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October 2020
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Fall Native Plant Sale
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We're offering a different format for plant sales this fall. Due to an increase in demand for on-island habitat restoration projects we have a limited selection and supply this fall. However, we still have some amazing plants for sale and will be taking email orders between October 1st and November 30th. Order early to ensure you get the plants you …
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Public Parks of Mayne Island
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In the coming months you will find a series of articles in the MayneLiner, the Oystercatcher and on our website about treading lightly on Mayne Island. We’ll share ideas on how we can limit our environmental footprint while enjoying the natural wonders. In this first article, we provide an introduction to the various public parks on Mayne Island, who owns …
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Chitons
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Sea Discovery: Chitons, the algae vacuums of the intertidal Chitons are a group of molluscs that are defined by the eight plates that act as armour on their backs. These plates are mobile and allow the oval-shaped mollusc to curl itself into a ball when hiding from predators (just like wood bugs in your backyard). After chitons die, their plates, …
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Notes from the Field
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Submitted by Sally Ireland
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One afternoon I shut our front door which had been open for several hours and went to take a nap. When I got up my partner Bob said to me, "You have to come and see this." I followed him into his room and found a chickadee sitting on the window sill staring. Unknowingly I'd trapped it in the house when I'd shut the front door. I was about to dash off and get a towel to capture it and release it outside, but it's very stillness stopped me.
Bob said, "I think maybe it's sick and can't fly." But to me it looked calm, as if it was waiting for me to come up with a better solution. So I just stood there watching it until I knew what to do.
I went outside popped the screen off the window, and slid open the outer pane, but I couldn't get a purchase on the inner pane, so went back into the house. I had to pass less than a foot in front of the chickadee to get to the window. Still it didn't move. As I slid the inner pane open, it touched the bird's tail. No panic, the chickadee simply flew to the next available perch, which was a mail holder attached to the wall. Carefully I walked out of the room and shut the door behind me. After a cup of tea I went back to check on the chickadee. It had gone, but the delight and enchantment and calm I had felt while the bird was there stayed with me the rest of the day.
Several friends have suggested that it may have been a young bird who was waiting for an elder to show it what to do next. This seems plausible, and I've also heard chickadees described even by ornithologists as "tame". Yet for me the encounter with that self-possessed little bird had the light touch of a blessing.
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The Conservancy is grateful for your support and welcomes donations, either one time or monthly.
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And your membership is also important to us.
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