Overhead View

A centennial project for Billie Bear, est.. 1906.
© 2006 - 2024 Billie Bear Lakeside Community Club
Text © 2019-2024 Valerie Kremer

Federation of Ontario Naturalists

“CAMP BILLIE BEAR, in the beautiful forest around Bella Lake, and only a few miles from Algonquin Park, has drawn persons to it from many walks of life and of all ages, from 17 to 90. They come from Ontario, Quebec, Massachusetts and New York State to discover that Mother Nature provides adventure aplenty and the man from the street is held spell-bound as he views at close range the birds, flora and fauna of the woodland. School teachers, business men, housewives, students and biologists are a part of the annual two week nature study camp sponsored by the Federation [of Ontario Naturalists].”

- Huntsville Forester, July 1956

“THE NATURE camps, both years [1941 and 1942], were held at Limberlost Lodge. During the camp periods, the entire group drove over to Camp Billie Bear to see the evening grosbeaks which came to the parking area by the Lodge for the salt which Billie Brook threw out on the gravel after her ice cream making. The group all visited the heronry which was in the woods nearby. No doubt the heronry and the grosbeaks alerted the F.O.N. to the possibility of holding the camp at Billie Bear. Most of the campers came from Ontario, but members included some from Quebec and occasionally some from U.S. The managers-owners of Billie Bear were ‘The Colonel’ [Kelsall] and Graham Atkin.”

- Helen Inch, Federation of Ontario Naturalists,1982

“AT 7 A.M., people who a few hours earlier had a late date with an old barred owl are prowling through the sparkling dew of the forest… [T]hey were heading through the woods to a beach. By the time they waited for scrambled eggs and crisp bacon from the open fire they were hungry. They were just starting on the platefuls when someone screamed, ‘Osprey, osprey!’, dancing and pointing with a frying pan. Each upped his binoculars and forgot about food until it was cold.”

- Globe & Mail, July1952

  

Brochure for the Federation of Ontario Naturalists’ nature camp held at Billie Bear Lodge in 1961 (Billie Bear Brochure Collection)

Nature camp participants on the steps of the dining room, c. 1960 (FON brochure 1961)
  

“Here an ornithologist directs the attention of a group to a bird that few of them have ever seen before.”  (Gunther Busse photo, FON brochure 1961)

“CAMPERS divide into groups of ten, chosen to include friends and persons of similar age and interests. The six leaders each take a different group daily so that every camper is guided twice by every leader. After breakfast, groups enjoy a morning outing. Two are concerned with birds, two with plants, and two with ecology. After lunch there is a general discussion and observations pooled. Afternoons are free for studying a particular subject, to work with books, microscopes and other equipment in one of the two laboratories, or simply to relax. On some evenings there are illustrated talks by the staff or distinguished visitors. On others, groups follow a leader to listen to thrush songs, hooting owls, frogs and other fascinating night sounds. There is swimming and canoeing in the afternoons. Before bed, refreshments are served in the lounge.”

- Federation of Ontario Naturalists, Nature Camp brochure, 1961

Guided hike at Second Sandy, c. 1945 (John Boake)
  

Participants in the FON nature camp outside Pell House, 1945. Pell House was used as a laboratory and resource centre for camp activities. (John Boake)
FOR 18 YEARS beginning in 1944, Camp Billie Bear (which became Billie Bear Lodge in 1954) hosted the annual Nature Camp of the Federation of Ontario Naturalists, whose participants filled the resort for the duration of the two-week program in late June and early July. The FON held its camps at Billie Bear from 1944 to 1950, in 1952 and 1953, and from 1955 until 1964. The program covered most aspects of flora and fauna to be found in the vicinity, and participants were for the most part amateurs of varying ages and occupations. Instructors and speakers included professors in botany, biology, zoology, and geology from the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum as well as other institutions, and experienced campers became group leaders for field trips and hikes. The organizers set up the camp’s laboratory and small library in Pell House.

“Calopogen bog” – FON campers explore the bog on what is now the property of the Mabel Hart Brook and Marion Hill Memorial Foundation, c. 1945 (John Boake)
  

Federation of Ontario Naturalists group enjoying a campfire at the Billie Bear shore, probably 1950s (Claudia Hollows)
The loon and great blue heron head a list of over 80 species of birds identified during FON Nature Camps. The list includes a variety of ducks, hawks, owls, woodpeckers, sapsuckers, flycatchers, swallows, wrens, thrushes, vireos, and warblers, as well as (among others) the osprey, blue and Canada jays, chickadees and nuthatches, killdeer, hummingbirds, sandpipers, and the ubiquitous gull, crow, and raven.

FON group at either Jackson (Mud) Lake or Big East River, 1950s (Claudia Hollows)
  

FON group outside Hackmatack, 1950s (Claudia Hollows)

Bird-watching, of course, was never an interest confined to FON camps. Longtime guest Gertrude Davis provided annual lists of her late-August sightings, as well as a summary of “Birds of the Billie Bear Area,” including her identifications and those of the FON, in 1974. In the 1980s and 1990s, Billie Bear guest and Bella Lake cottager Jerry Friedman offered informal bird walks to interested guests.

Sources

Billie Bear Documents Archive, Helen Inch letter to Barb Paterson, August 8, 1982; Gertrude L. Davis, “Birds of the Billie Bear Area,” August 1975; GLD bird lists 1977 and 1978; Brochure Collection, Federation of Ontario Naturalists camp brochures, 1952 and 1961; Clippings File, “Billie Bear Visitor is Captivated Keeping Late Date with Old Owl” by Jack Dobson, Globe & Mail, July 10, 1952, p. 15.

Huntsville Forester, “Record Songs Seldom Heard at Billie Bear,” July 19, 1956, p. 9.

Paterson, Barbara, conversations 2004 and 2005.