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 [...]
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 [...]
The number and range of things to see increases tremendously as spring arrives. We hadn't quite entered our Study Area when a Great Egret flew out of it, big and white against the blue sky, and bucking the strong north wind. Once in, under a little grove of Red Maples we noticed that the leaf [...]
Apr. 8, 2017: Seeing the snow go On our first spring trip to our Nature Study Area, we could have used both snow boots and rubber boots. We tramped through acres of snow still deep enough to go over the tops of rubber boots, but there were also pools of meltwater that proved irresistible. Rubber [...]
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 [...]
There were animal tracks all over the place at the Study Area, but apart from a few squirrels, we really had to search to see anything with fur on it. There were the footprints of all sizes of dogs along the walking/skiing trails, deer tracks crossing those trails, and muddy raccoon footprints leading from one [...]
Our Study-Tree Woods is only 10 acres in extent, yet after 25 years of choosing trees, new Macoun members can still find ash trees and ironwoods that no one else has ever studied before. We spent the morning hours touring all those that current members are following (and picking new ones). One very large White [...]
With warm rain expected, netting aquatic life in our Study Area seemed like a good way to put in our time. At the Sarsaparilla Trail, however, the observation dock has become so closely surrounded by tall stands of Narrow-leaved Cattails (and their hybrids) that little open water was available for our nets. We managed to [...]
