January - December 2024

 

 

In mid-September, our dear kitty Skyea stopped eating, and drank very little. During the next couple of weeks with Skyea unable to defend our kitchen, we went into full-time crisis-management, reorganizing the pantry, securing our dry foods, and  trapping 24 rats. A vet made a housecall, diagnosed a fast-growing cancer, and euthanized Skyea as we said goodbye.

... however, she'd been with us for only four days when we had a health crisis - I accidentally dropped an Advil gelcap and Nala immediately swallowed it, thinking it was a treat! I called the vet and the poison control centre, and rushed her in to Ottawa. For the next five days we had to restrain her for medication five times a day. That persistently nasty treatment was very hard to administer, certainly set back her willingness to trust us - and also set  back by $2K in vet expenses - so soon after having spent more than that in the process of losing Skyea. I sold some prints to raise funds after that.

 

In April we had found female Leopard Frogs coming out of the hibernation creeks with spent ovaries, so that they had laid eggs in the creeks, making the tadpoles vulnerable to fish. We had a modest number of Leopards around for the early summer, and the first juvenile arrived right on time on 1 August, but there was no big cohort of juveniles, and no conspicuous autumnal movement toward hibernation creeks.

Toads called from 10 April to 24 June, but they were few & distant, and this was a year in which very few juveniles reached the village. Through the summer there was little calling by Grey Treefrogs - only 15 records of summer calling, in contrast to 2023's 32 records - but a usual number of summer calling records of Peepers - 11 - in contrast to 2023's 7.

Adult Ambystoma Salamanders were minnow-trapped in Elsas Pond from 13 March to 12 April, and on 22 June, when the pond had dried to 4 cm depth, larvae were dipnetted up, and released in the Firepit Pond.

In September Aleta finished the Smooth Green Snake that she had started in 2023 at BiotaNB. This was also a complicated painting, with a lot going on in the grassy habitat which she painted from a chunk of turf brought home from the New Brunswick in a basin and which overwintered in our front yard, with reference to photos of it at the time it was collected.

GROUPS AND ACTIVITIES 

 

(listed in chronological order of first mention in the database)

North Grenville Historical Society: Fred on the Board, sometimes noted in lists of board members as“Natural Historian.’ On Job Description Committee & Oxford Mills Town Hall consultation, but mostly waiting for the society to ask for more natural history content.

 

Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills: Through the winter til 29 March, resumed on 18 October, with Matt Keevil, Amanda Bennett, and Payton McIntyre's help; Presentation to Oxford Mills Community Association, and to several other groups. Helped with Matt’s PIT tagging, described Mudpuping to all classes at Oxford-on-RideauSchool, “discovering that at least one student in each grade - more in the higher grades - knew about Axolotls.”

 

Ontario Invasive Plant Council: remote attendance at AGM, Fred placed on the Manitoba Maple & Burdock ‘Best Management Practices’ teams when he protested that neither of these seemed to be invasive species.

 

North Grenville Municipal Waterfront Access Strategy: suggested canoe launches at Limerick Road, the Cheese Factory, Mussell Road, and Beach Road.

 

North Grenville Environmental Action Advisory Committee: Fred on the committee, mostly contributing vague suggestions about ecological integrity.

 

North Grenville Friends of Indigenous Trails group: suggested Marsh Marigold as symbol, Aleta designed logo.

 

Advised Vance Trudeau’s University of Ottawa lab about the onset of Anuran spring, provided Wood Frogs, and attempted to find Leopard Frog egg masses.

 

Reported on amounts of precipitation to Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, and South NationConservation.

 

Participated in The Land Between Biodiversity Conservation Talking Circles: HERPS & AQUATIC.

 

Fred on South Nation Conservation Watershed Committee, after dissolution of Fish & Wildlife Committee.

 

Advising Rosemary Tayler of Friends of Lanark Highlands on protection of Barbers Lake, suggesting, promoting, and attending October paintout there.

 

North Grenville Habitat Gardeners: helped with the native plant beds at Crozier Park, accepted rescued wildflowers for the Buckthorn-to-Maple Grove, suggested the Maple Leaf from Space for Crozier Park, and advocated for naturalization of the Bishops Mills Cheese Factory, including planting of a Sycamore sapling and Swamp White Oak seedlings.

 

North Grenville Sustainability Fair: had a Fragile Inheritance table, and signed up a few new members for the NatureList.

