A Paradox

Birding/nature has been very dull lately, so I have to resort to other things to talk about. (Paul C. needs something to read anyway!)

An old boat always has a story to tell. This story is of my boat, an 18’ 6” cedar hull built in Wallaceburg by George Vandenbossche. The actual year is really unknown, but it was built sometime in the late 1940’s. Vandenbossche built wooden boats in Gravenhurst, then moved to Wallaceburg and started a business in the 1940’s at the present day location of Tom and Al’s Furniture.

My father and I got the antique boat bug in the early 1980’s when Dad purchased a 21’ Mac-Craft from Allan Myers. That boat sat on Baseline Road for a few years and Dad had his eye on it since he knew the history behind the locally-built and owned boat.

While we were restoring the Mac-Craft at home, a friend of ours stopped by one day with a buddy. His buddy was in the dock and seawall business, and he has recently repaired a boathouse at Mooretown with an old woodie in it. His eyes perked up seeing the Mac-Craft label, because he remembered that the woodie in the boathouse had Mac-Craft step-plates. Dad was interested, and contacted the owner for an appointment to go and look at it in Mooretown.

The man in Mooretown knew the history behind the boat that he had owned it since the 1950’s. It was always in or near Sarnia, and had apparently been used by the Miss Supertest raceboat driver Bob Hayward at some point. Earlier history is unknown.

Upside down behind Abbott's in Sarnia

Years went by under the assumption that it was a genuine Mac-Craft boat. Dad had occasional contact with the owner, and found out that one winter, the boat fell from the chains onto the ice. In the spring they brought it out of the water and parked it behind Abbott Boats in Sarnia. The engine and hardware were removed and the hull turned upside down. It sat there for a few years under the intention that it would be fixed up someday. At one point, Dad got word from a nephew of the owner, Robert Mathers, the boat was for sale.

Dad offered $500.00 for the boat and arranged to have Larry Abbott bring it to The Boat Doctor, where I worked at the time. I had never seen the boat at all, and anyone in their right mind would have walked away from it! There was missing hardware and windshield, holes in the bottom, cracked planks and missing seats and engine box, not to mention no finish whatsoever on the wood. It came with engine, but it was a Ford flathead V-8--a really oddball engine!

Arrival April 1997

The first thing I noticed was that it was a cedar hull, and batten-planked bottom. To my knowledge, Mac-Craft never made such a boat so I had my doubts. But time went on, and I worked on it in my spare time over a period of four years.

One day while taking the dash panel off, I noticed some pencil marking on the backside. It was barely legible, but I made out the name George Vandenbossche. Now things were making sense to me! I had seen a photo of one of Vandenbossche’s boats, and it was remarkably similar to our boat. From that day forward, there was no doubt in my mind that this was a Van-Craft. How the boat inherited Mac-Craft step-plates is a complete mystery!

As the fourth year approached, I had not accomplished much on the boat. If this project was to be completed, I had to make a serious and concerted effort. I arranged to work on it during shop time with Dan Benn to get this thing in the water by July 2001.

At some point, I had picked up a Model M Chris Craft motor from Rob Johnston and this was going to power the boat. I was not going use that old marinized stock car motor! I advertised the old Ford flathead and quickly sold it for $250.00! A number of problems with the M motor just before launch really got me frustrated, but eventually we worked them out.

I decided on the name Paradocks, a play on the word paradox, since the boat was a bit of an enigma in the beginning.

We launched the boat on July 5, 2001. The boat did not take actually take on any water through the hull seams, but someone (?) forgot to put the packing in the shaft packing nut! A minor detail...

The boat ran well and gave my Dad many years of enjoyment. The only problem we ever had was the following year when the condenser burned out in the distributor causing Dad to be stranded just out from the entrance to the Snye.

In the summer of 2009 I planned to do some work early in the season, but was not able to get around to it until late summer for various reasons. It ran rough, and we determined that the valves required some work. John Lewis kindly reworked the top end of the motor and got it running better than it ever had before. Later in the summer, I replaced two bottom planks and changed the propeller for more acceptable RPM.

The boat had come a long way from its arrival back in Wallaceburg in early April 1997. It is a fast and good riding boat—well worth the grueling effort of restoration to preserve a part of Wallaceburg’s boat history.

