Jun 02 'ARCHIVES'

Just over a year after it went up in smoke the new Firehall/Community received final approval from the various regulatory agencies. All those who contributed, and there were many, can be justly proud of one of the more delightful buildings to grace any Cape Breton community. The Grand Opening is on 13 July.

The Mystic Bond, a 40’ Trawler Yacht, was launched from the Big Pond Beach on 24 May. Starting with a Lobster Boat hull from North Shore Boats Ltd. in Arisaig, boat builder Keith Nelder added a large Pilot House, a raised aft deck and a luxurious aft cabin. The interior construction is mahogany and cherry. She’s a beautiful vessel. Keith operates the Big Pond Boat Shop in Big Pond Centre. The Mystic Bond is probably the largest vessel constructed locally since the Mary Jane in 1891. Keith can be contacted at Big Pond Wood Concepts, 8575 East Bay Hwy, Big Pond, B1J 1Z7 (828-2476). Web site: www.alongshore.com.

COMMUNITY COUNCIL

The regular meeting of the Big Pond Community Council was held Wed., May 1 at St. Mary’s Glebe. A letter to the Dept. of Transportation re: condition of the church driveway will be sent by Ed MacIntyre. Chris MacPhee spoke on behalf of the committee regarding policies of the new fire hall and community center. Rental fees for residents, that is people from Irish Cove to Ben Eon, would pay a lesser fee than people outside of that area. Rental fees for meetings were also discussed. Hall rental account should be kept separate. Fred Myatt suggested that someone should be responsible for functions being booked. Catering to functions was also discussed. This is to be looked into by the policy committee.

The Grand opening is scheduled for July 13. Flo Sampson will serve on that committee. This will include an open house, ribbon cutting, dance etc. A Community Appreciation Night is also in the planning stages.

Lloyd White spoke on the 60 km speed limit. A motion by Lloyd White that a letter be sent to the Dept. of Transportation to have the speed limit revert back to the original 80 km. Seconded by Ron McCarron.

A motion by Norma MacDonald that we send $300.00 to Riverview High School towards their scholarship fund. Seconded by Ed MacIntyre.

The BIG POND TIMES is pleased to announce that Stan MacLean is the Advertising Manager. This is a new position and the TIMES is proud to have the multi-talented Stan on staff. His first step is to develop a comprehensive policy. He can be contacted at 828-3083.

MACDONALD’S “ON THE SPOT”

EXPERIENCED CLEAN UP CREW FOR MOWING, YARD WORK, ETC. IN THE BIG POND, BEN EOIN, MIDDLE CAPE AREA. REASONABLE RATES.

CONTACT JOHN, JOE & JAMIE AT

828-2554

On 4 May the 7^th Annual Firefighters Bowl-A-Thon for Burn Care was held at the Heather Lanes in the Sydney Shopping Centre. The Big Pond Volunteer Fire Department raised $565 for the cause. High string score was captured by Norma McDonald with a 105 and Fred Myatt snagged high total score with a 276.

The Old Parish Hall Restaurant opens for the summer on 1 July. The popular Sunday Breakfast Buffet opens 2 June, 10 am to Noon. Music/Dinner events include Glen Graham & Joel Chiasson, 1 June; Kimberley Fraser & Stephanie Wells, 15 June; Winnie & Pat Chafe & Blanch Sophocles, 29 June. $30/person.

