Percy Taverner Park
by Fenja Brodo Imagine a park named after an ornithologist! Well that is exactly what happened the beautiful afternoon of Wednesday September 24th when a small pocket park was dedicated by Councillor David Chernushenko to the memory of Percy Taverner, ornithologist, architect and a former resident of the neighbourhood – Old Ottawa South. Taverner: New sign for a new park. Michel Gosselin (left) Curator of Birds, CMN and Dr. Mark Graham, Vice President Research & Collections, CMN. [...]
Hatchling Snapping Turtles on the move!
by Dave Seburn Snapping Turtles will never win any prizes for parenting. Females nest by digging a hole in the ground and depositing their eggs in it. They cover the hole and return to the wetland, maternal duties finished. Many of those nests will be dug up by Raccoons or Skunks looking for an easy meal. Some will beat the odds and the eggs will hatch in late summer (typically late August or September). The hatchlings, little more than the [...]
The William J. “Bill” Cody Fern Trail
by Frank Pope On May 31, a new Fern Trail was dedicated at a ceremony in the Backyard Garden part of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. The whole Cody clan was in attendance. Standing (L to R) David Cody, Douglas Cody, Gordon Cody, Margaret Cody; seated Leslie Cody-Durocher Lis Allison, creator of the Bill Cody Fern Trail, receiving special thanks from Isabelle Nicol, head of the Backyard Garden A fern trail at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden was first [...]
Tackling the hardest jobs
by Sandy Garland Yes, it's about dog-strangling vine (DSV) again, our major preoccupation at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden. We're making a bit of progress in some areas and noting that many native species (like walnut trees, goldenrods, and raspberries) are holding their own or even out-competing DSV. But there are places where DSV is so thick and robust, nothing else is growing with it. This Tuesday (August 4), we welcomed another new volunteer, Louisa. After introducing Melanie, Kate, Ted, and [...]
Damselflies and Dragonflies at Petrie Island
by Lynn Ovenden A report on an OFNC excursion led by Gillian Mastromatteo on August 2, 2015 Petrie Island has quiet marshy interior bays, sandy beaches along the Ottawa River and lots of sunny openings in the forest in between. These make it a good place to find a variety of odonates. Gillian was hoping to find Slaty Skimmers, Blue Dashers, and Swamp Spreadwings, and we did - all within view of the parking lot. Blue Dasher photographed by Gillian [...]
The nightshades – deadly and otherwise
by Sandy Garland Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) On Tuesday, while working in the woods, our volunteer group came across a number of nightshade plants of two species. The same week, one of our Friday morning volunteers brought in another nightshade species with little white flowers. All this prompted some focused Googling and this is what I found. From Wikipedia: “Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which includes two food crops of the highest economic [...]
More tree planting
by Sandy Garland Although last Tuesday was one of the hottest days of the year, Ted, Kate, Catrina, Melanie, and Mirko all arrived ready to work. We had decided to plant more trees - not the best time of year for this activity, but we needed to get the trees into the ground where they would be better off than in pots in the nursery. We loaded the wagons up with two Striped Maples and the rest of the Bitternut [...]
Walnuts and dog-strangling vine: a relationship in photos
by Sandy Garland Once upon a time, 4-5 years ago, I pulled out the DSV that was growing under this walnut tree. I put down some newspapers to keep it from growing back (this doesn't really work) and forgot about it. This year, I noticed there is almost no DSV under this tree. The few DSV plants there are small and wilted. Another walnut tree, about the same age as the previous one, but this one has [...]
Maples, butternuts, and bitternuts
by Sandy Garland A fern, planted about 5 years ago along with other woodland species, is now overwhelmed by new growth and species responding to the increased light. The Tuesday group wanted to plant trees - a positive, long-term, satisfying job at any time and much more fun than always pulling things out. I had doubts, because the Old Woodlot is so overgrown with opportunist species taking advantage of all the light to grow to gigantic proportions that [...]