About them wildfires

 Last Friday was a very smoky day due to the many wildfires burning in Quebec and Ontario. I will demonstrate:

A clear day (today)

A smoky day (Friday)

Not pleasant for walking. Makes you cough. Makes your eyes water. Is smelly. Advice is to stay indoors and let your air circulation system do the work. Not easy when you have a dog.

Open fires are verboten in the Laurentians. 

Please be careful out there.

We Need to Talk About Ticks

 As the climate warms up (it is 31C as I write on May 31), various critters are moving north and some of them are distinctly undesirable.

In my long-ago and far-distant youth, we didn't have earthworms at Lake Anne! (True fact. It was just too cold for them.) And we didn't have ticks. Now we have both.

The problem with ticks, other than that they bite and suck blood and aren't cute, is the collection of tick-borne diseases they bring with them.

The species of greatest concern in terms of human health is the black-legged or deer tick, Ixodides scapularis, which can transmit the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. These ticks like humid, cool weather and begin their activity as soon as the snow is gone.

A second species is massed at the U.S.-Canada border, ready to invade. This is the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum. This little fellow is an 'aggressive biter' and brings with it a new set of pathogens. It has been reported over the past couple of years in both Ontario and Quebec.

Quebec Public Health recommends the following to avoid tick bites;

• wear long sleeves and trousers

• use a DEET- or icaridin-based insect repellent, such as these:

• walk along trails, not through the brush
• maintain yards and cut long grass, especially in areas where children play
• check for ticks when you return home; removing a black-legged tick within 24 hours significantly reduces the risk of contracting Lyme disease

If you see a tick, you are advised to take a picture and send it to the eTick website, established by Bishop's University Professor Jade Savage. Someone will contact you and advise you of what, if any action to take.

Montreal public health has issued a prescription for pharmacists to offer post-exposure prophylaxis to anyone bitten by a tick. Rapid post-exposure antibiotic treatment can stall Lyme disease in its tracks.

I don't know all this through osmosis, so I would like to acknowledge the source, from which I drew liberally, or plagiarized, if you will:

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/an-aggressive-biter-there-s-a-new-tick-to-worry-about-in-quebec-and-ontario-1.6377541

Bob's For the Birds -- May

 Sent by Bob on May 20: 

• Hummingbirds finally showed up, two weeks later than normal.
• Beaver on the lake, several times.
• Yellow shafted flickers. First time around our cottage.
• Two pairs of mallards nesting nearby. One in Derek's Bay, one at Sally's.
• Black and white warblers moving along the shoreline several times in the last two weeks.
• Evening grosbeaks moving along the shoreline. First appearance in more than 10 years.
• Healthy (big) mink moving along the shoreline. First sighting since last May.
• At least three loons on the lake.
• A pair of smaller ducks off Green Mountain, maybe a pair of grebes. Too far to tell. Scared by a loon surfacing within two yards of them!
• Lots of pileated woodpecker activity.
• And, lastly, the usual golden eagles everywhere (this one's for Stephanie!)

*****

On the other side of the lake, April and May:

• Evening grosbeaks at our seed feeder during the winter.
• Lots of geese flying over, starting about April 10.
• Loon first heard on April 26; photo by Andrew Martin-Hugessen, April 30.

• Ice out April 28/29.
• Just before the ice went, WW looked out and said, "There's an eagle on the lake." Indeed there was, an golden eagle together with a small bird. WW thought maybe an eaglet but that would be a rush for a pair of eagles to build a nest, lay eggs, hatch and fledge the young all before the end of April. As we watched, the little bird flew away, while the eagle continued to stand there. My wild guess--the melting ice on the lake messed with the eagle's depth perception, crashed after catching the smaller bird, then sat there stunned. Later, it flew off. A day or so later, I was  headed in to St. Sauveur when a golden eagle flew over me and landed beside (presumably) his or her mate. Very distracting, but I stayed on the road!
• After the ice went, there were four or five geese-intensive days which meant early wake-up calls for those in their vicinity (us). They start discussing travel plans at about 4:30 a.m. Fortunately, they don't stay all summer.
• First thunderstorm of the year, May 2, produced a lovely rainbow...also first of the year.

• Male hummingbirds arrived May 11, females about a week later.

Bob's for the Birds -- April 2023

Submitted April 15

Last weekend, we had a barred owl hooting over on Green Mountain.  And robins (still 100% snow coverage of wooded areas).  The usual chickadees, many juncos, nuthatches, and several song sparrows.

This week, a duck flying around Green Mountain, many warblers along the shoreline (shorelines are still iced up) of Presqu'Ile and Woods Bay, which usually open up first.

No geese yet.  Turkey tracks on Anne Est, as well as the occasional deer track.  The raccoons are up and about.  Lots of squirrels, but no chipmunks yet.

