Trail Wood #121 Earl Plato
Ready for more of Pulitzer Prize Winner,
Edwin Way Teale’s outlook on nature. Still June 7th. Memories of D Day, June 6th, 1944! Momentous times.
“ Like the general deploying troops before a battle, thinking not in terms of individuals but in terms of divisions and armies, nature is concerned with classes and genera. It is up to the individual to survive as best he can. Nature is not a mother concerned for the welfare of each member of the family. Nature is not friendly or well intentioned toward the individual. Nature is neutral. But if disaster to the individual is not averted, neither is it planned. If there is no compassion, there is no malice. There is only the working of natural laws.”
You may not agree but I believe that the Creator gave us those natural laws.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Friday, June 5, 2009
Realistic View of Nature?
Trail Wood #120 Earl Plato\
On a June 7th day at Trail Wood
Edwin Teale waxed philosophically about nature. Seated beside Hampton Brook he penned these words:
“ Yet even here the calm is transitory.
No lasting peace is anywhere on earth where life exists. Each living thing has its foes; Each creature lives a mortal life. Each nestling bird, each branch in a tree competes with its kind for food. For all, danger in many forms lies waiting, temporarily sleeping perhaps, but never gone entirely. The beauty we see in this time of bird song and flowers is the beauty of form and colour and sound. The spirit that extends through all nature is one of never ending competition. Of parasite and predator, of a shifting balance of power, of harmony achieved through discord. Everything alive, plant and animal, spends its days in a world at odds, surrounded by perils, competing each in its own way, in a realm of strife.”
Realistic view? I think so.
On a June 7th day at Trail Wood
Edwin Teale waxed philosophically about nature. Seated beside Hampton Brook he penned these words:
“ Yet even here the calm is transitory.
No lasting peace is anywhere on earth where life exists. Each living thing has its foes; Each creature lives a mortal life. Each nestling bird, each branch in a tree competes with its kind for food. For all, danger in many forms lies waiting, temporarily sleeping perhaps, but never gone entirely. The beauty we see in this time of bird song and flowers is the beauty of form and colour and sound. The spirit that extends through all nature is one of never ending competition. Of parasite and predator, of a shifting balance of power, of harmony achieved through discord. Everything alive, plant and animal, spends its days in a world at odds, surrounded by perils, competing each in its own way, in a realm of strife.”
Realistic view? I think so.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tranquilty at Trail Wood in June
Trail Wood #119 Earl Plato
It’s early June at Trail Wood. Let’s find out what the Teale’s are doing.
“ Sunshine filters down through the new leaves. It warms the mossy rocks and the woodland meld. We have been sitting ere for some time where the Hampton Brook winds through the Far north Woods among skunk cabbages and hellebore, under overleaping trees, along quiet stretches where the transparent water slides above a sandy bed. Idly we watch he water striders drift or skate across the surface. This is the good time of the year.
These are the Elysian days, the days we dreamed of in January and February and early March. Around us stretch the calm woods and the tranquil hills. The sun shines. The brook flows. The June air is redolent with earth perfumes. We seem in a woodland paradise where all is peace.”
Do you know of such a natural place where you can find tranquility? I hope so.
It’s early June at Trail Wood. Let’s find out what the Teale’s are doing.
“ Sunshine filters down through the new leaves. It warms the mossy rocks and the woodland meld. We have been sitting ere for some time where the Hampton Brook winds through the Far north Woods among skunk cabbages and hellebore, under overleaping trees, along quiet stretches where the transparent water slides above a sandy bed. Idly we watch he water striders drift or skate across the surface. This is the good time of the year.
These are the Elysian days, the days we dreamed of in January and February and early March. Around us stretch the calm woods and the tranquil hills. The sun shines. The brook flows. The June air is redolent with earth perfumes. We seem in a woodland paradise where all is peace.”
