Oaks and cicadas

Oak savanna is one of North America's rarest habitats. Once covering 13 million hectares along the boundary between the prairies and eastern woodlands, it has been reduced to less than 0.02 per cent of its former area. Two-thirds of Pinery Provincial Park's 2,600 hectares are covered by a mixture of oak savanna and oak woodland. This is one of the largest surviving continuous tracts.

( More on oak savanna, info from the Cedar Trail guidebook )

Few species live only in oak savanna. What makes it so valuable is the extremely high species diversity. Plants and animals characteristic of both tallgrass prairie and Carolinian forest are represented here, as well as many like the Eastern bluebird that prefer an edge where two types of vegetation meet. Southwestern Ontario's native habitats feature the highest biodiversity of any region in Canada. Inhabiting some of the country's richest farmland, they are also severely threatened by agriculture. By far the greatest proportion of Canada's endangered species hail from Southwestern Ontario's native woodlands.

One sign of hope for oak savanna in Ontario is that some golf courses are establishing it in natural areas alongside fairways, presumably to compensate for their dismal environmental impact. Toronto's High Park also features a notable restored tract.

On my hike along Cedar Trail with Brenna on Friday, I saw a surprising number of new plant species: fragrant sumac, dwarf chinquapin oak (photo posted in iamthelorax), rough blazing star (a prairie wildflower). We also saw and heard an eastern towhee for the first time in many years.

One remarkable sound was the overlapping drones of an unfamiliar cicada. Pinery Provincial Park is home to a rare and little-known species, the scissor grinder cicada. In 1990 biologists discovered that the only previous record in Ontario came from Turkey Point in 1908. Danny and I heard some unusual cicadas there on our first date in August 2003. At first I thought these must be the rare scissor grinder. But doing an internet search yesterday I discovered the species has been extirpated from Turkey Point. Pinery is the only remaining site where it can be heard in Canada. Judging by sound files online, all the cicadas I heard in both places were different species. There seems to be a good number of native cicada species, which opens an interesting door of exploration.

All we saw was a piece of cicada carcass being dismantled by ants. In fact we saw armies of ants everywhere, unlike anything I've ever seen before. Thousands of them crossing the path, moving from place to place and back again. I even got bitten several times on the leg while trying to photograph some other insect.

The damselfly is Enellagma signatum, or orange bluet. The flower is wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa, which holds a sentimental honour as the first wildflower I ever grew from seed. I was about 14 and had no idea what I had started until it bloomed. I've created a gallery of 13 images, mostly wildflowers and insects, taken in oak savanna at Pinery.

No fighting

One question struck me from the boredom meme doing the rounds: "Have you ever been in a fight?"

No. My best friend slugged me in the back once when I was about 12. His little brother once tried to fight me, but I grabbed him by the wrists and held him until his father came outside. When my daughters were little we spanked them in accordance with church teaching, but this was always done in a controlled manner. By the time they were five and three I concluded corporal punishment was inappropriate, and desisted. Sexually I have engaged in some S&M spanking, but it really isn't my thing unless my partner derives pleasure from it.

Other than that I have never in my life hit anyone. I have no interest in inflicting pain or humiliation, even on people I intensely dislike, and have never been called upon to defend myself.

Oh, and I share a birthday with two of my favourite Hollywood actors, Glenn Close and Bruce Willis.