Bioblitz in Battersea

Jeff Green | Jun 14, 2023

The Kingston Field Naturalists KFN have been holding an annual BioBlitz for a quarter of a Century, and for most of the time Anne Robertson has organised them.

And although she turns 80 next year, her enthusiasm for nature, the KFN, and its annual BioBlitz, has not dimmed.

Every year, a group of KFN members and a number of subject experts from other Eastern Ontario locations, gather together at a specially chosen location to spend 24 hours observing and cataloguing different species of fish, birds, insects, plants and trees, whatever they can find.

The result is a list of what the ecosystem in the location is made up of, a baseline. In 20 years or so, a second BioBlitz at the same location would be able to provide a sense of what has changed.

“We have returned to a few locations for a second time,” said Robertson, two days after this year's BioBlitz which was held last weekend at the Millburn Creek Nature Reserve, a Nature Conservancy of Canada owned property, for the first time.

The site is located across Battersea Road from the Battersea Ball Diamond, which made an ideal base camp for the volunteers who participated in the event.

The KFN BioBlitz has a large educational component. For local nature lovers, who may not have any expertise in species identification or any background in biology at all, they are an opportunity for hands-on learning.

Throughout the day on Saturday (June 10) there were guided walks scheduled, with biologists taking people in hand to help them find, and identify, a wide variety of species.

The Millburn Creek site includes forested areas, a water body, and a mix of Canadian Shield and Limestone terrain, making it a good site for a BioBlitz. It also includes a reasonably large field, which in early June is a good place to find butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies. Peter Waycik and John Poland were the 'experts' and although they said they did not consider themselves experts, they were both quick to identify species that the participants managed to snag in butterfly nets that were provided.

While many of us might think it would be easy to identify that there are moths, dragonflies and damselflies in the field, there are 39 species of dragon and damselfly in Ontario, and 495 species of moth. That’s where the experts come in. With a quick look, they could tell the subspecies of most samples, by the markings, the shape and size of different body parts, and other identifying characteristics. They also knew what conditions and locations were most likely for different subspecies

For those attending the walk, it was a revelation to learn about the complexity and diversity that surrounds us all the time.

Meanwhile, back at base camp. Anne Robertson and her team of organisers kept a watchful eye on the clock, preparing for lunch at noon.

She was also making sure that the 7 or 8 junior members of the Kingston Field Naturalists were remaining occupied. There were specific programs organised for the juniors, who also joined in with their families to participate in the regular programming.

One family recalled that it was as much a concern for her to make sure that the parents of the junior field naturalists did not get distracted on the trails as it was to keep the juniors in tow.

This was the first time that the KFN held its BioBlitz at Millburn Creek, and they may return to the same site some day.

“Each year we compile a short list of sites, all within about 50 kilometres of Kingston, and in the fall some time, we have a board meeting to decide where we should go.

Among the criteria that they look at is a geological factor.

“We like to visit a location on the granite of Canadian Shield about half the time, and half the time on Limestone.”

The Millburn Creek site features both, as it is located at one of the points where the Limestone and Granite meet.

It also had some other advantages, one being that the site is adjacent to the ballfield, and the township was very supportive.

“They actually built new picnic tables for us to use at our lunch, and gave us access to the canteen and the freezer as well. They also put signage on the road so people knew we were here. And, having a flush toilet at a base camp for a BioBlitz was great for us, we well,” she said, “the township could not have been more helpful.”

The blitz ran for 24 hours, from 3pm on the 9th to 3pm on the 10th, and a few people stayed overnight to monitor some of the nocturnal activity, and be ready for the early morning bird watch.

The nocturnal work included bat monitoring, but that was done through the use of specialised camera equipment provided by one of the volunteers, Rob Snetsinger. He is one of three members of his family, along with his wife Mary Alice and daughter Megan, who are principals with Ecological Services, a local environmental assessment company. They all participated in the blitz, with Rob operating the camera, which captured the images of three different species of bat (there are 8 in Ontario), the Big Brown Bat, Hoary Bat, and Silver Haired Bat.

Even before looking at the camera images, Rob Snetsinger said he was certain there were at least some species of bats on the site, because, as he said, bats are as common as birds.

The results of the BioBlitz will be compiled in the coming weeks, and will be included in the KFN newsletter this fall.

The highest number of species every found at a KFN BioBlitz is 997, and Anne Robertson said that she does not expect to challenge that number this year, partly as a function of the site and partly because a few subject experts did not show up this year. What is found is as much a function of who is looking, as it is about what is there.

For further information, go to the Kingstonfieldnaturalists.org and navigate through the site.