Al Lowe

The Mistletoe is a plant of ancient superstition.
Many of the legends surrounding this plant come from the ancient Druids, who practised their religion in the older days of the British Isles—perhaps as far back as 200 or 300 BC.
In modern days, as part of our holiday celebrations, the Mistletoe usually allows the giving (or receiving) of a kiss.
This plant differs from most other plants in that it is a parasite. That means it must live on other living plants in order to survive.

Have you ever wondered about those flocks of brown and white birds which you see along the roadsides?
The ones which move away with flashes of white.
Most people call them snowbirds, but the proper name is Snow Bunting (Plectrophenox nivalis).
These buntings are sparrow-like birds which live mainly on seeds, grass, and grain stubble in the winter.
They always go in flocks while they are with us. A flock will settle in a field and move through it quite deliberately, removing the seeds from all of the weeds in their path which they can reach.

Have you ever wondered about those flocks of brown and white birds which you see along the roadsides?
The ones which move away with flashes of white.
Most people call them snowbirds, but the proper name is Snow Bunting (Plectrophenox nivalis).
These buntings are sparrow-like birds which live mainly on seeds, grass, and grain stubble in the winter.
They always go in flocks while they are with us. A flock will settle in a field and move through it quite deliberately, removing the seeds from all of the weeds in their path which they can reach.

Paper Birch is the famous white tree of the boreal forest.
Often called the White Birch or Canoe Birch, it is the tree which the natives used for their canoes, fabled in song and story.
They also made baskets out of the bark, and cups and pails. Some also used the bark to cover wigwams in the winter.
There is not just one variety, but several. The one we would be familiar with grows from Manitoba to Newfoundland and Labrador. Other varieties grow in the far west and the far north, too.
They all tend to interbreed, so you can’t always tell just which variety you are looking at.

The cry of the loon. That haunting call coming across the lake in the evening.
No sound represents Northern Ontario better.
The loon, however, is not confined to us here in the north. It breeds all across Canada, except in the really far north and the great plains of the Prairies.
It also breeds in parts of Europe, where it is called the Great Northern Diver. But about 80 percent of these loons nest in Canada.
Wherever it nests, it is always close to the water, usually in a small lake in the woods or in a bay of a larger lake.

The Labrador duck was a medium-sized one—smaller than a Mallard, but bigger than a Goldeneye.
None of you have ever seen this duck in the wild, though. And you never will. It is extinct.
As far as looks go, this duck was quite a pretty one. It was all black and white. The main body was black, including the underparts, back, tail, and so on. The head and neck were white, as was the major part of its wings.
It also had a narrow black stripe on the top of its head, and narrow black collar around its white neck.
Quite a good-looking bird!

There are a lot of fruits which are called by these names, but they really fall into (mainly) two categories.
Fruits which are usually black (or blue), which may or may not have a dusting of blue, but which do have quite a few seeds, these are often (but not always) called huckleberries. These are all in the genus Gaylussacia, for those of you with a botanical bent.

Here we are again. It’s wood-tick season.
I imagine most folk think of ticks as insects. Well, they aren’t. In fact, they are related to spiders, scorpions, mites, and so on—all of which are classified as Arachnids.
Arachnids have either eight or 10 legs while insects get along with only six.
Most ticks have a life cycle something like this. The female lays several thousand eggs, often in the grass. They hatch in a week or two into what are called larvae.

Most of the warblers, of which there are a lot around here, usually are dressed up in shades of green or yellow, with a bit of black or brown thrown in sometimes.
But there are two which have become quite different from the run-of-the-mill—being decked out in black, white, and bright orange.
These are the Redstart and the Blackburnian Warbler.
The Redstart is one of the handsomest of all our warblers. A lot of its plumage is black (head, neck, back, and most of its tail). Its underparts are mostly white, but the sides of the tail are bright orange.

This past weekend, four teams from our region travelled to Sturgeon Bay, Wis. for a big smallmouth bass tournament on Lake Michigan—the Sturgeon Bay Open.
This is an extremely competitive event, much like the FFCBC and KBI, with a 200-boat field.
The fishing is a little different from what we are used to up here on our Canadian Shield waters, though. There are no islands within close proximity to Sturgeon Bay, so it is almost like fishing on the ocean—really big water.