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Blue Jay, founded in 1942 by Isabel M. Priestly, is a journal of natural history and
conservation for Saskatchewan and adjacent regions. It is published quarterly by Nature
Saskatchewan, 206-1960 Lome Street, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4P 2L7.
CN ISSN 0006-5099
Editors: Anna and Ted Leighton, 328 Saskatchewan Crescent West, Saskatoon, SK
S7M 0A4, Canada
Associate Editors: Mark Brigham, Rainer Ebel, Ronald Hooper, Stuart Houston,
Josef Schmutz, Robert Warnock.
EDITORIAL INFORMATION: Blue Jay welcomes all submissions, hand-written or typed,
polished or in need of editorial assistance. All items for publication should be addressed
to the editors (see address at top). Deadlines for text for each issue are two months
prior to issue, i.e. 1 January, 1 April, 1 July, and 1 October. Deadlines for photographs
are a month later. Please include author’s telephone number or e-mail address for editorial
contact, if necessary. Manuscripts should be submitted in duplicate. Manuscripts also
maybe submitted in electronic form, either on 3.5 inch diskettes, or by e-mail (Word
Perfect, Word or ASCII text format) to [email protected]. Send images
separately. For further assistance see “Guidelines for Authors,” Blue Jay 54:174-175 or
56: No. 3 ii, or contact the editors. R.W. Nero abstracts Blue Jay for Recent Ornithological
Literature. Blue Jay is abstracted by BIOSIS.
Common names are used for species where possible. Bird names follow the 7th edition
of the American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list (1998) and any subsequent supplements.
Mammals are from Banfield’s The Mammals of Canada (1974). Fish names are from the
American Fisheries Society Special Publication #20 (1991). Since insect, amphibian,
reptile, and plant names are not standardized, scientific names are included.
Photographs are preferred as prints, but slides are acceptable (we recommend that you
make a print or a slide copy for your records before sending the original). Nature
Saskatchewan can not guarantee that photographic submissions will be returned. Colour
slides for future cover use are especially solicited.
Any material printed in Blue Jay may be reprinted, for non-commercial purposes, without
permission, but credit lines are both appreciated and good etiquette. Use of photographs
and poetry requires permission from the photographer/author.
ADVERTISING: Advertising rates may be obtained from Nature Saskatchewan.
REPRINTS: A maximum of five reprints is available for each article. Authors wishing to
receive reprints should send their request, along with a stamped ($.92), self-addressed,
5 %" x 9 1/2" kraft envelope to the Nature Saskatchewan office as soon as they receive
final notice of acceptance of their article.
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Send all renewals, new memberships, donations, and changes of
address to Nature Saskatchewan (address at top). Renewal form on last page.
Bulk orders (minimum of five copies to one address) are available to society members
and educational institutions at the rate of $15 for first subscription and $13 for each
additional one. Outside Canada, fees are $18. We do not collect GST on memberships.
Covers: Front: Bear Hills, Saskatchewan, June 1986. Photo by George Tosh.
Back: Bear Hills, Saskatchewan, September 15, 1998. Photo by J. Frank Roy.
Published by Administration Centre Printing Services. Printed in Regina, Saskatchewan
on 10% recycled paper.
THIS ORGANIZATION RECEIVES FUNDING FROM
Saskatchewan
LOTTERIES
Blue
Vol. 57 No. 4 December
Editor’s Message
Habitat
THE BEAR HILLS PRAIRIE FIRE: ONE YEAR
Nature
BIRDS, BUGS AND BEARS. Carolyn Curtis 183
COUGAR SIGHTING AT ROSTHERN. Victor Friesen 187
Birds
NESTING COMMON RAVENS NEAR BREDENBURY EAT SALAMANDERS.
Kort Larsen. 189
THE WESTWARD SPREAD OF THE BARRED OWL.
C. Stuart Houston and Kevin J. McGowan. 190
Spiders
THE PLAINS ORB-WEAVER, Araneus gemmoides, IN SASKATCHEWAN.
Don Buckle.196
Notes and Letters
BIRD OBSERVATIONS FROM NORTHERN SASKATCHEWAN, AUGUST 1973 REVISITED.
Wayne Renaud.199
GOLDEN EAGLE RESCUE. Sig Jordheim. 199
PEREGRINE FALCON ATTACKS HOT-AIR BALLOON.
