The cooler weather has meant that I have not seen new species of wildflower recently but flowers such as white trilliums and marsh marigolds are now much more abundant.
Again on Tuesday April 25th there was an excellent turnout of 23 Tuesday Trompers who hiked the Bannockburn Conservation area trails.
I saw a blue flower in the bush just south of Little Lakes road. It had me puzzled as the apparent leaves did not match any wildflower in my book. A person on iNaturalist stated it was a hepatica with the leaves hidden under the dutchman’s breeches plant. I thought it might be a sharp–lobed hepatica , so I returned to check the plant out more thoroughly. Due to the cold weather the blue flowers were nowhere in sight. However I did find a beautiful scalet elfcup fungi which I had not noticed when we hiked there on Sunday. When returning on a warm afternoon I found it was a common sharp-lobed hepatica with a deeper blue than usual.
As far as unusual sights the local birders were thrilled to see a pair of white pelicans on Lake Huron. They are rarely seen in Canada East of the Great lakes.
When I went up to Sault Ste Marie on April 22nd -24th I did not see any wild flowers on the part of the Voyageur trail I hiked on. There were patches of snow and much evidence of Moose with lots of moose droppings. It also snowed on a couple of days so it was nice to return to snow free trails and wildflowers. Some large flowered bellwort and some may apples are coming up but not yet in blossom. The invasive garlic mustard is up in places, but not yet in blossom, and, if pulled too early, you are inclined to miss a lot that comes up a little bit later.
Notes.
Spring turkey hunt is from April 25th to May 31st This year the Bayfield Woodland trail will remain open.
Saturday May 6th has many options:
9-10.30 a.m. Janie van Essen has a meditative walk at Naftel’s Creek trail Register with Janie at jvanessen@hotmail.com
10 a.m. the BRVTA with Dave Pullen and Robert Tremain has a wildflower hike at Bannockburn TRACT (74739 Bannockburn Line) A 3 km walk , expected to take 90 minutes.
1.30-3.00pm Faye Ribey has a wildflower walk on the Lobb trails. Register with Faye at 519-524-2070 or fribey@ hurontel.on.ca
1.30-3.30pm Don Andrews leads a bike ride at Point Farms . Register with Don at 519-530-9019
Saturday May 13th 10 am -2pm Plants and compost sale at the Columbus Centre in Goderich – One guided hike in the Maitland Woods at 1pm. Bags of compost will also be available the week before, with preference to MTA members. Free delivery for larger orders in Goderich.
Saturday May 13th 1.30-3.30 pm Bike ride on the G2G from North Harbour road to the Maitland river near Auburn. For more information and to register for this event, please contact Donald Andrew at 519 530-
9019 call or text.
Tuesday Trompers meet at 9 a.m. on Tuesday to hike for about an hour., If you wish to be on this email list, send an email to mta@maitlandtrail.ca
Uneven Hikers hike for 1 ½ to 2 hours on Wednesdays or Thursdays, contact Patrick Capper.
Both groups meet at 9 a.m. and are open to non-members provided they sign the MTA On-line waiver.
If you have questions or something of interest for Trail Talk email me Patrick Capper at pcapper99@gmail.com.