Point Pelee Sept. 19

I was down to Point Pelee this morning. There was a stiff NE wind, but the weather was nice. I started at the Tip. The Stable Flies were still asleep due to the cold, but by 10:00 they were awakening, so it was time to move north!
There was lots of activity. Interestingly, a Winter Wren was at the Tip feeding on flies on the sand and rocks. It seemed rather tired and possibly something wrong with its right eye. However it posed on a rock briefly. I was not quite ready for a good photo though.

Winter Wren on Rock (not a Rock Wren!)

The only shorebird was a rather tame Dunlin at the very Tip. One could walk right up to it.

A Lonely Dunlin

I walked up West Beach Trail and found lots of butterflies. Although it was common stuff, it was very productive. Species included Silver-spotted Skipper (3), Cabbage White (countless), Orange Sulphur (many), Summer Azure (1), crescents, Question Mark (a few), Eastern Comma, Common Painted Lady (many), Common Buckeye (1 fresh), Hackberry Emperor (1), and several Monarch.
Tons of dragonflies were around.

Hackberry Emperor on rock


Painted Lady on Knapweed

Question Mark

Eastern Comma

There were quite a few birds in the park as well. Lots of warblers and vireos. Ruby-crowned Kinglets were in good numbers, and I heard the first Golden-crowned Kinglets as well.

American Pipits were flying over, and I looked at one off West Beach Parking lot at the surfline.

Wild Indigo Duskywing at Erieau

This afternoon I took a quick trip down to Erieau. I first walked the R/R trail. I noticed that there were a lot of butterflies. Only a couple of warblers (Blackpoll, Chestnut-sided) were there.
I then walked the dyke along McGeachy Pond. Birds included a Mockingbird and a couple of Palm Warblers. A single Sanderling was on the beach. Lots of butterflies and dragonflies too.
I noticed a small dark brown butterfly flying around. I followed it until it set down. It was a duskywing! This time of year it is most likely a Wild Indigo. This particular individual was hanging around Crown Vetch, and I knew that this plant was one of its food plants.

I had never seen a duskywing in the Rondeau area before. Upon checking the list at home, it is not on the park list, and I am not aware of any sightings adjacent to the park. So, this is a significant sighting!

Many other common butterflies were out, including Monarchs. This one looked very fresh while nectaring on New England Aster.

At the Erieau pier and area, there were lots of gulls and Caspian Terns. I counted 60 Caspian Terns on the Rondeau spit point. There were lots of Turkey Vulture either on the beach or in the air. Some were feeding on something black on the sand--either a cormorant or one of their own!

Noronic Disaster 60th Anniversary

Today is the 60th Anniversary of the Noronic fire in Toronto Harbour. 119 lives were lost in that inferno and it was one of the worst Great Lakes disasters. Fire started at night, rumoured to have begun in an aft linen closet. It quickly spread, as ships in those days were built of combustible materials and little fire-fighting equipment existed.

The Noronic was a well-known passenger vessel of the Great Lakes that usually sailed from Port Arthur on Lake Superior to Toronto. It was frequently seen on the St. Clair River, usually on a Friday whilst downbound.
The Noronic's master, Captain William Taylor hailed from Mooretown, Ontario, and was a close friend of my paternal grandfather Frank Mann. Each time the Noronic passed the Mann cottage at Port Lambton, "Cap" Taylor would give a three long and two short salute of the steam whistle.
It was heartbreaking for the local residents to hear of the Noronic fire on September 17, 1949.

Friends of my maternal grandparents from Sombra were on the vessel for a voyage when the Noronic caught fire. They had to escape with their lives by climbing down the mooring ropes hand over hand. They were some of the lucky ones.
On the afternoon of September 16, Laura Stover wrote a post card from the ship to my grandmother and mailed it out that day from Toronto. I have it in my possession, and below are scans of that very card. Little did they know, that a horror awaited them that evening.

Note the post mark is dated the morning as the ship was smouldering.

Bruce Peninsula Getaway

Bay-breasted Warbler

I spent the last couple of days up in Bruce County. I camped at one of my favourite parks, MacGregor Point Provincial Park south of Port Elgin. The central highlight of the trip was to visit Cabot Head and the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory where I have been a couple of times before. They had their annual open house on Saturday.

