1
The Census Taker's Christmas Dinner25 December 1925
Marshalls Bay, Ontario, Canada
2
Charles Macnamara took this self portrait on Christmas Day 1925 with his Icarette camera. He had paused from taking the Christmas Bird Census to eat his lunch and capture this moment for his scrapbook. That year was the 13th consecutive year that Ligouri Gormley and Charles Macnamara conducted the census between Braeside and Marshall's Bay. Macnamara wrote an article about the census for the October 1925 issue of The Canadian Feild-Naturalist in which he summarized the cumulative results.Further reading about Charles Macnamara and the Christmas Bird Census can be found in Trail and Landscape, a publication of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists', Vol 15, #5, Nov.- Dec. 1981.
3
Nopoming Game PreserveFebruary, 1921
Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
4
Part of Macnamara's legacy as a field naturalist is the Nopiming Grown Game Preserve. He along with David M. Finnie, Thomas Elliott and Dan McLachlin, established the preserve in 1920 in an effort to stave off further destruction of natural habitat that was occurring in the area. In his article about the bird census, Macnamara mentions that the Canada Jay seldom ventures this far into civilization. "It prefers the boundless contiguity of shade farther north where it is unbroken by man's desecrating clearances." In one of his scrapbooks he included a photograph of Brown's farm with a note, "the continued destruction of the woods goes on".5
Ram's Head Lady's Slipper1913
Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
6
In 1902, Charles Macnamara started photographing orchids that he came across while walking to Marshall's Bay on his Sunday walks. He documented the habitat of various orchids that he found but did not always record exactly where he found them. Photographer and naturalist Michael Runtz attempted to locate every species of orchid that Macnamara included in Macnamara's beautiful album of prints titled, Native Orchids. Shown here is the Ram's Head Lady's Slipper (genus Cypripedum)7
Showy Lady's Slipper1913
Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
8
Macnamara observed that, "an insect, possibly a bee, pushed its way into the lip of this Showy Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium hirsutum) to drink the nectar secreted by the flower... Probably because it was growing in a rather shady place the colors of this group were rather pale. The lips lacked the rich magenta-crimson of the best specimens."9
Calypso bulbosa (L.) Oakes1913
Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
10
"Calypso bulbosa (L.) Oakes. Not uncommon in Western America, it is the rarest of orchids and most highly prized of collectors in the East. Called after the nymph Calypso who beguiled Ulysses in her isle for seven years, and died of grief when he broke away. It grows here in thick mossy woods".11
Showy Orchis1913
Arnprior, Ontario, Canada
12
"Showy Orchis (Orchis spectabile L). Sepals and petals mauve, lip white. This is one of the beautiful native orchids".Several orchid photographs by Charles Macnamara were published by the Syracuse Post-Standard in 1936.
13
Scales of ruffed grouse in fall.1943
14
Charles Macnamara became an expert on the Canadian Ruffed Grouse. He wrote about the increase in population from 5 to 28 birds after one year of establishing the Nopiming Game Preserve. He started studying the Ruffed Grouse in 1912 and submitted an article to The Canadian Naturalist magazine that year. In the1940's he photographed the scales that the Ruffed Grouse grows in the fall, shown here. He also photographed the imprint of the grouse's wings on the snow when it bursts out of its burrow and often recorded sightings in his notebooks. |
 |
 |
 |