Determined to figure out the cause of the noise, we kept pointing our flash¬ 
lights and lifting the leaves. The litter was only one or two leaves thick, but 
covered most of the ground beside the bare path. It took us several minutes to 
discover a culprit - an earthworm. It had extended itself right out of its burrow 
onto the ground and couldn’t pull back when it detected our light. With a bit 
more persistence we found more earthworms, and their burrows, and came to 
realize that the activity of hundreds of earthworms going about their nocturnal 
browsing on leaf litter was making a remarkably loud noise on this still night. 
We also realized that the ground, including the beaten earthen path, was 
covered with earthworm burrows at a density of several per square metre. The 
burrows could be recognized by a clump or mound of clotted earth at the bur¬ 
row opening. The clumps were a centimentre or two in diameter, and bristled 
with the petioles of maple leaves, all that remained from the earthworms’ 
meals. The worms were devouring all of the leaf except the petiole, and leaving 
the petioles behind at the burrow entrance. It was apparent that the 
earthworms were capable of disposing of a very large number of leaves, and 
must make a major contribution to the recycling of forest vegetation. 
I now recognize earthworm burrows, with their armour of leaf petioles, in many 
places, including my city backyard, and point them out to friends at every 
opportunity. 
Breeding Birds of the 
Marlborough Forest 
M. Austen, P. Hayes, L. LArrivee, C. Rogers and M. Williamson 
The Marlborough Forest is an ecologically diverse area located approximately 
40 km southwest of Ottawa, Ontario (Figure 1). Encompassing an area of over 
12,000 ha. the Forest contains a variety of upland and wetland habitats (dis¬ 
turbed coniferous, deciduous and mixed forests, abandonded clearings, swamps, 
marshes and fens) which support a variety of flora and fauna. 
A survey of the breeding birds of the Marlborough Forest was undertaken as 
one aspect of an intensive biological inventory of the Forest commissioned by 
the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton in 1988. The survey was con¬ 
ducted during the period of May to August and involved over 1,400 hours of 
field work. 
7 