R. Mark Brigham and Anne C. Brigham.200
STOWAWAY IN A ROBIN’S NEST. Colin Keess.201
AN UNUSUALLY TAME COWBIRD. Barb Epp.202
PURPLE MARTINS. Henry Koep.202
GREAT BLUE HERON AT CEYLON. Wendy Caldwell.203
FEWER GOLDFISH TO WINTER OVER. Barb Epp.204
Poetry
PATIENT PRETENDER. Jean MacKenzie.204
Nature Library
THE ECOLOGY OF EDEN. Evan Eisenberg.205
A FIELD GUIDE TO WESTERN BUTTERFLIES.
Paul Opler and Amy Bartlett Wright.207
BUTTERFLIES THROUGH BINOCULARS - THE EAST. Jeffrey Glassberg.211
BUTTERFLY CONSERVATION (2nd ed.). T. R. New.212
In Memoriam
WARREN HJERTAAS, 1921 - 1999. Jim Jowsey.214
Nature Saskatchewan News
Volunteer of the Year Award 1999 - Garth Nelson .216
Conservation Award 1999 - John Dinius.216
Mystery Photo.218
Errata
SPRING MEET AT PREECECVILLE, MAY 28-30, 1999 . 218
Index .220
57(4). December 1999 I
EDITOR’S MESSAGE
1999 was a year for 50th anniversaries.
Nature Saskatchewan celebrated 50 years of people working together towards the common
goal of nature conservation. For Nature Saskatchewan, 50 is more than a big, round number.
It means that our organization still has very active members who have been part of the
organization from the beginning. It also has members the age of their grandchildren and all
ages in between. Our 50th is a time to celebrate both dedication and enthusiasm, and the
huge variety of professional and personal skills that this groups represents.
The Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the lUCN-The World Conservation Union was
also 50 years old in 1999. A vigorous proponent of conservation of biodiversity, the SSC
has been the driving force behind a wide range of international conservation programs. This
volunteer organization now consists of 110 groups of volunteer specialists, each one focussed
on a particular conservation issue or broad area of applicable expertise. More than anything,
the SSC has worked to assemble reliable information about life on earth, available in a series
of nearly 2000 publications that can be used to design recovery programs and justify
conservation initiatives in law. As a 50th Anniversary project, the SSC has announced creation
of a World Conservation Digital Library to make available some 6,500 pages of information
about species conservation issues and conservation action plans, indexed and searchable
by subject or region. In the near future, look for the Digital Library on the SSC website at
http://iucn.org/themes/ssc/index.htm.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Gail Bunt for her exceptional contribution of
preparing the index to Volume 57, printed in this issue. All readers of Blue Jay owe Gail a
vote of thanks for her meticulous work on this time-consuming task.
Anna and Ted Leighton, Editors
Blue Jay
HABITAT
THE BEAR HILLS PRAIRIE FIRE:
ONE YEAR LATER
J. FRANK ROY, 650 Costigan Way, Saskatoon SK S7J 3R2
Bear Hills SK, 15 September 1998
We rarely hear about prairie fires
Today, less than a quarter of the
these days, but they were once
province’s original grassland remains,
commonplace throughout southern
almost all of it in community and PFRA
Saskatchewan. Ignited by lightning or
pastures or the ranch land of west-
set sometimes by Plains Indians, fires
central, south western and extreme
raced through dry grass over vast areas
southern Saskatchewan. The Bear
of prairie every spring and fall.
Hills, approximately 100 km southwest
Beginning about 1880, a thin trickle of
of Saskatoon, boast some of the largest
settlers from Eastern Canada, the
remnant stretches of virgin prairie in this
United States and Europe began to
part of the province. Crossed by
move in, and shortly after 1900 the
Highway 4 between Rosetown and
trickle became a torrent. By 1920, two
Biggar, the hills extend from south of
thirds of Saskatchewan’s grassland had
Perdue west at least to Ruthilda.
disappeared under the plow. And with
the resultant complex of cultivated fields
On September 4, 1998, a fire,
and roads, prairie fires were almost
originating in a Coulee on the north
entirely eliminated.
slope of the Bear Hills, 16 km east of
57(4). December 1999
177
Highway 4, developed into one of the pumped water on the hottest spots, lit
largest and most spectacular prairie backfires and worked until long after dark.
fires within memory. Before it was Brian Longworth, a rancher on the south
finally extinguished on September 7, side of the hills, recalls that “the biggest
it had burned all or part of nearly challenge both days was communication;
seven sections of land, over 1740 no one knew where anyone else was.”
hectares (4,300 acres). Local women brought food and drinks to
exhausted, smoke-blackened crews.
