Short Hills

Short Hills Earl Plato

It’s a long hike to the elevated southeast corner of Short Hills Provincial Park. It was a crisp November day. Ahead of us were the giant hydro tower lines. Ernie took his bearings. “We’ll enter here.” We stepped from the sunlight into the dark recesses of the hardwood forest of maple, beech and some yellow birch. We were close near the southern border of the great park. “Look at them!” Ernie exclaimed. Covering the dry forest ground were a myriad of plants I knew as Doll’s eyes. Everywhere bunches of Doll’s eyes stared out boldly from their reddish-purple stalks. Do you know what I mean? Picture a bright white berry with a single black dot at the tip. The Doll’s eyes are borne in a cluster on stout stocks that turn from red to purple as the berries ripen. This day Doll’s eyes were everywhere in the forest glade ranging from half a metre to a metre in height. Ernie took a berry and pealed back the skin revealing several seeds tightly packed inside. Ernie Giles can and has lived off the wilderness environment at times. He would often sample seeds, leaves and fruits in nature. Ernie is a knowledgeable naturalist. No sampling this time. I remember him saying, “Don’t try these berries. First they are very bitter and poisonous!” These large white black-eyed berries are not to be fooled with. I researched some and quote this statement, “Doll’s eyes are reputed to be deadly poisonous. They’re also known as White baneberries, from the Old English word bana, meaning killer.” Enough said. Do not sample plants in the great outdoors that you don’t know about. Better safe than sorry.
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The headline reads “In Praise of Ospreys.” One of my favourite raptors is the ‘fish hawk’ or the osprey. In the latest magazine issue of Scotland under the heading Scottish Wildlife is a beautiful full page photo of an osprey. The writer of the article, Graham Holliday, begins with the following: “The Osprey is one of Scotland’s most remarkable conservation success stories. Persecuted to extinction...the bird disappeared in 1916.” 1916! We have travelled through Scotland some 25 years ago. A bird watcher then as now, No ospreys in sight back then. We saw kites and a eagle north of Loch Ness but none of the ospreys. They were recovering Holliday tells us. Recovery of the species has been gradual but royalty helped out. In cooperation with the Countess of Seafield the area around Loch Garten was declared a protected bird sanctuary. Between 1990 and 2001 twenty-three osprey chicks were raised. The osprey has returned to Scotland and is well established. Good news for a great bird.