FUR HARVESTER UPDATE No surprise; the 26th annual Ontario Fur Managers Federation Rendezvous at Sioux Lookout was cancelled this summer past. And as mentioned in an earlier column only local buyers could physically attend the live fur auction at North Bay. The Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Downey wrote that Kopenhagen Fur […]
WATERFOWL RESEARCH Where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday that I took part in an all night duck banding program with the then MNR. Yet it was 11 years ago! It seems that bird banding was first recorded in 1595 when one of France’s King Henry 1V’s peregrine falcons flew away only […]
TRAPPING UP-DATE On August 30/31 Canadian buyers and brokers attended the wild fur auction in North Bay, “the last Wildfur Auction house in North America and the world” according to Robin Horwath, General Manager of the Ontario Fur Managers Federation. Of course international travel restrictions prevented any foreign buyers from participating in the live auction. […]
FERAL PIG UP-DATE I contacted Dr Erin Koen, Research Scientist – Wildlife Landscape EcologyWildlife Research & Monitoring Section, Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry, in Peterboro for a feral swine up-date. Dr. Koen informed me that In January 2020 staff from the New York USDA came to Ontario to present a two day workshop to […]
The year was 1968 and we had put in at Sturgeon Falls in northern Ontario. We were heading out on a 15 day canoe trip that would eventually take us to an inlet on Georgian Bay called Naiscoot, near Point au Baril. I was guiding for Y.M.C.A. Camp Pine Crest. We had planned a variety […]
HARD HAT TIME The red squirrels are busy once again dropping green hard as rock pine cones from great heights. If you are wandering about in the bush a hard hat might prove a worthwhile investment. On one occasion TRW (The Resident Wife) discovered where a squirrel, we’re guessing, had collected and organized a lot […]
100 L.T. For the 7th consecutive year, with the MNRF’s blessing, the North Hastings Wildlife Association and Coe Hill School have partnered to restock Wollaston Lake, formerly known as Eagle Lake, with its Jewels. Thanks to the North Hastings Community Hatchery which harvested Lake Trout eggs from spawning sometime around Thanksgiving. George Lee of the […]
SPRING ON TAP Furry rodents and shadows aside what more exemplifies Spring than a visit to the sugar bush? On the Ides of February Frank and Karen Haveman hosted the Ontario Maple Producers’ Association (OMPA) to their Bata Maples Sugarbush for the annual ceremonial first tapping of the 2020 maple syrup season. Joining friends and […]
MOOSE and CWD Recently I read that many moose die from Chronic Wasting Disease which countered what I recently had written based upon information received from the MNRF. So, I contacted Jolanta Kowalski of the ministry for verification. Here is her response: “While CWD affects all members of the deer family (white-tailed deer, American elk, […]
Josef Rudolf “”The Elk Man”” Neuhold Friday, February 8th, 1929 – Sunday, January 26th, 2020 Obituary Joe was born to Rudolf and Maria Neuhold on February 8 1929 in the village of Bruck, Austria. After surviving World War II and the occupation of Austria by the Nazis and then the Red Army, he went to […]
