Our speaker, Nick Lapointe, was himself once a member of the Macoun Club, so he was confident of having a knowledgeable audience. “What is the eel's scientific name?” Anguilla rostrata. “Where to they start from when they hatch? “The Sargasso Sea! “Where is that? “ Bermuda. “Where do they go to grow up? “ Rivers [...]
The Sarsaparilla Trail in winter seemed like just several loops of well beaten pathways and a bunch of greedy Chickadees. The observation dock, scene of so much wildlife activity spring, summer, and fall, looked out over an unbroken expanse of snow over ice. We fed the Chickadees, and then marched out into the middle of [...]
photos by Bill Bowman According to Fred Schueler, Kemptville Creek, just below the dam at Oxford Mills, is the only place in Ontario where our giant aquatic Salamanders can be easily viewed during their winter activity. Searching for salamanders at this site is a regular weekly event for Fred, and he has [...]
Unlike birds, most wild mammals are little seen. Some are nocturnal, some are crepuscular, some are subterranean – and a good many have reason to fear us and hide. But they are here all around us and Gordon Robertson from the OFNC reviewed our local species groups. The meeting was a great success because everyone [...]
by Michelle St-Germaine As I had a milestone birthday last year (I turned 50), I treated myself to a week in Paris alone and spent many hours in beautiful parks, contemplating life. In addition to this trip, I took a retirement course (yes, they exist!) and was pleased that I am on the right track [...]
by John Davidson Tricoloured Bumblebee at work in the FWG's Butterfly Meadow Punch “bees” into your search engine and, within seconds, you'll get a screenful of headlines, something like this: Why are bees dying? Plant flowers to help declining bee populations Could pesticides be limiting the ability of bees to reproduce? We are [...]
Alex MacDonald, of Nature Canada, demonstrated how to find bats using a small hand-held detector. by John Davidson “I can hear one, I can hear one!” The excited cry cut through the night at the same time as the device in the young boy’s hands burst into a cacophony of staccato crackles. This [...]
In planning for today's field trip, we had to make a decision about snowshoes three days ahead of time. During January, daytime temperatures had been at or above freezing for weeks (this being about 6°C above normal), but then the weather had turned cold and added five inches of fresh snow. Would the shrunken snowpack [...]
