Exploring Nature

Cattails:  Brown Gold

          Being dive-bombed and strafed while paddling your canoe is not for the faint-hearted.  But if you want to enjoy the full, exuberant vibrancy of Spring, you just have to take your canoe down a stream that goes through a Cattail marsh — with all your radars on alert.

         You will have Red-winged Blackbirds threatening you as you approach their nest, Swallows flitting overhead, escorting you away from their area; and you might see a Bittern or a Blue Heron stretching itself up, to camouflage himself perfectly into the tall foliage.  Swarms of many different kinds of birds twisting and wheeling overhead will make the air throb with their distinctive calls and songs.  Turtles sun-bathe lazily along a log; a mink hops along the far shore; and if you time it right, you will be splashed as you round a curve in the stream, by a beaver who was surprised at his work.  Various types of waterfowl lurk watchfully among the stalks on the shore.  Who knows how many pairs of eyes are peering out at you as you glide by? — for the Cattail marsh is a living, breathing, metropolis for many kinds of creatures.

Thousands of animals shelter in the dense thickets, both birds above the water, and fishes under the water.  Many birds use the leaves of the cattail to make their nest, then line that nest with its warm, fluffy seeds.  This is a primary habitat for the muskrat, and also its primary food source.  You will meet many families of recently-hatched ducklings, with Mother shuttling them with urgent clucking from one mud restaurant to another.  One very late Summer night at Full Moon, a couple of us were enjoying all the hustle and bustle of the swamp, when a water-snake sizzled past our canoe.  Bad news for some frog, or other small creature!

         People of the First Nations used tremendous intelligence and ingenuity in adapting the cattail to human needs.  From making shelters with thatch from the leaves, and mats woven from the stalks for walls and sleeping mats — to using the fluff for starting fires from the spark of a flint — to baskets — to making a dazzling array of foods from it, they showed that the cattail was a real partner in their lives.

         Every part of the cattail can be used for food.  The new shoots in the Spring can be cooked like Asparagus.  The very young flower spike can be boiled, and eaten like corn on the cob.  First Nations People taught the early white settlers to cook the roots of the plant and eat it like a potato.  The main use for the root was for making a very valuable flour, used for baking.  The yellow pollen gathered in the Summer makes a nutritious flour, also.  If you are ever caught in the woods in Survival Mode, the Cattails can supply Food, Shelter, and Fuel for your fire.

The book on Edible Plants in “The Peterson Field Guide Series” states that, “ This is possibly one of the best and certainly the most versatile of our native edible plants”.

         First Nations People had a number of medicinal uses for the cattail.  For wounds, and for some skin problems, they prepared a jelly from the young leaves.  They made an insect repellent by burning the brown flower head.  For cuts, stings, wounds, and bruises they sometimes used poultices made from the roots.  They used ashes of the burned leaves as an antiseptic or styptic for wounds.  They even were able to get help with a toothache from a honey-like secretion which is often found near the base of the plant! 

         Because of the tremendous variety of other human uses for cattails; from producing ethanol, to insulation, to antifreeze; and many others, there are commercial cattail farms in the United States.

         So why does “Nature’s Swamp Sausage” have that sharp spike sticking out from it?  Inspect a plant early Summer when the it is in full bloom, and you will see two sections at the top of the stalk.  The top part is several inches long, and covered in short, floppy hairs.  That is the male part of the flower, covered in dry yellow pollen (dry because it is to be carried by the wind to other flowers).  When the pollen falls off, the stalk remains as that sharp spike.  The rest of the stalk, covered in velvety brown, is the female part of the flower, and will produce the seeds. Ian Clark

                              THE BUZZ WORD IS BEES

                                             It’s a wintery -15C outside and I can’t think of anything better than letting my mind wander to warm, sunny days;  blue skies, an abundance of brightly coloured flowers and the steady buzz of bees.  Yes - a good time to be thinking about our wonderful bees and all the work they do during those lazy, hazy summer days.

  There are approximately 20,000 species of bees worldwide, except at the Polar Regions and very high altitudes; about 4,000 are found in North America.  Bees in their search for food pollinate flowering plants.  Without pollination, most fertilization could not take place; the plants would be unable to reproduce and therefore would become extinct.  Without going into detail about the sex-life of plants (yes they do have one!) it is obvious that without bees our food supply would soon dwindle.  In fact, a significant part of our food supply depends on insect pollination; most of that from bees.

  Bee facts are fascinating.  For example, with the honey bee, there are three types of bees in a hive: Queen, Worker and Drone.  The Queen is the only one to lay eggs; a healthy Queen can lay around 1,500 per day!  The Worker bees are all female and as their name suggests they do all the work for the hive (that sound familiar??) including cleaning, feeding babies, taking care of the Queen, storing pollen and nectar, guarding and repairing the hive.  As if this is not enough, they also have to fly outside collecting nectar and pollen to feed the young.  So what do the Drones do?  The Drones are male and, yes, you’ve guessed it - their only job is to find and mate with a Queen! To do so, they fly outside, congregating in special “drone areas” in the hope of meeting said Queen!  (I think we humans call them Bars!!)  Anyway bees are said to have been around for 30 million years- so I guess they are doing something right!

