Doug Bennet - The Complete Up North: A Guide to Ontarios Wilderness from Black Flies to the Northern Lights

ALSO BY DOUG BENNET AND TIM TINER

Up North
Up North Again
Wild City

W ho would have thought a 1989 conversation around a campfire in Algonquin Park would lead to this, The Complete Up North, the fifth book in a loose series sparked by simple curiosity about the world around us up north.

This book is both a compilation of the best from the first two books, Up North and Up North Again, and also an update based on the many natural changes and scientific advancements since those titles were published in the 1990s. Just two examples: in our early books, there was nary a mention of double-breasted cormorants. But the waterfowls population has since exploded, and now the black bird love it or hate it merits its own entry. And in our Night Sky section, many entries have been updated to reflect mind-bending advances in astronomical research and even bureaucratic redefinitions: Plutos not even a planet anymore, technically speaking.

But the basic premise of The Complete Up North remains the same: it is an attempt to answer, from a sense of wonder, a good number of the questions prompted by our experiences in the woods and wilderness when we go up north.

As much as possible, The Complete Up North aims to incorporate the whole outdoor experience from the bugs that pester to the northern lights that dance across the night sky. We have concentrated on the most commonly seen or experienced species and phenomena in central Ontario, as they are what occupy your immediate attention most of the time when camping or visiting the cottage.

By central Ontario, we refer to the vast, mixed-forest hinterland from the Rideau Lakes, Kawarthas and Bruce Peninsula on to the rocky Canadian Shield as far as the Temagami and Mississagi Provincial Park areas the up north for millions of Ontarians. Although much of the guides information applies as well to other parts of the country, including far northern Ontario and much of Quebec, we have sought, by concentrating on this specific region, to give as complete a picture as possible within the space of the book.

As in the earlier books, we have arranged the entries in a way that we hope is useful to readers. There are four main chapters: Animal Kingdom, Plant Kingdom, The Heavens, and Mother Earth. Each chapter is further divided into subsections, such as Birds within the Animal Kingdom. Finally, within each subsection, individual entries are arranged alphabetically. An index is also included.

Being journalists ourselves, rather than scientists, we have endeavoured to be accurate while avoiding a strict scientific or academic tone in these pages. Our intent is to answer the many questions of campers and cottagers in the same spirit in which they are asked. If we anthropomorphize, it is because that is what people tend to do when they talk about and relate to nature around them. We have tried, however, to ensure that a sense of fun does not distort the true nature of the subject.

We hope The Complete Up North informs and entertains a new generation of cottagers, campers and hikers while replacing our first readers dog-eared copies with a fresh, updated edition.

Doug Bennet
Tim Tiner

To learn more about The Complete Up North and other books by the authors, please visit www.upnorthguides.com.

ANIMAL KINGDOM

BIRDS

B irds are the most conspicuous variety of wildlife in the wilderness. Some 482 species of birds have been confirmed sighted in the wild in Ontario. Almost 300 of them nest in the province. Most species fly primarily by day, adding music and bright splashes of colour to the forest and waterfront.

The majority of birdsmore than 75 per cent of all North American species are migratory. An estimated five billion fly south from Canada and the northern U.S. every fall. Hardy chickadees, ravens, gray jays and ruffed grouse remain behind to tough it out through the winter. But before the snows are even melted, a parade of migrants begins, heralding the return of spring and reaching a crescendo with waves of wood warblers in mid-May. Some come all the way from South America to raise a new generation on the bugs, berries and seeds of a Canadian summer.

Over the past 20 years, many of Ontarios bird populations have experienced considerable change. Species once pushed to the brink by DDT, such as peregrine falcons, bald eagles and cormorants, have made considerable comebacks. Others, such as turkey vultures and Canada geese, have pushed their nesting ranges farther northward, while ravens have moved into southern Ontario. Unfortunately, human actions continue to have major negative impacts as well. Climate change is probably affecting most birds in ways that are still not well understood, though the gray jays range is clearly retracting northward. Many tropical migrants, including Canada warblers, wood thrushes, kingbirds and bobolinks, are in steep decline, faced with habitat loss in both north and south. By some estimates, there are only half as many songbirds around today as 40 years ago. Thankfully, central Ontario still hosts a rich abundance of birds, and hopefully growing appreciation of them will inspire their preservation.

As in the other sections of this book, some single-species entries include information on related or similar species, whose names appear in bold.