Pelee Island background, plus an unsettling revelation

 Pelee Island is an incredible place, absolutely no question. It is the very southern part of inhabited Canada, in the middle of Lake Erie and south of Point Pelee. I've always liked this first photo, taken in the early 1980s, as I captured the sunrise from the northern tip of the island where the historic light house occurs. The area between this spot on Pelee Island, known as Lighthouse Point, and the southern tip of Point Pelee, was heavily traveled by numerous ships in the past, and this lighthouse was essential for safer sailing during its operational period.

Due to the recognized historic value of this lighthouse, a concerted effort was made by islanders, to restore it to its original appearance, and this next photo was taken in about the late 1990s, from a southern perspective.

 The natural habitat at this northeastern corner of Pelee Island is Lighthouse Point Provincial Nature Reserve, and during my career, it was managed by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources.

At the very southwestern part of Pelee Island is Fish Point Provincial Nature Reserve. I have given tours of Pelee Island and the surrounding areas, even by air on one occasion! This next photo shows FPPNR which I took back in April 1989.

 This sandspit sticks out in the lake beyond the tree line, for almost a kilometre. This next photo was taken at the southernmost tip, looking north...

...and this one was taken at the end of the treed area, looking south. Those are cormorants flying over the tip.

Aside from the beautiful configuration of this part of Pelee Island, this island harbours an incredible diversity of unusual flora and fauna. Indeed a good number are considered rare, threatened or endangered in Canada.

I will get to some of those a little farther along in this post, but first of all, I want to emphasize that I was extremely blessed to be able to explore, capture via photography and try to protect this incredible part of God's creation, and others within my work zone. God knew of my interest and passion for Him and his creation, and as I described in a previous post, he had my Rondeau job removed from me back in 1985, and placed me in this new capacity which I functioned in for the next quarter of a century. There were so, so many opportunities to explore and protect His creation, and it was incredibly awesome. I am so thankful....thank-you Father!

For various reasons, I traveled to Pelee Island more than 300 times over the course of my career. Some were just day trips, but due to the time required to get to the ferry and be on the ferry coming and going, a total of about 2 hours each way, many of my trips over were for multiple days. Mostly it was work related, and I will explain more of that later. But there were other opportunities to conduct week-end birding trips for a nature organization, and other natural history focused trips for other groups. 

As mentioned, Pelee Island has an incredible diversity of flora and fauna, some of which are hardly found anywhere else in Canada. What follows is a sampling of some of the rare, threatened or endangered species present on the island.

First is Eastern Redbud. It is arguably the only naturally occurring population in all of Canada. It is a popular species for urban landscaping, not surprisingly, so has appeared in numerous other areas, mostly urban yards.

Next is Wild Hyacinth, or Atlantic Camas. It may only be native in Canada at Pelee Island and Point Pelee NP.

Next is the Blue Racer. There is the occasional record elsewhere in Canada, but I am fairly sure the only confirmed records in recent decades occur on this island. More information on this endangered species a little later.

Blanding's Turtle is next, and it is found in scattered, high quality wetlands elsewhere in southern Ontario as well, but not common anywhere.

 Yellow-breasted Chat, next, nests on Pelee Island somewhat regularly, and is about the only place in Canada where this is true.

There is a reasonably healthy population of Red Mulberry here, especially at Fish Point. It is endangered in Canada.

Next is a photo of me, surveying for Red Mulberry at parts of Fish Point PNR. The photo was taken by Paul, my regional counterpart when he accompanied me on a Red Mulberry search.

Another endangered reptile is this Lake Erie Watersnake. It is related to the much more common Northern Watersnake widespread across Ontario and beyond. The Pelee Island population has been declared a subspecies due in part to the coloration it has changed to over time, to accommodate safety as it lives amongst the light coloured limestone islands found in the western basin of Lake Erie.

shy LEWS

 Pelee Island is an island which has limestone as its base, and this next photo shows what parts of the shoreline area looks like. The rocky plates, broken or turned up by wave action and ice at different times of the year, provide lots of cover for shoreline living snakes such as the Lake Erie Watersnake.

 Another species at risk snake is the Eastern Fox Snake, shown next. It is found in scattered locations in southern Ontario, so is not nearly as rare as the other two snake species.

 Fringed Puccoon is quite rare....

...as is the Fox Squirrel. I am quite sure the only natural population in Canada occurs on Pelee Island.

Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus occurs naturally in only a small handful of places in extreme southern Ontario. A small population occurs at Fish Point.

Fish Point Prov Nature Reserve is a fun place to explore at any time of the year, with a trail that goes to the lake and eventually the sandspit shown earlier. It is a great place to look for migrating birds, as they go across the lake and have the island as a resting place if needed. I know of at least one person who did his M. Sc. on bird migration here.

 The woodland of Fish Point Prov Nature Reserve can be very attractive, especially in the early spring. Parts of the woodland may at times have a carpet of Dutchman's Breeches....

...and a little later, the forest floor may be covered with a rare plant called Appendaged Waterleaf.

