Restoring eels in the Ottawa River (Feb. 25, 2017)
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 that empty into the Atlantic Ocean. Macoun members who have been around long enough already knew the answers because we had heard about eels from [...]
Another sign of a warming climate (Feb. 18, 2017)
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 The Big Pond. The snow out there was completely unmarked by humans, animal tracks, or even the touch of recent winds, and when we sat [...]
Mudpuppy night for the OFNC
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 records dating back to 1984. On Saturday, 18 February, OFNC members joined Fred and Aleta from 7 to 10, wading in the cold [...]
Mammals of the Ottawa area (Feb. 11, 2017)
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 – our speaker, our leaders, and our members – has had memorable experience with one or more of our local mammals.
How I got my Zen on
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 financially. However, I found out that successful retirement planning also includes planning how I want to spend my time. What do I want to DO [...]
The plight of the bumble bee
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 all aware of the crucial role bees and other pollinators play in the plant world. And we are growing aware of the perils these species [...]
Communing with bats at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden
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 was the first time he, or any of the other 20 or so people around him, had ever “heard” a bat. “But you can’t hear [...]
To use snowshoes, or not? (Feb. 4, 2017)
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 underneath have frozen hard enough support our weight? Rob went out and walked around enough to judge the situation. He found that he could walk [...]
Winter on the James Bay Road (Jan. 21, 2017)
If you wanted to see Woodland Caribou in the wild, how could you do it? They have been pushed so back into the far reaches of Canada that in most places you'd have to fly into some northern community. But there are one or two places where you can also drive into the north. It's a long drive, but Mary Beth Pongrac set out from Ottawa in mid-December to drive the James Bay Road, a 2400-km round trip into northern [...]