BOOKMOBILE SCHEDULE

Big Pond, 11:15 AM

Irish Cove: 1:15 PM

Nature Notes : April 16-30
In my hastily assembled nature notes for May's BPT,  I used "blue-backed" and "blue-spotted" in reference to a species of salamander. One day nearly  thirty years ago,  my students and I  read  in a  N.S Museum booklet  that "until two years ago" only two specimens of the "Jefferson" salamander had been collected in Nova Scotia. Shortly after school either that day or the next, Georgie MacInnis (now the Reverend George MacInnis, and still a student of nature, I am pleased to say)  found a Jefferson Salamander.  Next morning we spoke with John Gilhen ( Mr. Gilhen has since authored "Amphibians and Reptiles of Nova Scotia") who drove down from Halifax  to get the salamander for the museum collection. Realizing by that time that two almost identical species had been mistakenly lumped together under the name Jefferson,  scientists had split the complex: the southern species kept the name Jefferson Salamander, and the northern species was named the Blue-spotted Salamander. Last month I was speaking about a Blue-spotted Salamander.
16th Walkers on the Glengarry Road near Mick the Postmaster's may well notice that "Juniper" is very aggressively invading the clearings and roadside. Out there this morning a male harrier flew over spot where John Willy MacInnis showed me a nest  of that species several years ago.
17th Three deer, still as statues, watched intently as I walked by Agnes' s Big Field. Coming from somewhere in the vicinity of Donald Beag's place, a pair of Evening Grosbeaks flew high over the area just east of The Falls Brook, making a beeline for feeders along the highway. Nesting up there in the hills. perhaps? *This was the first day that I had to remove my jacket on my morning walk. *In the little pond by the roadside on top of The Big Barren, dozens upon dozens of quacking Wood Frogs were in a breeding frenzy about 4:00 pm. Clusters of eggs are easily found along the pond edges.
18th My first flicker of the year was down by the apple trees early this morning. *Charlie and Marie Cash told me about their sighting of a cougar in The Rear of Irish Cove a couple of years back. Strange that Natural Resources have never been able to document cougar presence on the island, despite all the sightings by reliable people.
19th This morning a Downy Woodpecker's drummed on the gaunt skeleton of what is perhaps the best known American Elm in this area, the patriarch on the MacNeil Brothers old mill site down on their intervale. There is no shortage of resonant limbs for the little
drummers on the many dead elms around the intervales.
20th I cut through Big Hughie's Place at the Glengarry Crossroads to get a nest box I had on a tree by the Gaspereaux River. In the three years since I was last down there, the woods have changed so much that I almost did not find my way. I came across a deer blind. Someone has gone to considerable trouble to construct a sturdy blind well off the ground. Last time down there I found mayflowers. I forgot to look for them today. *Short lines of cormorants flying around the East Bay Sandbar. They may well be among the several hundred pairs that will head for the Red Island to nest. Also at the Sandbar were several mated pairs of Red-breasted Mergansers. *Purple Finches are back at my feeder.
21st At the edge of the clearing by Michael Alastair's foundation in Glengarry I disturbed a "Birch Partridge" which immediately tiptoed out of sight. Moments later I flushed a goshawk (a goshawk, I think, but I had only a brief look) from a nearby limb. One of nature's little dramas was interrupted, to the disappointment of the hawk and the benefit of the partridge. *At the Martins this evening, Mike MacDonald recalled that lumbermen working in the Red Islands area a few years ago were very adept at hunting partridge with slingshots.
22nd This morning I threw out about ten pounds of suet for the birds. Herring gulls rushed  over from Mary AA's rooftop to see what was up. Then they sat back, warily sizing up the situation. Crows arrived and they too were very suspicious, but finally one inched near enough to take a tentative peck, then another and another, jumping back after each to see if there were any repercussions; satisfied that there were no booby traps, the crows sat in at table, whereupon the gulls, now satisfied also that there were no strings attached to the windfall, scattered the crows and settled in at the feast. Moments later about fifteen Black-backed Gulls, great fierce fellows, dropped out of the sky and drove their smaller cousins away. They had just settled in when Mr. Raven, a great bristly fellow with shiny black plumage glinting in the morning sun, arrived in very foul temper, made fierce runs in every direction like a mad dog, and drove crows, Herring Gulls and Black-backed Gulls to barn roof and  house roof and  treetop  where they watched wistfully as he carved the suet into manageable chunks and made off with them, hiding them here and there. He hid one chunk in marsh grass near the road, hurriedly combing vegetation over it until he was satisfied that it was hidden from view. He carried away everything but the crumbs. Will he remember where he hid everything? Were the crows and gulls taking notes?
23rd Few snow flurries today. My first White-throated Sparrow of spring at the feeder, along with many other birds including about fifty juncos and a Sharpshin Hawk  who made an unsuccessful pass through the feeder area. *Flower buds on the lilac bushes are beginning to stir.
24^th At 1:30 a.m. I woke to the hooting of a great-horned Owl. The Tiger of the Night may well have been on the house roof. In the days when my hearing was better, I  heard them  hooting on occasion on the roof just a few feet above my bed. *At Joe Hector's I saw rabbit tracks in the  few centimeters of snow that arrived overnight. Rabbit tracks are so scarce that they are noteworthy this winter. *Mayflowers are out though I have not seen any. *The last pheasant is no more, I fear. I came across the feathers in Angus Anthony's Swamp.
25th The male (I presume, the male) of the Falls Brook Ravens sit on Mary AA's roof today, as has been his custom for years. Usually he is facing towards the falls, presumably keeping an eye on the nest in the Hemlock Grove. I have not looked for the nest for years, but I have seen it in the past, and I have seen the young ravens shortly after they have left the nest up there. A raven that visits Mike MacDonald's yard is very resourceful. He made a stack of three hamburger buns, compressed them into a manageable thickness by pressing down with the side of his head, and flew off with them.
26th The grackles are visiting their old nest in the Virginia Creeper on the barn. Soon they will begin refurbishing  the nests. At least twelve pairs will nest in the vine, and as many more will have nests in trees and shrubs on the property. *A pair of ravens have a nest on the overpass beyond the United Farmers' Co-op on Keltic Drive. The sitting bird is plainly visible.
A person on the overpass would be only a very few feet above the nest. Quite a contrast with the Falls Brook site. *Late this misty night, a Barred or a Great-horned Owl flew from the roadside near Martin Murdoch's, attracted there probably by frogs crossing the road.
27th Small hawks are often here one moment and gone the next, making identification difficult. In early afternoon a speedy little hawk made a quick pass through the feeder area and was gone in a blink of an eye. "Merlin!” I said to myself. A little later, a Sharpshin arrived and sat on a lilac bush for a few minutes, causing me to second-guess myself: Perhaps my Merlin was a Sharpshin. But I think not. The Merlin is a sprinter while the  Sharpshin is more of a middle distance runner. *Tonight I heard the snipe for the first time this year, winnowing as loud as I have ever heard him. My average of 10 records for first spring arrivals at my ponds is 18 April. Tufts average for Nova Scotia is 8 April. My earliest record ('88 and '89) is 11 April. My earliest date for winnowing is 15 April.) Duncan Martin may well tell me today that he heard the " Spring Bird" last night. In late childhood I would look skyward on overcast days upon hearing the long drawn out who-who-who-who-who of  the bird that I for some reason took to be a Sky Lark. Later, when I learned that the sound is not a vocal one, I was sometimes lucky enough the see this little ghost of the mists diving from a great height and then braking and swerving abruptly upwards, triggering the eerie winnowing produced by wind on feathers.
28th Today I flushed a Mourning Dove that had been drinking at the pond. Instead of flying quite a distance off as doves usually do, it flew into a  cottonwood a few feet from me, and stayed there quietly, seemingly not wanting to leave . I looked around in the nearby pines and noticed a nest. It is probably a last year's nest, but I cannot imagine that I never noticed it before now, for it is by the path that I walk several times a day. It is a bulky nest, almost the size of a crow's nest. It is built near the trunk of a White Pine, about thirty feet up. The builder has appropriated for his purposes what seems to be a good-sized  swath of white cloth. Blue Jays make use of such material, I understand.
29th Between late May and late June of each year since 1984, as many as four broods of downy dockings have appeared in my ponds. One spring, thirty-three of the little fluff balls hatched out, and every single one lived to fly away in the fall. At least three pairs of ducks  have settled into the ponds this spring: a pair of Blacks, a pair of Mallards, and a Black drake-Mallard hen pair. In earlier years we saw only Blacks, but on the morning of 1 June 1996,  the first Mallard downy young - two only- were brought into the ponds by a very anxious mother. Now the Mallards are well settled in, and occasionally we see the classic Mallard-Black hybrid. Despite yearly efforts, I have never found a wild duck's nest around the ponds.
30th This morning my first osprey of the year cruised the water along the Easy Bay Sandbar. I had to take my eyes off it for a minute and by the time I spotted it again, it was settling into a tree on the south shore. Whether it had gotten a fish in the meantime I could not tell. Nearby, several cormorants and at least one seal were busily gorging themselves. Seeing the seal reminded me that years ago two of my former pupils found an osprey nest in the area where Captains Alex and Dan MacLean, prominent figures in the West Coast sealing trade, were born. Alex was the inspiration for the character Wolf Larsen  in Jack London's novel The Sea-Wolf.  © Jack MacNeil