 There is often confusion regarding the difference between pollen and nectar. Both are used as food.  Pollen is the substance that appears as a fine dust on flowers. It is often accidentally collected and transferred from male to female flowers, thus fertilizing them.  It is usually carried by the worker bee on her hind legs as a source of protein which is fed to the babies.

  Nectar is a sweet, sticky liquid produced by some plants to attract pollinators. It is a source of energy for the bees. Nectar is transported to the hive in the bee’s specially designed stomach.  It is processed and regurgitated into the honeycomb cells.  The worker bees then fan it with their wings to remove excess water and the end result is honey.  Nectar from about 2 million flowers must be collected to make one pound of honey.  To achieve this, it is estimated that these bees fly the equivalent of once around the world.  No wonder “her” life span is only 5-6 weeks.  Meanwhile the drones are still meeting in “drone clubs” looking for that perfect mate!

  A shadow on this perfect scenario is the threat by human activity.  For example, certain neonicotinoid pesticides are decimating bee populations, putting their very existence at risk.  In order to combat this threat the Ontario Government is proposing legislation to reduce the use of this type of pesticide by 80%.  Why not 100%?

  The European Union has already banned three neonic-type pesticides, while the European Environment Agency has stated its intention to investigate further on a global basis. They fear that these pesticides are harming not only bees but many other essential insects.  However, Canada’s Pest Management Regulation Agency (PMRA) is turning a blind eye to the dangers of these pesticides, despite many reports provided by such organizations as the Sierra Club, David Suzuki Foundation and others.  Obviously this critical matter needs immediate action, for the bees’ sake and ours. Our food supplies depend on it.

Jackie Hall

Frogs:  A Green “Canary”

Red Hill Creek was just over a mile from home. We had recently moved to the outskirts of the city and my three older siblings wanted to go exploring. Being a four-year-old, I found the trek to be long and exhausting - more like a long hike.

Once reaching the creek my siblings pointed out many little green frogs hopping back into the water. I was enthralled with them! I wanted to catch one! Easier said than done. But my older brother knew how and soon I was holding the frog he had caught. But not for long. The slippery creature escaped my inexperienced grasp and headed for safety through the grass and into the water.  I was captivated by the way the frog looked at me with its bulging eyes that seemed to move in different directions.

From then on, during hikes and outings, camping and exploring, I was on the lookout for these green beings.  I was able to catch and hold many of them for closer inspection.

Walking around Sheriff Creek Sanctuary, I’m still on the lookout for these amphibians. In spring I see them sunning themselves either on shore or a lily-pad. Later in summer I spot their noses sticking out of the water. As I approach them on land, they sometimes startle me as they dash back into the water.

I have never seen them with their mouths open, though they have large mouths. I respect and am in admiration of the photographers and videographers who spend hours filming frogs in action during their hunting and feeding times. The types of prey that frogs consume have been documented: they eat a variety of insects and some of the larger frogs even devour small birds.

Have you ever been out on a warm spring evening, close to dark, and listened to the high-pitched trill coming from a bog or pond? That could be the mating calls of one of the smallest frogs, the Spring Peeper (1.5 - 3 cm), a call that can carry for almost a kilometer. What is fascinating, is that when you approach their wetland, the trill abruptly stops. How could they hear you coming with all those decibels they produce? Perhaps they feel the vibrations of your steps. Resumption of trilling takes a long time after being disturbed.

While camping near Quirk Lake mid-summer last year, we noticed a tiny brown frog climbing the netting of our dining tent. I wondered if it was a Spring Peeper or a tree frog, as they are tiny as well.  By the time I located my camera, it was gone.

Sometimes we encounter mid-sized frogs as well, including Wood, Leopard and Green Frogs. Each species has unique markings, behaviours, and calls.  At Mississagi Provincial Park, as dusk falls, we’ve often heard the unmistakable, grumpy calls of the largest of our frog species, the bullfrog, …but then, try to find them in the lowering gloom! 

Walking the shore of one of the Parks’ beaches, we have spotted literally thousands of tadpoles (frogs in the making) near the shore. As we approached them, they’d scurry back into the safety of the deeper water. Where do they all go? How many survive? They might become food for fish, birds and other predators. Some species of tadpoles take a full year to metamorphose into adult frogs.

So many questions arise.  How do these amphibians survive the cold? Where do they go during winter? Some frogs hibernate by burrowing in the mud at the bottom of ponds. Others winter over under leaves and forest litter. Some rid their cells and vital organs of water, and literally freeze; then they thaw out and resume life in the spring! Still other frogs produce sugars that stave off total freeze-up. In some species, the tiny hearts continue to beat in their icy condition, while in others the heart completely stops during hibernation, only to be restarted by the warming of spring.

There is a noted decline in the numbers of amphibians and reptiles to the point of threatened extinction. I am saddened when I see flattened amphibians along roads and tracks. Road kills, changing environments, urbanization/industrial encroachment, chemical sprays, draining of wetlands etc. are taking a toll.

Ontario Nature initiated a project a few years ago, to update their Reptile and Amphibian Atlas. They wanted to know which species were observed and where. There is increasing concern about destructive environmental conditions that affect all life, including humans. Frogs and amphibians are just another ‘canary-in-the-mine’ indicator.

Life is so diversified, so interconnected, so interdependent, so balanced, so awesome-a real gift, one that needs to be appreciated, and at times protected. That comes with better understanding, education and RESPECT. Lionel Frigault

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