Virtual Tour: Boyer Preserve

Welcome to my second virtual tour of the year, the Boyer Preserve! This 93-acre property was purchased by TKC in late 2016. It was named after the Boyer family who had previously owned it. The property has a variety of habitat types, including open meadow, diverse forest, and wetland. When combined with the adjacent Foster Parkland and Walking Trails property, we have protected 133 acres at this location to help the plants and wildlife thrive. Some of the "cooler" species we've seen here are Moose, Black Bear, Barred Owl, Short-tailed Weasel, and Red Fox!

This preserve is also home to The Kensington Conservation Centre, which is the home base for TKC. After working out of an office trailer for 10+ years, staff moved into this building in late 2017. We use the conservation centre for our day-to-day operations, but also use it to host a lot of community events. Feel free to drop by whenever you want during regular working hours to say hi and check the place out. Of course though, not until the pandemic is over and it is safe to do so, as staff are still working from home right now.

I spent a majority of my time on the portion of the Foster Parkland and Walking Trails that are on the Boyer Preserve. Volunteer Dave Moule spent two summers expanding the trails from the original 0.9km worth on the Foster Parkland and Walking Trails property (see my tour of it from last week here) to 3.5km worth acorss both properties, which we are very thankful for! The trails now get a ton of use year-round and folks are always telling me how much they enjoy them. 

While it had been a week since I was last on the trails, it was a very cold week, so there was not much of a change at all in the variety of plants that were to be found. The first interesting thing I came across was this moss. While I definitely recognized it, I had never taken the time to actually identify it. So I took some photos and uploaded them to iNaturalist. While I haven't received confirmation yet, I'm pretty sure it's called bristly haircup moss.  

Here is a collection of photos that I took along the trails to give you a sense of what they are like. There are a bunch of rocky areas, so you have to make sure to watch your step as you go.

The shoreline of the Boyer Preserve is classified as Provincially Significant Wetland as part of the larger wetland complex called the Kensington Complex. It's great that we're protecting this important wildlife habitat! As you can see from the two photos below, there is a lot of beaver activity in the area. 

It's also crazy to see how high the water levels are this year. At one point along the trails, you're walking right along side the water. Any higher and the trails are going to be under water! This poor tree is surrounded by water now. 

One thing that you'll have to watch out for in this area is some poison ivy along this section of the trail. As long you're wearing closed shoes and long pants, you should have nothing to worry about, there isn't a ton of it. We have some signs up on how to identify it. If you aren't familiar with poison ivy, this would be a great opportunity to learn so that you know what to look for in locations that don't warn you about it!

At the south end of the trails is a scenic lookout out over the water. The small bay here is actually designated as a waterfowl staging area by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and there sure were some staging waterfowl species. There was 163 Greater Scaup, 18 Lesser Scaup, 22 Ring-necked Duck, 30 Bufflehead, 3 Hooded Merganser, 6 Mallard, 1 Green-winged Teal, and a Canada Goose family! Most waterfowl species have actually moved through already, so these numbers are much lower than they would have been back in April. I remember in past years seeing well over 1000 ducks in this area.

I think the scenic view from here deserves a large photo!

From here, you head straight up a rocky hill to also overlook the water. I'll also leave this photo large!

After finishing the hiking trails and taking a lunch break, I ventured in to other portions of the Boyer Preserve that the trails don't cover. The meadow was relatively dry, allowing me to walk through it. It won't be long until the meadow is full of butterflies, dragonflies, bumblebees, and other interesting insects! At the south end of the meadow, there was evidence of some sort of rodent who had gone by.

There is an old ATV trail that runs from the south end of the meadow into the forest. Despite there being no ATV use here since at least 2016 when we acquired the property, the trail is still very noticeable. This goes to show what kind of ecological damage ATVs can cause on the environment, which is why we don't allow their use on our preserves. A single trail likely isn't the worst thing to happen, but extensive use over a wide area could be very damaging, depending on the habitat.

There are some more rocky outcrops in this area of the property. I love spots like this, they just seem so peaceful.

Here are some more photos from my day. In order, we have the trail map sign, an old piece of farming equipment, a Red Squirrel, a Hermit Thrush, a Herring Gull, an Osprey (look hard, it's there!), an Eastern Grey Squirrel, a Blue-headed Vireo, and some common juniper.

Thanks again for reading my virtual tour. If you have any questions about the Boyer Preserve, do not hesitate to contact me at [email protected] or 705-257-5199. Stay tuned for next week's tour!