Everything But The Birds
To finish off this series on Point Pelee, we’re taking a wild swing to look at everything but its most famous wildlife. Spring migration brings countless birds - and birders, but there’s so much more to discover at Point Pelee.
EPISODE NOTES
TRANSCRIPT
As we come to the end of this little series on Point Pelee, I wanted to do something crazy and talk about something other than birds.
See, Point Pelee is usually dominated by stories of spring migration. And that sudden, diverse influx of northbound birds certainly might be its flashiest annual event. It’s made Point Pelee an international destination for birders.
But those flocks of birds can overshadow just how amazing this place is for a lot of other reasons. It’s not just a convenient migratory stop, it’s one of the most unique ecological areas in the country.
That all starts with its location. Point Pelee is the southernmost mainland point in Canada. That puts it at the same latitude as Rome and Barcelona. It’s further south than the northern tip of California.
And that, along with the mediating effect of Lake Erie, gives it a warmer climate than almost anywhere else in the country. Point Pelee sits at the bottom of this fascinating area called Canada’s Carolinian Zone. It’s limited to just a pocket of land in Southern Ontario along the Great Lakes. It’s also been referred to as the ‘banana belt’ or the ‘deep south’ of Canada because of its warmer climate.
The Carolinian Zone is 0.25% of Canada’s total land area. But it’s home to 25% of our human population, and a greater number of species than any other ecosystem in the country - including 90% of all threatened or endangered species. And that biological diversity is certainly true of Point Pelee.
2/3rds of Point Pelee are actually marshland, a habitat that’s been vanishing across Canada. But Point Pelee’s marsh is one of the biggest left on the Great Lakes, and was named a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 1987 for its role in biodiversity, including supporting 19 species at risk.
And the tapering point of Point Pelee also supports the extremely rare sand spit savannah habitat. It’s home to equally rare plant species, like eastern Canada’s only cactus! The eastern prickly pear is known to grow in only two locations in the entire country - its total habitat here is just 1063 meters squared.
And Point Pelee has its share of rare animal residents as well, who thrive only in its Carolinian ecosystem. The Southern Flying Squirrel was actually extirpated from the region in the 1930s, but was brought back in the 1990s.
Then there’s the endangered eastern fox snake - 70% of their global population lives in Ontario and the staff at Pelee has been working to provide them with artificial nesting and hibernation areas.
And Point Pelee is also home to the five-lined skink, Ontario’s only native lizard.
There’s even a second seasonal migration here. Every fall, monarch butterflies gather by the thousands as a stop on their marathon journey down to Mexico. And we’ll be covering them in more detail another time.
But the point is, as much as Point Pelee’s dazzling spring menagerie of birds can dominate its reputation, it really is an extraordinary little triangle of land for so many other reasons. By all means, check out the spring migration. But come back for the dizzying array of rare ecosystems, plants and animals all crammed into that 15kms square jutting out into Lake Erie. It’s the second smallest national park in the country. But it has also been called the most ecologically diverse - a beautiful little oasis of life.