HELLO JI!
LIVE AND LET LIVE
You’ll find signs for snakes enroute Longpoint Provincial Park in Ontario. Image credit: ONTARIO PARKS.
I found signs for deer or moose crossings fascinating when we first spotted them in our early years in Canada, but now barely give them a second look. But signs for turtles and snakes enroute Longpoint Provincial Park – yes, snakes – still have me doing a double-take.
Driving along St John’s Sideroad recently, I spotted one for turtles crossing. A few yards along, one for geese. And then still farther up the same road, one for seniors! Someone is trying to tell us something.
Every spring, the city of Burlington shuts down a stretch of King Road for approximately three weeks to allow safe passage to the Jefferson salamander. The amphibian has to cross the road to reach its breeding ponds. And in October, Stouffville Road is closed when it rains so salamanders can safely cross the road in Richmond Hill to leave their summer breeding grounds and return to their winter habitat.
Jefferson salamanders, an endangered species, are a good indicator of healthy forests and ecosystems in the community. They “scuttle across the road as they migrate from their summer breeding grounds to return to their winter habitat,” according to a York Region news release. Signs are posted to guide motorists and local access maintained.
The section of Stouffville Road is located in the Oak Ridges Moraine natural core area, which has many of the features the Jefferson salamander requires, including undisturbed natural forests, rocky outcrops, wetlands and ponds. Richmond Hill is home to one of the few known populations of the Jefferson salamander in York Region. The regional municipality is working in partnership with the Toronto Region Conservation Authority to help ensure their survival.
As the snow recedes and the earth reawakens, as the birds return to the ponds our home backs on to, I am reminded of the movie Fly Away Home. One of my all-time favourites, the Jeff Daniels-Anna Paquin starrer was based on the actual experiences of Bill Lishman who, in 1986, started training Canada geese to follow his ultralight aircraft, and succeeded in leading their migration in 1993 through his program Operation Migration.
Speaking of geese, I have decided that henceforth, I shall refer to them not as Canada geese but Canadian geese. Is there a difference? Well, yes. These are not just geese from Canada but ones with distinctly Canadian traits. Observe how they not only fly in formation, they swim and even cross roads in an orderly manner. Two adults, front and back, goslings in the middle. There’s no jostling for space, no pushing each other. Reminds me of a queue.
And there’s nothing more Canadian than a queue. Will Ferguson and Ian Ferguson provide their take on this most Canadian of all traits in How to be a Canadian: “One of the most popular pastimes in Canada is standing in line... Canadians will stand, for hours, if need be, with their arms crossed, frowning severely.”
I have yet to come across too many Canadians frowning severely, but standing patiently in line, absolutely!
Eid mubarak!
Baisakhi ki badhai!
Happy Earth Day!
Shagorika Easwar