Sir Andrew Macphail Nature Trail

The Sir Andrew Macphail Nature Trail is located in Orwell, 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) east of the Orwell Corner Historic Village. Walking difficulty on the 1.1 kilometer (0.7 mile) trail is medium and visitors should bring along insect repellent. Please remember that this is a natural area and refrain from removing flowers or plants. Parking is available at the trail head near the house.

The nature trail and trail guide are the result of an Environment Week 1991 project sponsored by the Island Nature Trust and funded by Environment Canada.

Introduction

"The Farm was acquired from the Fletchers. The north and south branches of the Orwell River joined within the area, flowed in a deep wooded ravine, passed through the adjoining property, and met the tide where it was crossed by a bridge. Upon this stream were three mills. Heavy timber grew upon either bank. The stream now runs upon gravel and rock, through grassy meadows where mill-ponds once were, through gorges where with an unerring instinct the early settlers built their three dams, through the woods where trees have grown to immense size, protected by the high banks which prevent their removal. There also, as a neighbor observed, is all the accommodation a sea-trout could require."

Sir Andrew Macphail from The Master's Wife

The Sir Andrew Macphail Nature Trail leads through a wondrous area steeped in the past, a tour truly combining "natural" with "history." Andrew Macphail, son of William and Catherine, was born on this farm in 1864. With a sharp intellect, he rose to be McGill University's first professor of the history of medicine and also became an accomplished essayist, editor, social critic, doctor, applied scientist and soldier. On New Year's Day in 1918, he became Sir Andrew Macphail, knighted by King George V in recognition of his military and literary contributions to the empire.

His best known work is

The Master's Wife, a rich account of his parents and the times in which he lived. the life of Sir Andrew will be better documented elsewhere but memories and traces from those times still grace this area.

The trail leads from the house down the lane and into a deep valley bordered by large eastern hemlock, yellow birch, eastern white pine and maples. In 'The Master's' eyes, "to stroll through on a forest path with motive ulterior to the purpose of passing through was 'to lurk in the woods.' For a boy to proceed at any other pace than a run was to linger, loiter, dawdle, meander, creep, and saunter." But perhaps even Sir Andrew's schoolmaster father would forgive your lurking, lingering, loitering as you make your way down into the valley to visit this place of singing birds and babbling brook.

The Macphail Homestead

The birthplace of sir Andrew Macphail was a working farm, the fields growing grains and hay, the barns housing horses, cattle, sheep, pigs, ducks and geese. Yet "the Master's Wife," Andrew's mother Catherine, still found time to pursue her interest in nature. She had a love for growing things and from every journey would bring home new plants - the shrub roses that still run wild, and flowering shrubs and vines. Large trees surround the house, including lindens, white oak, white spruce, apple and sugar maple. Some younger trees bordering this area are butternuts planted in 1980, their drooping, compound leaves adding a touch of the exotic. Keep your eyes open for birds and mammals near the homestead that you might see around your own home. Evening grosbeaks, the males in their brilliant yellow spring plumage, and American robins frequent the area and red squirrels commonly scold visitors from treetops.

The Well-Travelled Road

Horses and buggies carrying lords and ladies, governor-generals, Lucy Maud and other ddignitaries from near and far travelled this lane way to reach the Macphail home. Things have changed in a great many ways since Sir Andrew's time. Walking underneath the quiet canopy, it is hard to imagine that the land on both sides was once cleared for farming. The first clue is the make-up of the trees. Some, like the linden and the white oak, are not native to Prince Edward Island and were planted as landscape trees. The ground itself is relatively flat, with few of the 'pits' and 'mounds' that are associated with woodlands that have never been plowed. Lastly, notice the white spruce, which is characteristic of abandoned fields. These woods are lower and wetter than the fields still being farmed today behind the Macphail House. Perhaps this is why they were abandoned to grow up into woodlands.

The pair of large concrete pillars marking the original entrance to the Macphail homestead were brought by Sir Andrew from McGill University early in the century.

Into the Valley

Across the road and down the stairway into the valley, we still see signs of the human hand all around us. The large Scots pine off to the left is not native to this province and was either planted or seeded in naturally from one already growing. The same is true of the apple tree a little closer to the stream. No apples are native to the Island, but they are a most welcome addition, providing delicious fruit for humans and much of the wildlife in the area. Perhaps this is a descendant of one Sir Andrew described as having fruit "so sour that it protected itself against even the hardiest boy."

