George Carmody Lecture
The triumph and downfall of the Canada Jay
Speaker: Dan Strickland
Wednesday, January 30, 7 pm
Carleton University, Robertson Hall, Senate Room Room 608
The Canada Jay, the iconic “whiskeyjack” of the north woods, has been studied in Algonquin Park for over 50 years. Almost miraculously, this bird dispenses with migration and lives its entire life on year-round territories in the boreal and subalpine forests of North America including in every province and territory in Canada and right up to tree line from Alaska to Newfoundland. What’s more, it does so with astonishing ease, even surviving the long, cold, and apparently foodless boreal winters actually better than it does in summer. And to top off everything else it actually raises its young—again with remarkable success—in late winter, often fledgling its young while the snow is still deep in the bush, the lakes are still frozen, and most of the migratory songbirds in the boreal forest have not even returned, let alone started to nest themselves.
In this year’s Carmody Lecture, retired Algonquin Chief Park Naturalist, Dan Strickland, will relate how he and others have unraveled the secrets of these successes. And then, with some sadness, he will say why the ecological triumph of the Canada Jay has a fatal flaw and why our beloved whiskeyjacks are heading for serious trouble.
Winter activities in Gatineau Park
Animal tracking on snowshoes
Weekends, January 12 to March 17, 2019
MORE
Snowshoe under the stars
Every Friday, from January 4 to March 8, 2019
MORE
See latest newsletter for more activities
Workshop: Learn about wild foods from our woodlands
Saturday, February 2, 2019, 8:30 am to noon
Grenvill Mutual Insurance Office
380 Colonnade Drive (just south of Walmart)
Kemptville
Learn how to manage your fruit and nut producing trees in your woodlot to improve production and diversity
Martin Streit, Forester
Learn what nut producing trees grow best in eastern Ontario, how to manage your nut trees and tips for harvesting, processing and eating
Gordon Wilkinson – Chair of the Eastern Chapter Society of Ontario Nut Growers
Learn about some of the wild foods that are available in our fields and woodlands
Fred Schueler, a local naturalist
Hosted by the Lower Ottawa Valley Woodlot Owners. Members
free. Non-members $5
See poster for more details
World views
Free monthly photo evenings, last Saturday of the month, 7:30 pm
St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church
971 Woodroffe Ave, just north of the Queensway
Saturday, Jan 26 – The natural beauty of Iran
Homayoun Rastan
Saturday, Feb 23 – The other side of Greenland
Tom Frisch
Saturday, March 30 – Enjoying Scotland & Romania
Abigail Gossage
Saturday, April 27 – Travels through western USA
Dan Jones
All welcome!
For more information, call Sholto Cole at 613-721-3367
Help Trent U PhD student investigate the utility of eBird and iNaturalist
Last winter, Jenn Baici ran a pilot project in Peterborough County to explore how she might be able to use data gathered by citizen scientists to predict wild turkey population size. This year she and her colleagues have expanded the project and are requesting wild turkey observations province-wide.
If you spot a wild turkey flock anywhere in Ontario from December 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, please submit your sighting to eBird or iNaturalist. Your observation will be used to help estimate how many wild turkeys call Ontario home. You can add observations on your computer by following either of the links below, or through the eBird or iNaturalist mobile apps!
eBird: http://ebird.org
iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org
