Nagagamisis Provincial Park, Ontario.  14-23 July 2018

Sunrise on Nagagamisis Lake

As part of my ongoing field study of boreal forests of the great north woods, I visited Nagagamisis Provincial Park at the suggestion of Ed Morris, an ecologist with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests. It was a great suggestion. The Park has nice facilities, two nice trails that pass through beautiful stands of old growth boreal forest, and of course wonderful lake access (I had my kayak with me).

Grayling, Michigan, is all about Kirtland's Warbler

Nagagamisis is a 24-hour drive from my home in Bethesda, MD (about 1,200 miles by road). The fastest route is west through Ohio and then north up through Michigan. I spent my first night at Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, right in the heart of Kirtland’s Warbler country. This park is famous for its stand of 49 acres of 350-year-old forest. I walked through this grove in the late dusk after my long drive. As the sky darkened, I walks through this grand forest of White Pine, Eastern Hemlock, American Beech, and Sugar Maple. I did not have the share this treasure with anyone else. On that peaceful walk, lots of birds sang for me, including Scarlet Tanager, Blackburnian and Black-throated Green Warblers, and Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos. This was a great way to end a long and tiring day.

Old growth forest of Hartwick Pines State Park, Grayling, Michigan

Another long day of driving followed, up across the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and then across the St. Mary’s River to Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. From there, I headed north along the eastern shore of mighty Lake Superior, which provided stunning views along the way. Here I passed through Superior Provincial Park and skirted Pukaskwa National Park and I passed  through the towns of Batchawana Bay, Wawa, and White River, following Route 11 northward. I then peeled off onto northbound Route 631 to the small railstop town of Hornepayne and finally to the Park, 40 km north of Hornepayne. This is lonely country up here. Towns are few and far between. The big attraction is Walleye fishing and the livelihood focuses on logging.

Merlin were present in small numbers around the Park

This part of Canada was facing a major drought and forest fire threat. Ontario had more than 50  fires burning during the week I was there. There was thus a fire ban at the Park. It rained very little while I was there, and often the skies were cloudless and a deep blue.

Old growth spruce is the featured habitat at the Park

I was here to examine first-hand the old growth boreal forest stands in the Park. These were best accessed by two Park walking tracks—the 1.5 km Time Trail and the 3.2 km Shaganash Trail. In additional, several of the Park access roads pass through nice old growth forest.

Old growth Black Spruce towering over young Balsam Firs

The Time Trail loops through impressive Black Spruce stands and scattered huge old White Spruce. There are old and tall Quaking Aspens in clusters as well as Northern White-cedar near the lakeshore and Balsam Firm filling recent openings. There are also a few Paper Birch and Tamarack. These northern forests sit atop Canadian Shield bedrock that shows in places along the Time trail. The forest is very open and the mature trees tend to be well-spaced, so lots of light gets down to the forest floor. There are no White Pine nor Eastern Hemlock here—it’s too far north.

A giant White Spruce, the grand tree species of Nagagamisis

The Shaganash Trail covers much of the accessible portion of the Park, and crosses uplands dominated by Jack Pine and aspen, and lowlands with Black Spruce and regenerating Balsam Fir mixed with young early successional hardwoods.

BB's camp

The old spruces of the Park are very impressive. It is nice to see a Black Spruce with a trunk of 14 inches diameter breast height and a height of more than 80 feet. Yet it is the White Spruces that are the monsters of the Park, some probably topping 100 feet and exhibiting a DBH of 20-24 inches. Even the Jack Pine here is impressive—with a DBH of more than 12 inches and topping 75 feet height. I have never seen such big and straight Jack Pines, which are infamous for their stooped posture and small stature...

Ruffed Grouse were at the roadside tending their foraging young

The timing of my visit was poor for songbirds, which were busy feeding their nearly grown but scruffy-looking nestlings of the season. There was little dawn chorus. The only reliable songbird voice in the Park was that of the omnipresent Swainson’s Thrush, which sang dawn and dusk. This species is really the poster bird for Ontario’s boreal conifer forest...

Swainson's Thrush is the songbird of the Park

I had hopes of tracking down two boreal bird specialties—Connecticut Warbler and American Three-toed Woodpecker. No luck. Late May would be a better time for the warbler (when it is singing loudly) and late April for the woodpecker (when it is drumming).

Black-backed Woodpecker, yes, American Three-toed no....

Another surprise was the dominant grouse of the Park. In spite of its strong boreal tree flora, Ruffed Grouse was the king here—seen daily along the roadsides with their foraging chicks. I saw only a single Spruce Grouse hen along Highway 631 just south of the Park.

At close range the hen Spruce Grouse (here on the side of the highway) are quite handsome

Boreal resident birds were a bit thin in the Park. I never saw a Gray Jay (instead I saw a couple of Blue Jays). That’s a big surprise. Nocturnal playback for Boreal Owl and Northern Saw-whet Owl produced no response. I did encounter a family of Boreal Chickadees and a non-singing Olive-sided Flycatcher and some juvenile White-winged Crossbills and Pine Siskins feeding in the tops of spruces. But no Pine or Evening Grosbeaks and no Red Crossbills. Still, I recorded 62 bird species over my seven days in the Park.

