August Newsletter 2017

Transcription

1 August Newsletter 2017 Let s Discover Ontario Bloggers Discover Ruthven Park On Saturday, August 12, 2017, Tony and Petula Fera, who are the creative minds behind the popular daytripping travel blog Let s Discover Ontario, visited Ruthven Park while touring Haldimand County with their excellent guide, Jane Anderson from the County s Economic Development and Tourism Division. The Feras were particularly excited about the historic features of the picturesque landscape and our butterfly meadow, which is full of a range of plant species to attract pollinators like butterflies and moths to the site. The duo took plenty of video footage and photographs despite a brief rain shower. We look forward to reading their upcoming blog post and video synopsis on their experience! Learn about their adventures and look out for their Haldimand post: Annual Bird Festival Taking Shape Summer is flying by and the fall migratory period will begin soon. From September 1 to November 7, bird banding takes place daily from dawn to noon except in bad weather. The banders return also means the Bird Festival is on its way! The highly-anticipated event lands on Saturday, October 21; the 2017 theme will be Ornithology in Canada: Past, Present, and Future. James Cowan of the Canadian Raptor Conservancy with a Great Horned Owl. Photo courtesy of the Canadian Raptor Conservancy. Following regular banding activities in the morning, the Canadian Raptor Conservancy will entertain and inspire visitors with demonstrations featuring hawks, eagles, and owls like the Great Horned Owl above. A presentation after lunch will feature three birding experts who will speak on the festival s theme. Petula and Tony Fera. Photo courtesy of their website. This initiative is made possible by the Community Fund for Canada s 150th, a collaboration between Canadian community foundations, the Government of Canada, and extraordinary leaders from coast to coast to coast. Ruthven Park August 2017 (1)

2 Summer Camp: Ruthven Rangers Week Norm and Mary Pomfret: Ruthven 2 Photo Recap! Park s Brilliant Butterfly Enthusiasts Ruthven Rangers Summer Camp Week 2 took place Monday, July 31 to Friday, August 4. Lots of laughs and memories made with our boisterous campers! Two of the busiest volunteers at Ruthven Park this summer are Norm and Mary Pomfret. They track butterflies on site on a weekly basis as well as keep an eye on the spread of flora that either help or hurt the butterflies and moths who call Ruthven home, even for only a short time. Their expertise and experience are truly invaluable. Mary (Left) and Norm (Right) Pomfret, kitted out and ready to spot some butterflies on a beautiful early August day. It was another warm week, but staff and volunteers did a great job keeping everyone cool and having fun. Mary and Norm have been participating in butterfly counts at Ruthven Park since While speaking with Mary, she indicated that every monitoring season is different and you never know what you are going to see each week during the butterfly count. She went on to say that, Last week, we saw an American Snout (which is a species) from the States. She indicated that in comparison with summer 2016, this year has been cooler, with loads of mosquitoes on site and elsewhere. Ticks were abundant in the spring and the Carolinian Trail along the Grand was flooded at times. This summer, she and Norm have counted more Tiger Swallowtails and Black Swallowtails and they experienced an explosion of European Skippers in July. Week 3 of camp will happen from Monday, August 21 to Friday, August 25. A couple of spots are still open; please see page 4 for registration details. While talking with Norm, we learned that black walnut plants are invading the flood plain meadow by the Grand River, the Indiana Meadow, and the Ruthven Park August 2017 (2)