The alarm went out about 2:00 on Finally, well after midnight, firefighters
Friday afternoon. Fanned by a fierce had the blaze under control. September
northwest wind, the fire was soon racing 5 was devoted to clean-up, putting out
across the tops of the hills, heading small fires still burning in aspen groves
south and east. Towering smoke could and fence lines.
be seen for 30 kilometres. Local farmers
with tractors, trucks, water tanks, Who could have imagined that two
cultivators and disks; villagers from the days later, on September 7, the fire
entire area; and five fire departments would begin again, this time at the east
(Harris, Tessier, Perdue, Biggar and end of the hills? Primed by a fierce
Rosetown-R. M. Marriott) converged on southeast wind, it tore through the north
the hills. No one knows how many half of the hills which had escaped the
people turned out (at one time the line of first fire. After a day’s struggle,
cars extended all the way back to firefighters contained the blaze. As one
Highway 7) but at least two hundred man put it, “There was nothing else left
fought the fire and hundreds more to burn.”
watched, fascinated. Singly and in crews,
men plowed fireguards in intense heat The east end of the Bear Hills was a
and almost impenetrable smoke, picture of desolation: the hills - now
“Bare ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang”, Bear Hills SK
15 September 1998 J. Frank Roy
178 Blue Jay
ominously silent - charred black, dotted
with stark white stones; on the crests,
burnt-off fence posts clinging to barbed
wire; in the hollows, still too hot to walk
in, stark dead poplars and the dense
gray ash of snowberry and willow; here
and there, small pockets of yellow and
green - grass and bush that had
escaped the vagaries of a wind-driven
blaze or been saved by firefighters.
Fortunately, no lives were lost, no
buildings burned. The fire had been
stopped as it reached the lower flanks
of the hills, sometimes within metres of
farm buildings. People from four
municipalities and half a dozen towns
had rallied to the call and won the battle
First growth after the fire, Bear Hills
against fire and wind. There would be
SK, 22 April 1999 J. Frank Roy
costs: damaged machinery, fences to
replace; valuable pasture lost for an
uncertain period of time. The would emerge from the roots.
unanswered question: What would the Amazingly, fresh droppings and feathers
Hills look like in 1999 and the years to indicated that Sharp-tailed Grouse had
follow? returned to dance at an ancestral lek,
but where, we wondered, would the
A first visit on April 22, 1999 gave females find sufficient cover to locate
some indication. Recovery would be their nests?
uneven. The hills were still essentially
black; but in places, particularly where Less than two months later, on July
grass had been grazed before the fire 10, we visited the hills a second time.
and, as a result, the heat less intense, a Near ideal growing conditions had
faint hint of green indicated renewal had transformed blackened prairie into a
already begun. As we walked the hills, green blanket spangled with flowers.
several small butterflies and moths flew Among them were late-blooming
by; occasionally a grasshopper jumped anemones, a profusion of Three-flowered
up in front of us. A few crocuses had Avens, Harebell, yarrow, potentilla, a
emerged, each bearing a maximum of variety of vetches, an abundance of
two or three blossoms, but larger than Yellow Umbrella-plants, extensive
usual, perfectly formed, very open. Moss patches of Scarlet Mallow, and fragrant
Phlox, ordinarily abundant in the hills, Prairie Roses, both pink and white,
was noticeably absent, its shallow root growing close to the ground. Weeds,
systems apparently completely among them escapees from farmer’s
destroyed. But the first leaves of Three- fields like Russian Thistle, mustard and
flowered Avens indicated there would pigweed, were growing more profusely
likely be full recovery of that species. In than ever, in some places crowding out
the burnt-out aspen groves, there were recovering grasses, an obvious cause of
still no signs of life; no buds had concern for local ranchers. Aspen
developed, no catkins formed. It was shoots, already up to 50 cm tall, had
yet too early to tell whether new poplars sprung up at the base of dead parent
57(4). December 1999 179
Western Snowberry (Buckbrush), Bear Hills SK, 15 September 1998
J. Frank Roy
Western Snowberry (Buckbrush) rejuvenation after fire, Bear Hills SK,
10 July 1999 J. Frank Roy
180 Blue Jay