And, of course, the occasional GOLDEN EAGLE ( nope, just kidding!)

Full ice coverage, but wet spots everywhere.

- Bob Gaudreau

*********

On the other side of the lake, things have been hopping all winter long. Deer, grouse, turkey, bunny and fox tracks. Also, about a month ago, a fox moving gracefully down the middle of the snow-covered lake, headed away from the Island. 

The feeder was emptied daily by an army of chickadees, hairy and downy woodpeckers, jays, white-breasted and red-breasted nuthatches. Occasional visitors included evening grosbeaks and redpolls. With the coming of warmer weather, purple finches have put in an appearance, as have juncos and one mourning dove. There was a morning when the forest rang with the wittering of warblers--an unmistakable and wonderful sound. Red squirrels have been cleaning up under the feeder all winter, and a very slender chipmunk put in an appearance recently. Raccoons are evident from thumps in the night (the feeder is brought in every evening, so it didn't score). The groundhog has emerged to the dog's hysterical delight. Geese are coming over almost every morning, but there is not yet enough open water for them to stay.

During a winter walk, I had the pleasure of meeting a male three-toed (or possibly a black-backed) woodpecker at eye level, hammering away at a rotting tree. It was remarkably unfazed as I looked on. The males of both these woodpeckers are distinguished by a yellow crown spot, unlike the hairy or downy whose crown spot is red. Both the three-toed and black-backed woodpeckers are rare or uncommon, so it was an honour to meet and observe one.

Last week, during a glorious run of 20C days, our deck was visited by a Polygonia comma or eastern comma butterfly. I asked Dr. Google for information about "butterfly looks like bark" and was rewarded with the identification. Apparently, this little guy overwinters tucked into crevices in tree bark then comes out and creates a first round of caterpillars that become butterflies that have a second round of egg-laying that eventually produces the butterflies that overwinter. They feed on nettles and rotting fruit and have been observed over-indulging and becoming intoxicated. They are incredibly fast flyers, a fact to which I can attest.

I'm sorry I couldn't capture an image of this lovely creature with its wings spread. The dorsal surface is a deep orange with black spots.

Ice is withdrawing from the edges of the lake. It won't be long now!

We're Ba-ack!

 The Lake Anne News blog is back by popular demand! (Well, one person.)

It's been a long strange epidemic, but skies are clearing and blogging is back on the books.

To launch our return, we'll have perennial favourite "Bob's for the Birds" with a few addenda from your fearless editor.

Welcome back Lake Anners, one and all!

A Message from the Chair re: Hunting

As in the past, Lake Anne Club has an agreement with hunters from the Famous Grouse Lodge and

the Browns (neighbours to the south) to allow them to hunt on parts of Lake Anne property. 

See the attached “No Hunting” map which shows the areas where they may hunt which is well away

from our cottages around the lake.

Note that the hunters have agreed to not hunt from the Friday–Monday of the long Thanksgiving 

weekend.

However, I encourage you still to take caution when walking in the woods at this time of the year as

there is always the chance that other hunters may trespass and try to hunt on our property.

 [Editor's suggestion: Wear bright colours, and carry a bell or raise your voice in song!]

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone! - Stephanie

The Hunting seasons are as follows:

·       Deer using a bow, Sept 28 thru Oct 20*

·       Moose using a bow, Oct 5 thru Oct 11

·       Deer using a rifle, Nov 2 thru Nov 15

*excepting Thanksgiving weekend Oct 12 thru 14

Attachments are

Attachments area

"Land Possessed" turns 50

From Land Possessed to Nature’s Victory

A conference by historian and playwright
Don Stewart
on the history of our region
through the eyes of Margaret Cook

Sunday, October 20, at 2 PM
at Strong Hall
1262 chemin de Mille-Isles
Mille-Isles, J0R 1A0

FREE !

2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the publication of Margaret Cook’s novel of historical fiction Land Possessed.

Published by Giles Publishing in Lachute in 1969, the story takes place in 1869 and describes the lives of the Irish Pioneers of Argenteuil through a love story between Norah Kirby, a Protestant, and Dennis Neill, a Catholic. The book contains many accurate descriptions of the pioneer way of life: potash making, beer fermentation, chicken raising, a trip to Montreal, the Lachute Fair, etc. Even Fiddler Lake and Mille-Isles are mentioned in the book!  [...and Lake Anne -- ed.]

Margaret Cook (1897-1975) was a teacher at the Lachute Academy in the 1920s and wrote a monthly column for the Lachute Watchman between 1949 and the early 1970s titled Sunnyacres Sketches. She lived just north of Lake Barron. A play written by Don Stewart and based on her novel was performed in Morin Heights in 2005.