At the stream, a dam provided power for a mill that sawed timber for building and the shipyards in Orwell Point and Vernon Bridge. As gasoline-powered mills became more common, water power was abandoned across the Island. This one stopped early in the century. Sir Andrew visited this area daily in the summer for a dip in the stream.

Dwellers in Cool Places

As you cross the first bridge, notice how trees along the stream form a canopy overhead, providing shade that keeps the water cool. Speckled trout and other stream dwellers benefit from the increased oxygen available in cooler water and from nutrients deposited in the stream from falling needles and leaves and rotting logs. Tiny animals called invertebrates feed on this organic matter and are themselves food for fish.

Here you may find the elusive mink, which feed on fish, small mammals, amphibians and insects and in Sir Andrew's time were trapped along the stream. It may be easier to see signs of an animal's presence - look for prints in mud or snow, scat (feces) or gnawed twigs. Patience, quietness and luck are keys to seeing less common animals in the wild.

Hemlocks Large and Small

Now uncommon in Island forests, eastern hemlock is in great abundance along the trail. You can still find many older houses and barns built with hemlock boards up to 0.6 meters (2 feet) wide. Both eastern hemlock and the more common balsam fir have flat needles coming from only two sides of the twig. Eastern hemlock needles, however, are 0.85 to 1.7 centimeters (1/3 to 2/3 inches) long, about half the length of balsam fir needles. Specimens in this area are good examples of the large size this tree can reach. In Sir Andrew's time, hemlock bark was used to make a brown dye for wool.

Along the trail, you will notice another "hemlock" growing in low clumps. Ground hemlock, more properly called Canada yew, forms a tangle of year-round greenery that arches up from the forest floor. The roots of ground hemlock were one of the special ingredients in the Micmac magic healing potion.

Birch Canker

A forest is always a mixture of growth and decay. Trees die from old age, insect damage, disease or weather conditions and seedlings sprout up to take their place. Just past the second bridge (which you cross on the way back), is a tree in decline. this yellow birch, with its golden, papery bark, is being attacked by a fungal disease. There is a birch canker polypore about 2 meters (6.5 feet) up the tree. It looks like the base of a burnt limb and is just one of many natural processes that turn healthy, live trees into soil.

Other forms of diseases and parasites are at work in the valley. The 'witches broom' you can often see on balsam fir trees looks like a thicket or a bird's nest. It is really the result of a parasitic plant called dwarf mistletoe. Mistletoe does not make its own food - nutrients are taken from the host tree. Its roots cause abnormal growth in the tree.

Towering White Pines

Eastern white pine is distinguished by its soft, long needles that are in groups of five. All other pines on Prince Edward Island have groups of two needles. Eastern white pine was once much more common across the Island, growing up to six feet in diameter and towering above other trees in the forest. These trees tend to become "flat-topped" as they get older.

Most were cut for shipbuilding during the 1800's because they made excellent masts. White pine is still highly-valued by carpenters and furniture makers. The wood is easy to work and often used in window-making and for inferior trim.

For the Birds

The presence of large trees and an abundance of snags makes this valley an exciting place for bird watchers. Brown creepers, tiny warbler-like birds, feed on insect larvae on the bark of trees. If you are quiet and observant, you may see one work its way up the trunk in a spiral, searching for food. The boreal chickadee, much less common and more secretive than its black-capped relative, is also found here. Its call is similar to the "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" of the black-capped, but slower and more "wheezing."

A Feast of Wild flowers

Discovering the beauty of wild flowers can be both rewarding and frustrating - there are so many different ones growing in just this area alone. Unlike birds, though they stay put and with a good field guide are quite easy to identify. Where there are openings in the canopy, look for buttercups, red-berried elders and raspberries. In the darker, deeper woods, you will find clintonia, with yellow flowers and distinctive blue berries, and stemless lady's slipper. Bunch berries, with white flowers and clumps of bright red fruit, can be easily spotted on the way to to the third bridge.

For Catherine Macphail, the best-loved flower was the mayflower or trailing arbutus. Sir Andrew wrote that "her first excursion after the winter was gone, and snow lay only in shady places, was to the moist woods in search of those small pink flowers on their glistening vines." The leathery leaves of the mayflower remain green throughout the year and always hold great promise for next spring.