COMPLIMENTARY FACIAL

Mary Kay has a skin care program designed for your skin type. All basic skin care products are non-comedogenic and clinically tested for skin irritancy and allergy. Most are fragrance-free and safe for sensitive skin. Call today to receive your complimentary facial.

MARY KAY

FACE-TO-FACE BEAUTY ADVICE

Anne Marie MacPhee

Mary Kay Beauty Consultant

828-2954

MacLeod’s Grocery

BIG POND

(under old management)

4-liter bags of milk – 5.49

2-liter cartons of milk – 3.00

Butternut white bread – 1.49

Butternut whole wheat – 1.59

2 liter Big 8 Pop - .99

Red Rose Tea 72’s – 2.99

10 lbs. Potatoes – 2.99

828-2286

BIG POND TIMES is financially supported by the Big Pond Community Council. Contact Don MacGillivray, 7271 East Bay Hwy, Big Pond, Cape Breton, B1J 1V2. Don_MacGillivray@uccb.ca

“It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.”-Chicago Times, 1861. For subscriptions contact Josephine McCarron, 7584 East Bay Hwy., Big Pond, NS B1J 1Y6. Rates: Canadian address $7.00; American $8.50; International $13.00. Please make cheques payable to Josephine McCarron.

THE BIG POND TIMES

JUNE 2002 VOLUME IX No.6

BIG POND HALL APPROVED!

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

*

COMMUNITY COUNCIL

BOOKMOBILE SCHEDULE

Big Pond, 11:15 AM

Irish Cove: 1:15 PM