmites.

Left: Detail of the cut stands indicating the mixture of residual stems still in growth position, and cut stems that had to be raked and bundled. Right: View of the cut and cleared area.

Two means of transporting the gathered material, by tarp and by sled; note grins that mask aching bodies.

The Bryerswood firepit where the cut material was stacked and where it will be burnt.

View of the man-made pond surrounded by cut but only partially cleared Phragmites stems. This will look so much more inviting in the Spring.

By Paul Pratt

Holiday Beach Migration Observatory (HBMO) has just completed its 49th year of fall raptor counts at Holiday Beach Conservation Area.  Each fall we count hawks passing by the hawk tower at Holiday Beach as well as other diurnal migrants on a daily basis from September 1 to November 30.  The dedicated counter this year was Nicole Shangi under the guidance of Hugh Kent, HBMO hawk count coordinator.

This year 135,910 migrating hawks of 15 species were tallied along with impressive numbers of other migrants such as 713,537 Blue Jays.  Here is a chart comparing this fall with last year.  2022 was the third highest hawk count ever recorded, largely due to the excellent count of Broad-winged Hawks.

By Howard Williams

Twenty-three individual field excursions including 21 pop-ups and two other activities, one organised by Ontario Federation of ornithologists and the other, by the Canada South Land Trust Event at the Kraus property.

The 21 pop-ups were attended by an average of 10 members, ranging from a minimum of 5, to a maximum of 25. Generally, we were blessed by good weather an incidence promoted by one of the regularly-attending members. Only one event was cancelled (La Salle Conservation Lands) and this will be held early next year.
Pop-ups early and late in the year focused mostly on birds, both resident and migratory. In Spring and Summer, plants, especially wildflowers and shrubs were eagerly sought and their identification discussed.

Not included in the pop-ups for 2022 are the Christmas Bird Counts in Essex County, they will be described in a later issue.
Highlights from the pop-ups this year include visits to plants at Ruscom Shores and Kopegaron conservation area, and a green Heron at Bryerswood Optimist Camp.

Attendees at these pop-ups generally agree that they are useful in guiding people to new places, or at new times of year and have attracted new members to the club.