NEWS AND NOTES 
     
    
   
   
    
     OCTOBER MEETING REPORT. The first meeting of the fall season was held on Oct. 5. 
     
     Reports were given by Winifred Cairns and Winston Johnston on recent Canadian 
     
     Nature Federation meetings in Calgary and Ottawa. Members were strongly urged to 
     
     attend the upcoming CNF Atlantic regional meeting in Sackville on Oct. 23. Plans 
     
     were made to hold Christmas Bird Counts in the P.E.I. National Park (Dec. 18) and 
     
     Hillsborough (Dec. 27) areas and possibly in Montague as well. A committee was 
     
     established to write to museums across the continent to find out the whereabouts 
     
     and extent of natural history specimens from P.E.I. The 'up-west' field trip 
     
     rained out on Oct. 2 has been postponed until spring. An invitation was received 
     
     for members to attend the inaugural meeting of the mushroom club. Members were 
     
     urged to respond to the current membership drives of the Island Nature Trust, 
     
     Natural History Society and Canadian Nature Federation. 
     
    

    
     Speaker for the evening was Macrae Morse, fourth year biology student at UPEI 
     
     who worked this past summer on the Piping Plover in P.E.I. National Park. His well 
     
     illustrated talk outlined various problems facing the plovers this year in their 
     
     efforts to successfully raise young in the park - predation by ravens and foxes; 
     
     destruction of nests by inclement weather; and human disturbance. However, in 
     
     spite of all the difficulties 54 chicks were fledged from the park this year. 
     
     Thanks to Macrae for an excellent presentation. 
     
    
   
   
    
     NOVEMBER MEETING REPORT. Winston Johnston reported on the recent CNF regional 
     
     meeting held in Sackville, N.B. which was attended by ten NHS members. The next 
     
     CNF regional meeting will be in Charlottetown in the fall of 1983. A letter is to 
     
     be written to P.E.I. National Park and Parks Canada indicating the society's 
     
     interest in becoming involved in the development of future management plans for 
     
     Piping Plovers in P.E.I. National Park. The society decided to go on record as 
     
     opposing the proposed Greenwich development and as finding the impact assessment 
     
     carried out so far to be quite inadequate. A $50.00 donation was made to the 
     
     Canadian Nature Federation. A letter is to be sent to the new Minister of 
     
     Community Affairs, the Hon. Gordon Lank, offering the assistance of the society 
     
     in matters relating to the environment. A committee was established to look into 
     
     the development of a poster of Island birds. 
     
    

    
     Guest speaker was Sue Stephenson, fourth year biology student at U.P.E.I. who 
     
     spent the past summer at the Queen's University researsh station at LaPerouse Bay 
     
     in northern Manitoba. Sue's excellent photographs and conmentary provided members 
     
     with a vivid account of ongoing research on ptarmigan, shore birds and snow geese 
     
     at the sub-Arctic tundra station. Thanks Sue for a top-notch evening. 
     
    
   
   
    
     NEWS FROM THE MOUNTAINS. Edwin Knox, an NHS member working at a wilderness lodge 
     
     near Trail, B.C. has the very special privilege of living with unspoiled nature. 
     
     Thanks to his mother, Lorna Knox, for sharing with us this part of his April 14/82 
     
     letter. ...Concerning birds I saw something very interesting and unusual a few 
     
     weeks ago. While I was out skiing with a group of friends on a slope of Fossil Mt. 
     
     near the lodge we saw above the mountain peak a pair of golden eagles. I exclaimed 
     
     to the others there that those were the first pair we had seen this year. Then 
     
     just minutes later another pair of eagles joined the first pair soaring high above. 
     
     Two pairs were perhaps not an uncommon sight but to see five pairs of golden eagles 
     
     at one time in the air was something, and we did. Pairs of eagles kept appearing 
     
     over the peak, and all travelling in a‘Nw direction under a very dark and stormy 
     
     sky. During a period of 20 minutes we counted 30-32 golden eagles! They were 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
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