By the time you read this, an attack on the garlic mustard has been made on the GART/G2G trail between Lucknow Line and Sharpes Creek Line.  While checking for the garlic mustard on a sunny afternoon I saw 35 Midland painted turtles at the ponds just East of Lucknow Line.

I recently heard about another trail that is not listed in the Huron County Hiking Guide – The Rogers Tract which is on Hoover line North of Montcrieff road.  It had a huge  patch of the invasive periwinkle which I estimated at 120 by 40 meters i.e.  about 5000 square meters of periwinkle which was  only interrupted by tree trunks. This is a good example of what can happen when an invasive species is left uncontrolled.  The John Goldie Reserve has the worst garlic mustard invasion of the places I know of in Huron County.

On the Lobb trail there were many twin leaf flowers in blossom. The only other place I have come across some is in the Morris Tract.  There were also cut-leaved toothwort and toothwort in blossom.  The cut-leaved variety has three leaves which are more sharply divided segments, while toothwort has only a pair of leaves.

Other wild flowers seen recently include large –flowered bellwort, wood anemone and may apple.

On April 29th while doing a Feeder watch I saw my first Brown Thrasher  which is uncommon but several other people I know have seen one this year.

On May 4th the Maitland Trail work crews were busy. A group were preparing another boardwalk in the Maitland Woods between boardwalks #5 and #6, more were working on the flooding across the trail due to the beavers in the pond at boardwalk #8, and Brian McCulloch and Phil Paquette were in the Morris Tract cutting three ash windfalls across the Maitland trail.

Notes.

Spring turkey hunt is from April 25th to May 31st  This year the Bayfield Woodland trail will remain open.

Friday May 12th 7 p.m. (Doors open at 6.30 pm)  Join the Maitland Trail Association AGM at the Huron County Museum

Saturday May 13th 9 am hike the Maitland Trail from Bishop’s road to Cherrydale. Expect about 2.5 hours. Meet at 37153 Bishop’s road. Register with George Cantin at 519-871-1686 or streamsideinc@gmail.com

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.

Thursday May 18th and 25th at 6.30 pm Join Roger Goddard for a birding hike at the rock on North Harbour road

For more information and to confirm your attendance, please contact Roger Goddard at 519 612-

1236 or rggsmg@hurontel.on.ca. This is a Level 1, slow pace, 1.5 – 2 hours.

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.