Clear-fell result in foreground, and unlogged boreal forest in far background

Much of the forest around the Park has been harvested in industrial-scale timber operations. This is mainly clear-felling, in which each tract gives up more than 90% of its standing timber. Some of the extraction is for pulp (Black Spruce is famous for its qualities for making paper) but I am told most of the timber taken in this area are for sawlogs and lumber for construction. I birded some of these areas, seeing little of interest (though woodcock and Ruffed Grouse like these openings). Looking at the result of the timber extraction in several locations, I am guessing that it will be many decades before the natural qualities of the boreal forest return to these logged areas.

Log piles at the Georgia Pacific plant near Englehart, ON

 The logged-over areas I examined were regenerating adventitiously to Quaking Aspen-Balsam Poplar-Paper Birch scrub or Jack Pine monoculture, which will be in place for decades before the two high-value spruce species begin to recruit up through the canopy. Another set of decades will be needed before those valuable commercial species are mature and harvestable. Thank heavens the wetlands and boggy areas are left untouched by the timber operators—as there are a great many wetlands and boggy lands in Ontario. These are natural conservation areas that preserve themselves because of their inaccessibility to the heavy machinery needed for logging.

I believe many of the logged areas I walked through were old clearfells, which were harvested before Ontario instituted its comprehensive environmental and management guidelines for boreal forest timber harvest. Things are much improved since the 1970s. Of course, the wood and fiber harvested in Ontario feeds the huge demand from the US, western Europe, and China. The big question is how to satisfy global demand without endangering the wilderness and wildlife that makes central Ontario so wonderful to birders, naturalists, hunters, and fishermen/women. Ontario, and other provinces of Canada, are working with a range of institutional partners (such as the Pew Charitable Trusts) to ensure economic development is properly balanced with environmental preservation, to make certain that large contiguous expanses of old growth wilderness are available for recreation and appreciation  in the next century. 

Sandhill Crane foraging at the side of the Highway

Happily, the Sandhill Cranes like the low and open vegetation of the clear-fell areas and also the roadside right-of-way clearings (though the pairs mainly nest in bogs and other wetlands)... I never tire of spending time with these stately birds. I found birds in pairs and also as single adults attending single youngsters that were already quite mature.

Sandhill Crane close up in clearfelled area

Mammal life was sparse as always in the boreal forest. The only common species were Eastern Chipmunks and Red Squirrels. I also recorded a Cinereous Shrew (tiny!), and a single Snowshoe Hare. I saw little evidence of Moose and heard neither wolf nor coyote. I did come upon a mother Black Bear with two adorable cubs. It was difficult to get my camera on them as they scrambled off through the logged-over scrub.

Glimpse of two Black Bear cubs in logged-over scrub

One evening when the lake was still I put in my kayak and wandered across one of the lake’s bays. The timing was perfect.

Common Loon displaying

I was able to commune with three adult Common Loons that allowed me to paddle around them without any sign of concern. They called out their mad wail and dove for fish while I kept my camera busy.

Three adult Common Loons have a get-together

A bit later I encountered a mother American Goldeneye and her young of the year. They were not nearly so confiding.

Common Loon doing a another display

Finally, as dusk approached darkness, I came upon a night roost of Bonaparte’s Gulls still in their fine breeding plumage. This is one of the most handsome of small gulls. Each day, it was nice to hear them giving their strange and harsh calls as they passed high overhead during the day. This gull breeds on the boreal lakes of Canada north to Alaska.

Bonaparte's Gulls at their evening roost

The Park staff was very helpful, and I visited the Park office several times to learn more about the Park’s special features, its birdlife, and wildlife-watching opportunities in the vicinity. The Park campground is excellent, as is the case for every Ontario park I have visited. I recommend naturalists and birders to try to get here before the end of May, during the height of the spring arrival of songbird migrants. The Park opens in mid-May each year.

I drove home along the Trans-Canada Highway, passing through Hearst, Cochrane, Temagami, and North Bay, and then turning due south on Highway 11 to Huntsville and then east through Algonquin Provincial Park and thence south from Whitney to Lake Saint Peter Provincial Park, where I spent a rainy night after 12 hours of driving. The next morning, I drove south through Belleville and Kingston to cross the border into the US just east of Lake Ontario, crossing the island-filled Saint Lawrence River to Alexandria Bay, NY. From here, I raced south on Interstate 81 to Watertown, Syracuse, Scranton, Hazelton, Harrisburg, and then down route 15 to Gettysburg and Frederick, to DC—pummeled by strong rainstorms and hassled by highway slowdowns and accidents. From Lake St. Peter to Bethesda took 12 ½ hours of steady driving. The two day driving transect from Nagagamisis to DC is a remarkable environmental transect that should not be attempted more than once a year.

 Field of mustard along the Trans-Canada highway