There has been little change in bird life this past week as winter hangs on. Soon, things will happen!
A few spring birds have trickled in while our wintering birds remain.
Friday morning the weather left a lot to be desired, but I headed up along the St. Clair River. Still nothing new! Most gull activity is now at Sarnia where I spent some time.
Lots of Glaucous Gulls have been around, mostly immatures.
Friday was windy but sunny so I headed down to Rondeau Park. A 'sun pillar' was nice to see as I drove down Kent Bridge Road. Not the best one I have seen though.
The VC feeder was busy with the usuals.
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| Pine Siskin |
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| Song Sparrow |
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| American Tree Sparrow |
I walked the campground as well. Highlight was the two Brown Thrashers. Both were together, so if there was any doubt of two, that was quashed! Very skittish though.
The lake was still quite frozen so few ducks were around. Rondeau Bay is still mostly frozen except for some open area at Erieau where most of the ducks are hanging out.
Today was nice as well, but after way too much driving around, I found absolutely nothing of note!
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Recently, I found an old news article about Elm trees by Windsor Star reporter, Lyle Thackeray. He was stationed in Wallaceburg and often wrote about historical items.
There used to be some stately trees before the Dutch Elm disease wiped out most of them in the 1960's. However, today we still have Elm trees around, and even some large ones that escaped the disease for some reason.
The article was not dated but appeared locally some time in the 1950's, titled Giant Elm Challenge Sparks Forest Hunt. The challenge was thrown out by a central Ontario district to match or exceed the 25' circumference of its big elm. (location unknown).
The residents of the border area of Lambton and Kent Counties were up to the challenge! However, by this date, most of the big elms had been cut.
A Wallaceburg native by the name of Earl Irwin recalled at the time that he had helped cut elms in the area that were seven foot in diameter.
Oldtimers of the 1950's thought that maybe some of the big woodlots in the Sombra area might hold some large trees that would be contenders.
The largest Elm tree in Wallaceburg was on the MacDonald property on Wellington Street. It was quite a landmark with circumference of around twenty feet. However it was removed to make a parking lot!
At Duthil on Holt Line (Tenth Concession Road), there was a famous tree in the middle of the intersection of Holt and Duthil Roads. Imagine that! It approached 25 feet in circumference, but was eventually removed due to the numerous motor vehicle accidents. I wonder why....
Around the turn of the century (1900), one of the "kings", was cut down near Wilkesport. It had a girth of eight feet across. When cut down, the stump was smoothed out for a dancefloor!
The trunk of this big tree was squared up resulting in measuerments of 60' long by 6' square. And, it was clean wood!
Of course, lumbering was king in the 1800's and these big elms, along with the oak and walnut were first to go.
Another curiosity was the bent Elm west of Wallaceburg along Dufferin Avenue. It was thought that this old tree marked a trail, being bent over while a sapling by local natives. It too succumbed to the Dutch Elm disease in the 1960's.
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