 

DRAW: Dumoine River Camp art show in Deep River: "Join us on June 8th at the Valley Artisans Gallery in Deep River, Ontario, for our annual Dumoine River art show. The gallery will be showcasing the donated art of 15 artists from our Dumoine River Art for Wilderness retreat (DRAW retreat) from 2023.You will have the opportunity to view the exhibit, watch live art demonstrations, and purchase pieces."

 

Canadian Museum of Nature: The CMN Archives have agreed to take selected categories of Francis Cook’s archives, and have already received a filing cabinet-worth of Wayne Grimm’s files about his alvar work that we found in our museum trailer. Aleta’s paintings of living Canadian herps have been found by CMN library staff, and negotiations are beginning to have Aleta scan and colour-correct these.

 

Fred reviewed Paul Catling & Brenda Kostiuk’s ms on Northwest Territories TerrestrialGastropods.

 

New Brunswick Museum: Aleta rode with Greg Thorn to Musquash for one week of BiotaNB. “...funding is now in place forBiota NB 2024. We'll be working out of the Musquash Fire Station again... All you need to do in return is promise to deposit a set of identified vouchers in the NBM for each species collected, and work 18hours a day in mosquito-infested forests during your time with us.” She took reference photos in an old growth Red Spruce forest for an oil painting, and began a series of five small paintings of slime molds. These will be completed at home this winter.

 

Fred and Aleta hosted Marla Coppolino’s survey of the micro-snails of eastern Ontario alvars: “Spent part of last week in rural Ontario, Canada to see alvar-dwelling snails north of the St. Lawrence River. They did not disappoint! Many thanks to Fred Schueler as field companion and ultra-knowledgeable guide, and to both Aleta and Fred for their hospitality.”

Advising Jeanie Warnock on populating her huge complex of new vernal and permanent ponds with native species: “Looking for someone to design a plan for planting and seeding in our new wetland area and surrounding riparian buffer and uplands. Any suggestions? Could be a knowledgeable amateur looking for an amazing project or a professional. Plan will need to accommodate a variety of conditions, from dappled shade to full sun, as well as varying depths of water in the marginal areas and dry soil conditions on the berms and uplands areas.”

Ontario Rivers Alliance: Fred elected to the Board of Directors.

 

North Grenville Arts, Culture, and Heritage Committee: presentation about municipal museum: "We thought we'd just been invited by the Bishops Mills caucus on the committee to explain our trailer-full of specimens - but by the end of our slide show there was general agreement among the committee members that it's time to move ahead with a municipal museum, and that both of our "Next Steps" should be acted on… "1) We should start an independent steering committee - 2) they will request that Municipal Council ask staff to start scouting for an appropriate unused building for temporary housing of museum activities and collection storage. It was agreed that the steering committee should visit successful municipal museums like the one in Arnprior.

 

Twilux Lantern Parade in Oxford Mills on Nov 2nd:: “This year's theme is The River! We had thought that it would be amazing if you were able to join us and have an info table about all the biology in our creek and rivers in North Grenville. Especially the wondrous Mudpuppy! I know that you are often busy, but the marriage of art and nature seems like the perfect fit for each of you. If this seems like a fun possibility for you, let us know!”

 

Fragile Inheritance: Our "not for profit" organization is three years old, and we have had some growth in spite of the many distractions of 2024. We have lost one Board member but gained two, and the "under- development" online version of the Database is now visible in a browser (though not public yet). Progress has also been made with our partners, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the local Historical Society, and the municipal government is increasingly recognizing us as an important resource.

 

Museum Committee: When we made our presentation in October to the "Arts, Culture and Heritage Committee" they asked municipal council to locate temporary space for sorting our collections, and also advised us to start a museum steering committee, which we did!  Our founding meeting was 3 December  bringing together the natural history, Historical Society, and indigenous perspectives on a municipal museum, and began discussion on how to bring this into being.

 

Fred and I, with help from Rory and Sam, and tenant/neighbour/committee member Kevin Willey, have recently moved our entire holdings of scientific periodicals from house to the "Lab trailer" across the street, completing the filling of that full-size semi-trailer, and increasing the urgency for the municipality to provide indoors space. Wish us luck!

So we hope everyone can have as tranquil & hopeful a year ahead as possible. In 2025 we plan to continue Mudpuppy Nights, encourage via partnerships, a municipal museum, continue with paintings & publications, survey Unionid mussels & other biota along the St Lawrence River, take another trip to New Brunswick and perhaps even British Columbia.