I guess the weather has just been too nice the past week, as there were not a lot of birds around, and virtually no butterflies. MacGregor Point P. P. was very good for warblers and vireos though, as it usually is. The only butterflies I saw were one Pearl Crescent, one Viceroy and a few Cabbage Whites at the park. Nothing up the peninsua except one worn Least Skipper and a few Cabbage Whites at Dorcas Bay. Last year at this time I had Atlantis Fritillaries, White Admirals, and Leonard's Skippers!

Black-throated Green Warbler

Birding was fairly good at MacGregor Point with some good pockets of warblers. There were lots of Wilson's, Bay-breasted and Black-throated Green. Never saw a waterthrush which seemed strange as there are usually lots there. Philadelphia Vireos were plentiful.


Out on the lake were just gulls and cormorants and Canada Geese. Friday was calm, but Saturday was a bit windier as the wind had changed direction.
The DU Pond on Tower Trail had a Merlin standing watch.

The common wildflowers included Fringed Gentian and Grass of Parnasus. They could be seen side-by-side as seen above.
During the nights, especially Friday night, I could hear passerines migrating overhead. Conditions were right for long distance migrants such as warblers and thrushes. The thrushes were particulary vocal Friday night.
Pileated Woodpeckers were quite vocal throughout the park, but I never saw one!
I watched the sun set both evenings over Lake Huron.

Sunset 11 Sept 19:45h

Saturday I got up early to travel up to Cabot Head. It was a perfect day weather-wise--very calm and clear skies, and fairly warm. From the park, Cabot Head is a good one hour and 35-40 minutes. The last part is a narrow gravel road along the base of the bluffs along Dyer's Bay.

Dyer's Bay

Lots of people showed up for the open house at the Bird Banding Station. Just two weeks ago they started using a new state-of-the-art banding lab. This site is one of the top banding stations in Canada and bands over 3000 birds per year.


On the road in, one passes by the alvar which gives spectacular views of the bluffs. The alvar is a very rare habitat that has been virtually unchanged for hundreds of years. Rare plants grow here and the environment is very fragile.

Wingfield Basin was as calm as glass, and no boats were present. This is a testament to the ideal weather we have been having lately!
The Gargantua wreck still remains a significant feature of the basin.

Wingfield Basin

A walk around the area did not reveal very many birds. A family of Wild Turkeys greeted everyone on the way in. These are virtually everywhere now! The young ones look like Roadrunners to the uninformed non-birders!

After lunch at Cabot Head Station, I headed up to Dorcas Bay/Singing Sands Beach. This was always one of my favourite spots that I visited in the past. It is good for birds, plants and rattle snakes! I did not see a Massasauga Rattlesnake this time, but have in the past. I missed one on the path by about 20 minutes this day, according to someone ahead of me.

I have seen lots of birds here, including White-winged Crossbills in June, and a Great Gray Owl in July!

Not many birds were here, but I did come across a group of Palm Warblers. These were the only ones I saw on the whole trip!

I found an interesting stream flowing out onto the sand. I noticed one spot where the sand was being pushed up every few seconds in a circular pattern. Perhaps this was an underground spring pushing water up.

A few shorebids were out on the mud, including Semipalmated Plovers and a Semipalmated Sandpiper.


I made a quick stop to Tobermory harbour after this walk. Been a while since I have been in Tobermory.
Next stop was way down the peninsula to Petrel Point nature reserve, another spot I have checked out frequently. Ontario Nature has preserved this spot just north of Red Bay Road for the fen habitat and rare plants. As I arrived I noticed a few people on the boardwalk looking at plants. It happened to be Joe Johnston pointing out the various plants to some interested naturalists. Joe is one of the best all-round naturalists there is, and is very knowledgeable about plants on the Bruce.

Petrel Point Nature Reserve

Back to MacGregor Point...

That evening I saw a Great Egret in a pond. This was a banded bird, but it was too distant to make out any detail without a scope. It had two reddish bands on the left leg and a silver band on the ankle of the right leg. Many egrets were banded this year, so perhaps this one was from nearby Chantry Island.

I watched the sun set once again. At 19:43 it dipped below the horizon!

Sunday morning I briefly stopped at Goderich to walk on the old railway bridge over the Maitland River.

Michipicoten unloading wheat (as seen from the bridge)

Next two stops were not too productive at Grand Bend Sewage Lagoons and Pinery Provincial Park. The lagoons had three Black-crowned Night-Herons, ducks and a few common shorebirds. An Olive-sided Flycatcher was atop a dead tree nearby.