Snag Trees

As you cross the third bridge and head back up along the other side of the stream, you will find many dead or partially dead trees. These 'snag trees' are used by a wide variety of wildlife for nesting, feeding and roosting. Some tower overhead, others are not much more than a tall stump. Many birds in this area, such as creepers, chickadees, woodpeckers, nuthatches and owls, excavate cavities in decaying trees (or use older excavations) to nest in. Several species build nests in dead or broken-topped trees and hawks often use snag trees as perches. The loose bark of dead trees is an ideal roosting spot for little brown bats and spring peepers, those tiny frogs that are another early sign of spring. Raccoons, red squirrels, northern flying squirrels and deer mice also use cavities for nesting or denning.

Snags, like living trees, have their own life cycle. Wind and decay eventually wear down even the tallest snag but it remains useful as habitat for food to some species of wildlife until it decomposes and becomes soil.

Flood Plain

Along the length of the stream, the flood plain, or flat area that is flooded when the water level rises, shifts from side to side. Streams, like forests, are dynamic and continually change shape. Trees blow down and block the channel, forcing the water to seek a new path. Banks are eroded and rate of flow changes.

The wooded valley provides a travel corridor for many species of birds, amphibians and mammals and provides food, shelter, and water. Trees and shrubs along the stream help stop erosion and prevent the stream beds from silting up. This siltation can smother the gravel beds needed for trout and salmon spawning habitat.

Acadian Forest

The woodland covering most of Prince Edward Island before the arrival of European settlers was called the Acadian forest, dominated by large, old trees. this forest type is well-represented in the valley, although some major species are missing and others are over-abundant. Large examples of sugar maple, yellow birch, eastern hemlock, eastern white pine and red spruce are found throughout the valley. American beech, found in most older mixed wood stands, is hard to find here. Balsam fir and red maple, trees that grow well in full sunlight, are very common. This may be the result of severe cutting in the area that left large openings in the forest canopy and increased light levels.

The Role of Fallen Logs

Many older trees in this valley have died and fallen down, in some cases creating improved habitat for wildlife. Ruffed grouse, especially, make good use of downed trees. In early spring, listen for the "drumming" of a male ruffed grouse, trying to attract a female. The male sits on a fallen log, beating the air with his wings and making the sound of an old fashioned tractor starting up on a cold morning.

Insects, invertebrates, fungi and bacteria combine to break the log down into nutrients that become available to the future generations of trees that will grown to take its place. New seedlings often start their life on a fallen log - the dead wood providing nutrients and moisture to its replacement. This is especially common with eastern hemlock and yellow birch.

Ground Covers

Although the temptation is to keep your head craned upward towards the tall hemlocks and pines, looking for warblers almost out of sight, be sure to pay attention to the forest floor. Here you will find some of the most fascinating plants, perhaps not as brilliantly coloured as the wild flowers but beautiful in their own right. This valley is rich in mosses and ferns of all types. Club mosses, low evergreen plants that look like tiny trees, are plentiful here, thriving in shady, moist conditions. Once you become more familiar with these plants, you will notice the wide variety of fungi and lichens also growing on the forest floor.

Powers of Observation

Now that you've had chance to look at trees along the trail, keep your eyes open to different species as you walk back along the lane to the Macphail House. remember that some are native trees that came up after the fields were abandoned, some were planted as landscape trees along the lane, and some have been planted under the older trees in an effort to create a more diverse and healthy forest. This will be a real test of your powers of observation - especially during the months when there are no leaves on the trees. At these times, twigs, buds, bark and form will help you unravel the mystery of tree identification.

Birds of the Nature Trail

Northern goshawk
Sharp-shinned hawk
American kestrel
Ruffed grouse
Northern (common) flicker
Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Hairy woodpecker
Downy woodpecker
Black-backed woodpecker
Eastern wood pewee
Olive-sided flycatcher
Blue jay
Northern raven
American crow
Black-capped chickadee
Brown creeper
Winter wren
American robin
Hermit thrush
Swainson's thrush
Golden-crowned kinglet
Red-eyed vireo
Black-and-white warbler
Northern parula
Yellow warbler
Yellow-rumpled warbler
Mourning warbler
Canada warbler
Common yellow throat
American red start
Common grackle
Brown-headed cowbird
Rose-breasted grosbeak
Evening grosbeak
American goldfinch
Northern junco
Chipping sparrow
White-throated sparrow
Song sparrow

Plants of the Nature Trail

The following is a preliminary list of common herbaceous flora that may be seen along the trail. The format is: scientific name | common name.