3 south end of the Butterfly Meadow. In their attempt to turn back the meadows to forest they are crowding out milkweed which is crucial to the survival of the monarch butterfly. Although we are losing some of the milkweed the monarch count so far this year is 17 up from 5 sighted in During the summer, the Pomfrets send monitoring reports to Hamilton Naturalist Club and the Toronto Entomologists Association. Mary says they love doing the butterfly census throughout the property and Ruthven Park loves their involvement in this important stewardship project. The before photograph below shows the shallow grade of the pond in a rolling, cultivated field setting. The pond was made deeper by digging the centre and piling the excess soil around the deepened area to raise the edges of the pond. Furthermore, the surrounding fields were retired from agriculture and seeded with native meadow species. The after photograph shows Blake standing in the outlet channel of the pond on August 15. The best area for butterfly watching at Ruthven Park is the Butterfly Meadow, circled on the map above in orange. We encourage all visitors to add their wildlife observations to the white board located on the exterior of the restroom building at the parking lot (#13 on the map above). Check out Norm and Mary s detailed observations while you re there! Habitat Pond North of Indiana Road Doing Well 1 Year After Modifications by Ducks Unlimited Canada On the morning of August 15, 2017, Contract Biologist Cathy Blott, Groundskeeper Joel Weaver, and Park Interpreter / Summer Student Blake Fisher visited an area of Ruthven Park that had been altered in 2016 by non-profit organization Ducks Unlimited Canada to encourage more waterfowl use, particularly wood duck, which like permanent, deep ponds. This spring, a Sora was heard calling from the pond. This wetland game bird feeds on grass, sedge seeds, Polygonum, snails, and larvae / adult insects. These are all food items the pond is already providing. In the fall, Ruthven Park would like to plant buttonbush and other native wetland shrubs in the shallows and banks to diversify habitat, create more niches and cover, and possibly attract more species by spring 2018, such as wood duck and flycatchers. Ruthven Park August 2017 (3)

4 Adventures in Conservation: Taking Care of an Antique Chair The finished product Textile Conservator and Ruthven Park volunteer Catherine Vernon joined CAO Marilynn Havelka for a small conservation project on Monday, August 7 when staff noticed a chair in need of some attention. The fabric on the underside of the seat was badly worn. It was falling away and the springs had sprung. A Home Hardware apron came to the rescue. Catherine Vernon, fixing a popular conversation chair We re grateful for Catherine s wealth of knowledge when it comes to textile work in the mansion. She has also recently worked on several sets of tablecloths and storage for uniforms in the collection. Goodbye & Thank You to Our 2017 Summer Student Team The damaged chair Summer is quickly coming to an end. CAO Marilynn Havelka, Education Coordinator Natalie Campbell, and Operations Coordinator Madeline Smolarz want to send a big thank you to Ruthven Park s four summer students: Teresa Plaenksken, Rachel Berry, Cassandra Daly, and Blake Fisher! From collections work to mansion tours to landscaping to assisting with facility rentals, the team did an incredible amount of work to help make the summer season a success. We wish them all the best of luck as they return to college and university this fall. Adding the new dustcover Left to right: Blake, Cassandra, Teresa, and Rachel. Ruthven Park August 2017 (4)

5 Town of Indiana Doctoral Thesis Now Available Online In January 2010, PhD candidate Laura Quirk of Wilfrid Laurier University successfully defended her thesis The Thompson s Town: Family, Industry, and Material Culture in Indiana, Ontario, The culmination of 5 years of hard work, the dissertation is 461 pages long an astonishing achievement and rich source of information for those interested in Indiana s history. We are pleased to share that it is available online, and you are invited to download it by visiting this URL: scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1086/. We are forever thankful to Dr. Quirk for her many contributions to Ruthven Park. A memory from the Spring 2010 newsletter: Dr. Quirk (R) presents a copy of her doctoral thesis to Lower Grand River Land Trust President Betsy Smith (L) soon after it was published. UPCOMING EVENTS Behind the Scenes Twilight Tour Wednesday, August 30, 6pm Our Behind the Scenes tours in July were so popular, we re bringing the Twilight Tour back for an encore at the end of August. See the Thompson Mansion like you ve never seen it before: through the eyes of Marilynn Havelka, Ruthven Park s CAO and Curator. Pre-registration and pre-payment required. Please call or info@ruthvenpark.ca to the attention of Madeline Smolarz, Operations Coordinator to reserve your tickets today before it s too late! Summer Camp Registration: Almost Full! Only one more week of Ruthven Rangers Summer camp is still available, so sign your child up before it s too late! The final week will take place from August 21 August 25. Each day starts at 9:00am and ends at 4:00pm. Cost is $25.00 per child per day, or $ per child for one week. Suitable for children ages 6 to 12 years old. Please note that pre-registration is required. For more information, please contact our Education Coordinator education@ruthvenpark.ca or call We are having another fun-filled summer, and we guarantee we will send a tired, dirty kid home with you! Ruthven Park August 2017 (5)