monies for the Island Nature Trust for this event; or

fielding your own team and signing up pledgers for your team‘s efl‘orts (contact Barb to set this option up).

In recent years, between 80 and 100 species have been found by the Society's Birding Team and thousands of dollars have been pledged for the Trust’s conservation programs.

WEATHER OBSERVATIONS:

DCS&DO reported on Apr. 4 that the water was mostly open on the north shore with some ice in the bays but the ponds clear. While not as dry as last year, by late summer, soils were again dry.

ANIMAL AND PLANT SIGHTINGS: Compiled by J. Dan McAskill

PLANTS:

Dandelion, red maple, willow, and trembling aspen in flower at Valleyfield on May 10 (JDM). Choke cherry in full flower at Savage Harbour on Jun. 16 (JDM, RPh) while petal drop commenced in Donagh a week earlier. Lupins starting to flower in Auburn, apple, lilac & showy mountain ash in flower and hay harvest started on Jim. 16 (JDM, RPh). Lilac, mountain ash, horse chestnut, apple, chokecherry, lupin, and buttercup in flower on Jun. 20 (JDM). Wild lily of the valley, bunchberry, twinflower, bristly sarsaparilla,, wild strawberry, hawkweeds, and painted trillium in flower and some blue bead lily still in flower in Valleyfield; lilac, horse chestnut, American mountain ash, and yarrow in flower in Murray Harbour area; cotton grass and American Mountain ash in flower at Cape Bear on

June 21 (JDM, RC). Water parsnip and purple fringed orchid in flower on Confederation Trail near 48 Road (DMu) in Aug.

INSECTS: No blackflies or mosquitos on May 10 at Valleyfield Demonstration Woodlot (JDM). Three June bugs at Donagh on Jun. 17, only 1 other seen a few weeks earlier (JDM). Tiger Swallowtails flying in Charlottetown and Donagh and cabbage butterfly in Savage Harbour on Jun. 20 (JDM).

AMPHIBIANS/REPTILES: Glen Kelly reported large numbers of salamanders and newts last spring. Spring Peepers - in #2 chorus at Donagh on Apr. 16 and at Feehan's Shore pond on May 12 (JDM). Wood Frogs - odd calls at South Melville on Apr. 14 with boisterous calling on the l5th (DCS); Northern Leopard Frogs - using damp lawns in Donagh on Aug. 10 & 25 & Sept. 7. Green frog and 1 Northern Leopard Frog calling at Redhead on Jul. 3 (MK). Garter snake at Rocky Point on May 10 (LD), abundant in Woodville Mills woodlot (DMacM) in early Sept, and sunning themselves in Donagh in late Aug. & early Sept. (IDM).

FISH: 2 tinker mackerel and 2 pollack taken off St. Peter's Bay (KI). Smelts up Butter Factory Creek, Pisquid

River and Clark's Creek on Apr. 12 (JDM Sr.). Gaspereau nets set in Pisquid River on Jun. 16 (JDM, RPh). Big gaspereau kill at Desroche Pond on Jun. 26 (IMacA).

MAMMALS: Chipmunk at Donagh feeder on Apr. 13 (IDM) and at Crossroads feeder on Apr. 20 (DO). In the woods at Brackley, a red fox followed DGS at a distance of about 15 m despite the presence of DGS‘s wolf hound. Pair of red fox raised litter at the Dover Seed Orchard this summer. Baby raccoon (8 to 9 inch body length) killed by van on Savage Harbour road on Jim. 20 while 2nd young lefi with mother (RPh, JDM).

BIRDS: Common Loon - l at Mount Stewart Wildlife Management Area on Jun. 10 & 13 (BP), 1 adult & 2

juveniles ofi‘shore at Dalvay (DK), 1 at East Lake on Aug. 27 (DK, VL); Pied-billed Grebe - l at Dingwells Mills on Apr. 23 (EMa); Sooty Shearwater - l at Sea Cow Head on May. 5 (LH); Northern Gannet - 13 off Brackley

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