We had a perfect day for our beach walk at Port Albert on Thursday. I noticed a plant I was unfamiliar with, and as usual by using iNaturalist I found out it was American searocket. On that part of the beach, South of Port Albert, there was not much garbage,more…
MTA is Taking Action to Manage Invasive Plant Species!
MTA is taking action to manage invasive plant species along our trails! This year, the Maitland Trail Association has started its Buckthorn Control Project along the Sifto Loop in partnership with Compass Minerals. This project is made possible with funding support received from the Invasive Species Centre’s Invasive Species Actionmore…
Trail Talk 272 August 9th 2023
On our hike at Bannockburn Conservation area the amount of water in the Bannockburn river made it seem more like a creek. In one backwater there were many water striders on top of the water. It is difficult to image how once in spring the water was so high itmore…
Trail Talk 271 August 2nd 2023
Further to my mention of fireflies, I found that the best time to see them is at dusk there when I recently counted 70 flashes in two minutes. There was an interesting study in Zambia on the effect of human odor on attracting mosquitoes. A fan blew the body odormore…
Trail Talk 270 July 26th 2023
The rainfall over night on Wednesday July 12th was around four inches, so it was not surprising that we met a water hazard on the following day’s hike on the Bayfield Woodland trail. Just below Bender hill the trail was covered in water and the boardwalk over the creek hadmore…
Trail Talk 269 July 19th 2023
On the Sunday Maitland Trail hike at the Auburn end ,the sky was overcast and there was little wind. I noticed that there was small swarm of mosquitoes following the first four hikers, but by staying about 20 feet behind, there was seldom any mosquitoes. I was reminded of themore…
Trail Talk 268 July 12th 2023
One reason I enjoy hiking even when on very familiar local trails is that I am often surprised by something new or unusual. On June 30th in the Morris Tract a pink flower by the edge of the Maitland River caught my eye. It was a Swamp Milkweed which wasmore…
Trail Talk 267 July 5th 2023
From June 19th-23rd I hiked some of the trails on Manitoulin Island. I was unfamiliar with many of the plants I saw there such as the Lakeside Daisy that looked more like a sunflower. The Lakeside Daisy is a species at risk and is found in grassland and pavement alvars,more…
Trail Talk 266 June 28th 2023
While hiking at Lobbs I noticed two tree stumps hosted a row of wild lily-of-the valley plants, a plant much smaller than the invasive garden variety. I wanted to take a photograph of them but soon realized I had passed by them without seeing them. It is very easy tomore…