Do you know of such a natural place where you can find tranquility? I hope so.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Great Gray Owl Ontario
Cheevers2.09 Earl Plato
There it was staring me in the face! Do you remember the National Geographic Magazine of a few years ago? There it was! The Great Gray. Inside is a very informative article on this giant owl that stands almost a metre high and with a two metre wingspan. It’s Ontario’s largest owl. No kidding - Maggie Chambers of Fort Erie sent me a few years back via e-mail a close up of this rare raptor in Southern Ontario. She wrote, “This great gray owl visits my sister’s back yard off of Highway #10 near Bradford regularly.” Friend naturalist, Ernie Giles, sent me a close up of a Great Gray sitting on a post near his Lake of Bays homestead. I know what this giant raptor looks like. I am on the Birders’ Hotline and I recall a few years ago the sighting of a Great Gray south of Buffalo. Brother Ed, and I went with American cousin Willie Stein to the last sighting of the bird, We walked up and down several rolling hill trails in the rural Western New York lands, No luck. Some day I hope to see one alive. What do we know about the Great Gray? You can see the great photos and read that piece in the National Geographic. Here is some of what I remembered about the bird. It is not a raptor that has the muscular strength of our Great Horned Owl. Strip this guy clean of his feathers and he is a “skinny-minny.” His impressive layers of feathers is a cover-up. His sharp peak and impressive talons are only good for preying on field voles. He doesn’t have the strength to capture anything bigger. A field vole is like our fat meadow mice. The Great Gray mainly feeds at night but the Geographic says they hunt in daylight too. That would be a magnificent sight to see. When there is an major epidemic among our Northern Ontario voles the Great Gray must come to the south to survive. I believe that is why Maggie’s sister was seeing a Great Gray now. Hoo-hoo-hoo knows when we might see one.
There it was staring me in the face! Do you remember the National Geographic Magazine of a few years ago? There it was! The Great Gray. Inside is a very informative article on this giant owl that stands almost a metre high and with a two metre wingspan. It’s Ontario’s largest owl. No kidding - Maggie Chambers of Fort Erie sent me a few years back via e-mail a close up of this rare raptor in Southern Ontario. She wrote, “This great gray owl visits my sister’s back yard off of Highway #10 near Bradford regularly.” Friend naturalist, Ernie Giles, sent me a close up of a Great Gray sitting on a post near his Lake of Bays homestead. I know what this giant raptor looks like. I am on the Birders’ Hotline and I recall a few years ago the sighting of a Great Gray south of Buffalo. Brother Ed, and I went with American cousin Willie Stein to the last sighting of the bird, We walked up and down several rolling hill trails in the rural Western New York lands, No luck. Some day I hope to see one alive. What do we know about the Great Gray? You can see the great photos and read that piece in the National Geographic. Here is some of what I remembered about the bird. It is not a raptor that has the muscular strength of our Great Horned Owl. Strip this guy clean of his feathers and he is a “skinny-minny.” His impressive layers of feathers is a cover-up. His sharp peak and impressive talons are only good for preying on field voles. He doesn’t have the strength to capture anything bigger. A field vole is like our fat meadow mice. The Great Gray mainly feeds at night but the Geographic says they hunt in daylight too. That would be a magnificent sight to see. When there is an major epidemic among our Northern Ontario voles the Great Gray must come to the south to survive. I believe that is why Maggie’s sister was seeing a Great Gray now. Hoo-hoo-hoo knows when we might see one.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Orchid Hunt at Trail Wood with the Teales
Trail Wood #117 Earl Plato
Oh to visit Trail Wood in spring with Edwin and Nellie May. Here in Niagara we had Bert Miller and Ernie Giles to lead us on nature explorations in floral spring time. Now here in Teale’s May 29th log we read his account.
“ With a picnic lunch packed in a market basket, we set out about nine o’clock. A leisurely half hour later we deposit the basket on the heavy chestnut plank. It is supported by twin piles of flat rocks to form a bench beside the cascade where Hampton Brook cuts across the Old Woods Road. Unencumbered we begin our search for the largest of the orchids.
Oh to visit Trail Wood in spring with Edwin and Nellie May. Here in Niagara we had Bert Miller and Ernie Giles to lead us on nature explorations in floral spring time. Now here in Teale’s May 29th log we read his account.
“ With a picnic lunch packed in a market basket, we set out about nine o’clock. A leisurely half hour later we deposit the basket on the heavy chestnut plank. It is supported by twin piles of flat rocks to form a bench beside the cascade where Hampton Brook cuts across the Old Woods Road. Unencumbered we begin our search for the largest of the orchids.
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