Appendaged Waterleaf flower

And at other times, sections of the forest floor may be covered with Ontario's provincial wildflower, the White Trillium.

The island has been known for its pheasant hunting opportunities in the autumn. This has been going on for many decades, and there is a pheasant farm where pheasants are raised before being released for the hunt. 

 Some of the pheasants may be smarter, or luckier, than others, based on how one could interpret this next photo.

There are so many species of concern at Pelee Island, but due to the more challenging aspects of accessing this island by ferry or small plane, it hadn't been examined nearly as much as many natural areas on the mainland. But there was enough known to warrant further study. And in 1988, I managed to coordinate a project that had two excellent field persons to be on site for several months, documenting the flora and fauna at some of the main natural areas. These included primarily Lighthouse Point, Fish Point and the Stone Road Alvar. There was enough known, in general, about the presence of some of the significant snake species, but not the specifics of where exactly they occurred at different times of their year. Blue Racers, for example, were known to be in shrubby/grassy areas at certain times of the year, and there was lots of this type of habitat scattered about. And it was known that they would hibernate underground, as reptiles do. But where, was the question. And since it was a species that was known to travel fair distances at different times of the year, depending on their needs, hibernacula, the underground area where they over winter, were virtually unknown.

During the 1988 inventory work, I along with the other two fellows, James and Brendon, came up with some possible locations for hibernacula, but nothing was very definite. That changed in the spring of 1989. I was going over to the island, with another biologist colleague, Don, in April, and it was one of those days that a snake enthusiast might consider to be a good day. It was fairly warm for the month, mostly sunny and with very little wind. I remember telling Don that it could be a good day to check on one of my high priority sites to see if there was any snake activity. So as soon as the ferry docked and we departed, we headed over to a property that had an old, decrepit barn surrounded by grassy vegetation, and bits of boards and junk laying around. Bingo! In a matter of less than 30 minutes, we had seen a dozen Blue Racers, and had heard other snakes scurrying off for shelter! There could have been twice that many! Even a dozen was unheard of. In the past, most people hunting for racers were lucky to find a single one, sometimes in an entire season other than perhaps a road kill! Finding a dozen in such a short period of time was remarkable to say the least.

 After this fabulous experience, we continued on with other things we needed to do on the island, but I was ecstatic to pass along our finds to Paul, my regional and up line counterpart, when I got back. After various discussions with Paul, and another trip to the island to see some more potential, we arranged to meet with a herpetology specialist at the University of Guelph, who had a keen interest in all snakes but Blue Racers in particular. He indicated that he had a promising student (Ben) looking at snake research for a M. Sc. And so a concerted effort at snake research got underway. Some snakes were caught, had pit tags inserted so they could be tracked to where they came and went, and over a several year period, the amount of information on this nationally endangered species increased considerably.

There were several other reptile and amphibian species of great interest to herpetologists, and the Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network had special gatherings every year or so, bringing herpetologists from across Ontario together. On one occasion the meeting was held on Pelee Island, and was well attended. Field trips resulted in seeing some of the featured species, and there was an evening banquet. I was at the banquet, as was the U of G professor who was overseeing some of the Blue Racer research. Now keep in mind that snakes were not always popular on Pelee Island, partly because they were snakes, and partly because the presence of their habitat sometimes placed significant restrictions on property development. So when this professor got up to speak, I remember him saying that if it wasn't for me, mentioning my name specifically, finding some of the significant habitat for so many individual racers in 1989, that resulted in the intensive research over the following years, the research and this meeting likely would not have happened. I can still recall sensing a few negative vibes from some of the islanders who were present at the banquet, but no one said anything directly. Oh well....

Due to the success of the implantation of pit-tags into the racers, some similar work was done with the Lake Erie Watersnake. Those individuals movements on Pelee Island as well as some on the nearby East Sister Island Prov Nature Reserve, was carried out. Here two of my colleagues, Deb and Ron, are putting a pit tag into a LEWS.

 Most of the snake research was begun in the early 1990s, and continued for several years. Study of the Lake Erie Watersnake didn't get underway much until the early 2000s, and similar useful findings resulted. All of this was of paramount importance in evaluating habitat for these significant species at risk, especially when it came to property and shoreline development. More of that story will be evident in the next post. It was an incredibly busy and controversial time, that resulted in a high profile Ontario Municipal Board hearing, and the effects on the Endangered Species Act. This went on for about 10 years, with some challenging, but eventually some satisfying results.

The title of this post mentions an unsettling revelation, so I will get to that briefly now. It was at some point in probably the early 1990s, when I became aware of something that my wife Marie, had been dealing with since her early childhood. She had been sexually abused on several occasions, and the memories were tucked away, but became more evident as the years went on. Her struggles with those memories played a huge, huge, part in her future outlook about things. And the plan is that this will be a major topic of future posts. 

Sometimes there are major clouds and events that enter our lives, and this is certainly one of the most devastating that occurred to Marie and I. I will say too, that due to some of the things I have found out, and learned from over the years has been a significant reason for why I started Life Is A Journey.

There will be a few more posts before I get into that topic very much, so stay tuned.

 

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