Pinery Provincial Park, Lambton Shores, ON

 21 May, 2026

     Miriam had business to take care of in Zurich, ON so we decided to combine that with a visit to Pinery Provincial Park.

     On the way we spotted several White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virgianus) just off the highway.

     The picture gives the impression that they are in an enclosure, but the forested area was fenced off alongside the road to ensure that they could not venture out, endangering both themselves and the drivers of the vehicles whizzing by.

     They are lovely, elegant creatures.

     We started our visit at the Visitor Centre, as much as anything to use the facilities, but it was closed for a training session. We wandered round outside, however.

     We are always happy to see a Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus  crinitus).

     Eastern Towhee (Pipilo erythrophthalmus) is reasonably common in southern Ontario, but often difficult to spot due to its skulking habits. 

     Pinery Provincial Park is one location where it can be glimpsed more easily than elsewhere. We heard the musical strains of its song, often characterized as "drink your tea" and were delighted to spot it perched on a branch.

     Where there are bird feeders there are Common Raccoons (Protyon lotor).

     They are undeniably attractive animals but are destructive around bird feeders, and the amount of damage they can cause if they get into your attic is the stuff of nightmares.

     A couple of Chipping Sparrows (Spizella passerina) probed beneath the feeders.

     Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) had to perch precariously on the feeders, but managed to get their share.

     The park is crisscrossed with trails.

     Hairy Puccoon (Lithospermum caroliniense) is quite abundant and very appealing.

     This plant is also commonly called Plains Puccoon or Carolina Gromwell - probably other names too - highlighting the value of the scientific name to avoid confusion.

     There is easy access to Lake Huron from many areas of the park.

     Star-flowered Lily-of-the-Valley (Maianthemum stellatum) is delicate and lovely, a great favourite of mine.

     Red Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) is widely distributed throughout the woodland landscape.

     It's probably a safe bet that Eastern Tent Caterpillar Moth (Malacosoma americana) is not a favourite of many!

  

     Midland Painted Turtles (Chrysemis picta marginata) were taking advantage of the warm sunshine to bask together, crowded on a log.

     It seems to me that Canadian Lousewort (Pedicularis canadensis) is unfairly named.

     Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) was common.

     Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) appears to be undergoing a range expansion in Ontario, but a breeding population has been present at The Pinery for many years.

     American Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) is feisty and argumentative, but undeniably captivating.

     Wild Geranium (Geranium maculatum) attracts many pollinators.

     It was a good day for butterflies, some of which actually landed and permitted a picture! Here is a Sleepy Duskywing (Erynnis brizo).

     Large White Trilliums (Trillium grandiflorum) sometimes take on a distinct pinkish hue, rendering them perhaps even more beautiful than in their usual white.

     Two-spotted Bumble Bee (Bombus bimaculatus) is a familiar pollinator, foraging on a range of flowers and trees. They are reliant on spring ephemerals early in the season when they are one of the first bees to emerge.

     Several Juvenal's Duskywings (Erynnis juvenalis) were seen.

     They were joined by an occasional American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis).

     A female Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) was perched above the Ausable River, directly across from where we were standing.

     She plunged headlong into the stream and took off upriver. I was unable to determine whether her dive was successful.

     An Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) had claimed a spot where insects were abundant and was feeding well.

      With a degree of patience only herons seem to have, this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) stalked its prey relentlessly, impaling a hapless fish or frog with a lightening strike.

     Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) are stately and elegant.

     Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) scanned from on high, sailing effortlessly on the wind, searching for their ready-to-eat menu.

     Other than a little tenderizing, no preparation required!

     An Eastern Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe) was equally adept at flycatching as the Eastern Kingbird seen above.

     Mayapple (Podophylum peltatum) is familiar to all.

     The bond between a vine and its host is stronger than that of many humans!

Buttercups (genus Ranunculus)

  

     We spotted many fish in the river, including this impressive Pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus).

     Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea) is blooming.

     A Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbulus) tantalized us with its song long before we set eyes on it.

     A Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) does not have the most versatile avian melody, but yields to no other species in determination and effort.

     It had been a hot day, and we had bushwhacked sweated and swatted.

     An ice cream seemed well earned.

     I just read today that it is one of the twenty worst foods you can eat. Ah well, it's only a couple of times a year. It sure tasted great!

Book Review - Darwin: A Biography - Princeton University Press

      When Janet Browne produced her seminal volumes Voyaging and The Power of Place no less a luminary than Stephen Jay Gould proclaimed them "....wonderful and marvellous, even magisterial." Other notable authors such as David Quammen have gone on to endorse this viewpoint.

     I suspect they might conclude that this amalgamation of the two books in a single volume is no less magisterial. Browne has produced a wonderful new work, benefitting greatly from the Correspondence of Charles Darwin (1985-2023), material unavailable when she wrote her first two books.  

     She has successfully condensed her two-volume opus into a major new work, offering hitherto unknown insights into Darwin the explorer, Darwin the sceptic, Darwin the scientist and Darwin the man. In the process she cements her position as the leading Darwin scholar of our time.

     I find myself almost mesmerized by the depth and complexity of her treatment, all the while captivated by a highly readable, charming account of the most important scientist of all time. We move from the diffident young naturalist voyaging on the Beagle, often laid low by recurring seasickness, revealing his inner feelings and doubts in letters to his sisters, to the investigative scientist on the cusp of a theory that would change the world forever, to a dignified, empathetic English gentleman living a quiet life in Kent. He was a village magistrate, a doting father, a loving husband, friend to his butler no less than to the rich and famous. He was often wracked by ill health, and insecurity, and was initially devastated when Alfred Russel Wallace threatened to lay prior claim to his theory of evolution by natural selection.

     His attention to detail was nothing short of remarkable, with years spent researching barnacles, flowers, worms and heritability in domestic animals. He doggedly pressed forward with investigation on many fronts, all the while building up to the moment when he would publish his treatise to change the world, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. 

     He had always thought he would be buried in the local churchyard; indeed had expressed a wish to be so interred, yet when he died he was accorded that highest of all honours, that of being entombed in Westminster Abbey. No other final resting place would have been acceptable for this noble man who had become a household name in Britain even during his lifetime; although there was great irony in selecting this space to bury the person who had shattered the notion of a divine origin of life.

     The canon of literature in the English language is replete with soaring, stirring, magnificent, elegant, memorable and oft repeated phrases in prose and verse, but for me the most beautiful of all has always been, and remains to this day, the following words of Charles Darwin.

"It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. There is a grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."

     A portrait of the young Charles Darwin sits on my desk. He inspires me every day.

Darwin: A Biography - Princeton University Press

Janet Browne

Hardcover - US$35.00 - ISBN: 9780691232256

624 pages - 6.125 x 9.25 inches (15.31 x 23.125 cm)

79 black-and-white illustrations - 4 maps

Publication date: 02 June, 2026