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The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid strikes

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It was after we acquired this property that I was finally able to walk the woods and wetlands we had purchased. With limited time slots during viewings prior to purchasing it was just not doable. Never mind the fact that it took me a while to figure out the boundaries and the way around the woods without getting lost. One of the things I fell in love with on first sight was the amazingly giant mature Eastern Hemlock Trees on the property. Hemlock trees like wet feet and as such the areas they grow hadn’t been touched (can’t grow crops in wet). Leaving these trees to flourished and grow massive. I soon learned there is a correlation between the salamanders on the property and the hemlock. Both like moisture, so they happily coexist. I also learned that Hemlock are extremely slow growing trees. I spend a great deal of time imagining what things the mature oak and hemlock on the property have seen change over the many years they adorned this magnificent landscape. Hemlock trees
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Bird observations for 2023

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With the start of the New Year we finished the bird surveys for 2023. We unfortunately don’t have a lot of data for the spring migration, but we have a full breeding bird survey and fall migration data. We had various skilled people assist us with the surveying under the skillful eye of Hugh McArthur. It was wonderful to have someone as experienced as Hugh to teach some of our students about birds. The breeding bird survey revealed 59 species of birds on our property. Out of the 59 20 species have been confirmed to nest on the Hobbitstee grounds and another 18 highly probably to nest here. During the fall migration survey 75 species where observed with the most notable one being a flyover of a Golden Eagle. Some of the highlights for me where learning we have a breeding colony of Purple Martins as well as breeding Indigo Buntings. I spotted a Scarlet Tanager in the woods and our fairly newly created tall prairie grassland had a visit from a very large flock of Eastern Blu
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The Story of Peacock Point

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Approximately 1km south of the Hobbitstee Nature Refuge is a lovely natural promontory jutting into Lake Erie, known as Peacock Point. Situated in Walpole Township (Haldimand County, ON), Peacock Point consists of a small community, classified by Haldimand County as a “Resort Residential Node”. The Peacock Point Cottage Owners Association, created in 1983, works collaboratively to maintain Peacock Park and its joyful summer social events, the shoreline water break, and a seasonally-operated water service, store, and community hall. In the 1600’s, the area around the point, richly forested with cedar and pine trees (as described in later land petitions), was inhabited by the Chonnonton First Nation (also known as the Neutral Confederacy) (Noble, 2016) (Ellis, 1961). The name Chonnonton is translated as “the people who tend or manage deer” (Noble, 2016). In the early 1650’s, the Chonnonton were driven out of the region by the Iroquois Confederacy, famine, and disease, which result
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The Accidental Meadow

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In December of 2021 Hobbitstee was able to purchase this amazing property. 47 Acres with 30 acres of woods and wetland and 17 acres workable farmland. In July of 2021 the farmer who rented the 17 workable acres took a wheat crop of the land and nothing was planted due to the pending change of ownership. We didn't do much with the land during the winter other than planning for the upcoming year. Busy with getting a temporary wildlife hospital (in the form of a 40' seacan) set up and made functional occupied a lot of my time as well as the planning and permit application process for the brand new state of the art wildlife hospital to be build as soon as the afore mentioned permits get issued. As soon as the weather got a bit nicer I lay awake at night planning the necessary outdoor wildlife enclosures that needed to be build and needed to decide on where on the 17 acres they would go. I am very visual person, so I endlessly walked that 17 acres all the while planning in my
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Thoughts from a Bog Dweller

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Monarch Butterfly on aster   My parents instilled in my brother and me a deep and abiding love for nature.   Don’t worry - I’m not going to tell you that when we were young, we had to walk 10 miles to school, uphill – both ways.   But I will say that the best days of our childhood in the 1960s were spent playing outside, seeing all the life in the creek and all the milkweed in the fields, walking through the woods with our Dad to find – (but never pick! We were taught that too!) - Lady’s Slippers, hearing the whip-poor-will at night, seeing the sky full of bats at dusk, and never wanting the day to end.   We were fortunate, because my parents, both hard workers their entire lives, made time to show us places of incredible beauty, and pass down to us their respect for the environment.   While visiting Luther Marsh and Oliphant Marsh, my Mom never failed to declare, “I love marshes”.   Years later, I discovered that the original meaning of my surname is “Bog Dweller”.   So given all that
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Hobbitstee has embraced a rather large undertaking. The newly purchased property consist of 30 acres of forrest and 17 workable farmland with 11 acres of Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW) mixed in. Agricultural practices have unfortunately eroded the PSW as well as the many vernal pools present on the farmable portion of the property. With the help of a huge team of specialists (who will all donate their time) and a group of volunteers efforts will be underway to start the arduous task of restoring the wetlands and vernal pools, buffering them with native plants and vegetation, removing invasive species, enhancing the wildlife habitat we have, enhancing the “accidental meadow’ and recently established tall grass prairie while monitoring present species, water quality and bring back some of the species of flora and fauna historically present, but not seen in recent years. We are very happy to work with the Mississaugas of the Credit on this. This property is on their ancestral land
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