By Ted Farnworth Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), The Royal Ottawa, and TD Bank. What do they have in common? Well, each of them has volunteer groups that have recently come to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden to help us. Our regular volunteers do a great job, but we are always happy to have groups come out [...]
by Christine Hanrahan Originally posted in May 2011 About 5 years ago, I discovered an aggregation of Andrenid bees nesting on the north slope of the Amphibian Pond. At that time they were in one location only. The next year I went back to the pond in early spring, hoping to find them. It wasn't [...]
by John Davidson Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum) The Fletcher Wildlife Garden is included in one of the nine best gardens in Canada to visit, according to travel writer Katharine Fletcher. The article features several highlights in and around the Central Experimental Farm. About FWG, she writes, "Immediately adjacent to the Arboretum find the [...]
In recent years we have run a joint field trip with the OFNC at Brewer Park, introducing neighbourhood children to the aquatic life of the river-side pond. In the usual pattern, kids caught frogs and crayfish; they were put on display in an open-air aquarium and then released in a safe zone. Our member Niccolo [...]
by Sophie Roy On May 20, 21 birders enjoyed the bird life of Gatineau Park, with leaders Justin Peter and yours truly. Photo by Norbert Haché The group started the day off well with two Black-Billed Cuckoos calling at the meeting point, at P8. After birding the parking lot we headed to the nearby [...]
We had no sooner settled in for our meeting when a late arrival reported that the Mourning Dove just outside the door was feeding its nestling. Everyone rushed out to watch. The bird had started building her nest during one of our meetings, and is so used to people she wasn't perturbed at all. Macouners [...]
by John Davidson Michelle and other volunteers planted 1100 native plants on the south side of our pond today. One of the highlights of Fletcher Wildlife Garden—the Amphibian Pond—has undergone a major, and necessary reconstruction since last fall. Over the years, the pond had become a victim of invasive plant species which had [...]
Birds were singing — we heard a Winter Wren, Ovenbird, and Northern Waterthush. Biting flies were out, and we had recently emerged Black Flies in our faces, but they weren't quite biting yet. We directed out attention to a much neglected corner of our Study Area — the far southwestern corner, in fact. The small [...]
By Ted Farnworth Environmental Commissioner Dr. Dianne Saxe (right) talks with Ted Farnworth, Sandy Garland, and Diane Lepage at the FWG On Monday, May 9, the Ontario environmental commissioner, Dr. Dianne Saxe, did a walking tour of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. FWG volunteers Sandy Garland and Ted Farnworth, along with Diane Lepage (OFNC [...]
May 6, 2017: Nature-art workshop As the end-of-May deadline for Little Bear contributions approaches, we all sat down to sketch and draw creatures that appeal to us. Some members flipped through bird books, one used a field-trip image on Rob's laptop as his model, and Rachel called up a picture on her smart-phone. Niccolo drew [...]