North of Wallaceburg I stopped at a pond.

bluet species damselflies in "wheel" position

There were more frogs than anything! They were content to stay put.

Leopard Frog



small Bull Frog

Labour Day

American Redstart

Not wanting to sit around, I headed down to Rondeau AGAIN. The weather has been too nice all week, so once again there were not many birds around....well, there were a few thousand gulls or more along Rondeau's east side if you like lots of gulls. Try and find a rare one....I give up!

Warblers were scattered about in small numbers, with the best spot near maintenance, similar to Saturday. Redstarts were the most common. Red-eyed Vireos were in big numbers, chasing each other.

Probably the same birds from Saturday were still around--similar numbers and species.

I headed over to Erieau after touring Rondeau. A few warblers were also along the rail trail. This is a good spot to hear or see rails (Sora, Virginia, iron). I heard a Sora today, but did not see it. Iron rails popped up every once in a while though.

I finally got one of those darn darners to perch for a photo. This one appears to be a Lance-tipped, one of the most common.

The lone Whimbrel is still in the same field. Not sure what its problem is! Too far for a photo.

Along the beach were some Sanderlings and a couple of Semipalmated Plovers.

I heard a Black-bellied Plover call at one point, but did not see it.

Here at home, an immature male Ruby-throated Hummingbird has been coming to the feeder for several days. Just a while ago, an odd pigeon with leg bands stopped in.

St. Clair River Sunset

I did not go birding today--spent some time working on my boat, then relaxed during the afternoon. A couple of warblers were in the yard, and a curious House Wren which I had not seen before today.

This evening, I headed out to the St. Clair River to watch the sun set. But before that, my first stop was at ICI Wetlands. This place is not checked often enough. There are lots of waterbirds there any time I stop, including heron types. Great Blue, Black-Crowned and a Great Egret were there tonight. Moorhens nest there, and probably coots as well. I heard Virginia Rail, and in the past Sora.


There were lots of ducks around, but mostly Mallard with a few Blacks.

Great Egret

I stopped at Seager Park south of the Lambton Generating Station. It is one of my favourite spots and I have some fond memories from that spot. It used to be a favourite picnic spot for the family, and a great spot to watch boats.

As well, this is the exact spot where I first spotted the Ivory Gull on December 23, 1995!

Although it was not a spectacular sunset, it was nice to watch.

Sunset from Seager Park, St. Clair River

This morning I saw two Sandhill Cranes in a field NW of Wallaceburg. They have been there all week, and sometimes there are three. More will arrive later, as this seems to be a popular spot for Sandhills every fall.

Rondeau Birds on Saturday

I headed down to Rondeau Park early this morning. Weather was very nice--actually too nice for lots of migrant birds. However, there were a few things to look at, including some decent groups of warblers.
On south point trail, a juvenile Turkey Vulture was perched atop a snag. It had the dark head, but not the head of a Black Vulture! One of these days I may come across one there as the Black Vultures are being reported more and more now.

Along the way, I heard the first White-throated Sparrow of the fall, unfortunately. I did not see it, but it is a sure sign of fall.
A couple of Merlins hanging around. This one perched for a while.

There were a few warblers here and there. Up near maintenance along Harrison Trail, there was a large number. Most common was American Redstart. Quite a few vireos too, including a Yellow-throated which was partially singing.

I checked out Erieau R/R trail as well. A few warblers were along there too. The lone Whimbrel, reported by Mike Nelson last Sunday afternoon, was still in the onion field. Nothing else was with it though. I certainly did not see it last Sunday!

Along with Donald Pye, we checked out the beach near the R/R trail and saw a Semipalmated Plover. An Osprey was patrolling the lake off McGeachy Pond. I later saw it later alongside the road as I headed out.

This afternoon I checked out Reid and McKeough north of Wallaceburg. A few warblers were at McKeough, including Cape May which I did not see at Rondeau this morning. Titmice were at both locations, some moving with chickadees and warblers.

Lots of Common Ringlet and Eastern Tailed-Blue butterflies were out. Only recently have the blues been plentiful.

Dragonflies were scarce, but among the common stuff, an Eastern Amberwing was along the Sydenham at McKeough, and Canada Darners were at Reid. The darners were impossible to photograph as they kept patrolling around, so I assume that is what there were!

Almost forgot, a Solitary Sandpiper was at the Dam. It is actually the first one I have seen there to my recollection, so I will add it to the 160 other species of birds that I have seen there.