Christine’s walks: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and more
by Christine Hanrahan I arrived at the FWG at 5:30 this morning, a major effort for someone like me, normally a night owl. I'd hoped to hear a dawn chorus of migrants - warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and so on. That didn't happen. Until the sun came up fully, the only birds singing were robins and a few song sparrows, joined by some calling crows and one lone tree swallow twittering over the pond. A green heron arrived just about [...]
Christine’s walks: FWG on 1 May 2013
by Christine Hanrahan Eastern Phoebe It was our first real scorcher of a day at 25 degrees C (anything above 15 C is a heat wave to me). I was expecting to see butterflies, even perhaps a few spring azures, as I've seen them elsewhere recently, but no butterflies showed themselves to me. However, bees were abundant! Bumble bees, nomada bees, various andrenid bees, sweat bees, scores of all of them. They were nectaring on magnolias, scilla, daffodils, [...]
Christine’s walks: Earth Day 2013
by Christine Hanrahan Song Sparrow at our Amphibian Pond Happy Earth Day! It was a great day to be at the FWG, sunny, not too warm, not too cool, just right to bring out all sorts of wildlife. I saw four mourning cloaks today, three around the ash woods, one by the butterfly meadow. Wood frogs were still calling from the pond, not in any great numbers, but it is encouraging that they are there and seemingly more [...]
Garlic Mustard – ecology and control methods
by Christine Hanrahan Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is recognized as a serious invasive plant species in North America. Native to Europe, the plant was brought here by settlers for food and medicinal purposes. It has been present in North America for over 140 years, apparently first recorded in 1868 on Long Island in New York State and in Canada (including Ottawa) in the late 19th century. Since then, it has had a long lag period, sitting quietly, doing nothing, until [...]
Bee boxes, houses, condos, and hotels, Part 2: The photos
by Christine Hanrahan It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words and, bearing that in mind, I am posting some photos of a couple of bee nesting structures. The large nest box made by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada scientists has holes of varying sizes and contains rolled up tubes of paper that can be removed. At the end of summer, these paper tubes would be placed in a container in a refrigerator or unheated building for the [...]
Bee boxes, houses, condos and hotels…
by Christine Hanrahan Our Insect Hotel, photographed by Aroop Ghosh This is a simple overview of various types of accommodations for bees. I won’t be providing instructions for building bee boxes, but I do provide a reference below for the best all-round source for creating different types of bee houses. Much media attention has been given to declining honeybees (Apis mellifera), but less well-known is the decline in many native bee species, such as bumble bees (Bombus) and [...]
Christine’s walks: 8 April 2013
by Christine Hanrahan Willow catkin I am happy to tell you that the FWG's April photo blog is now up and running. I was at last able to drive to the garden (hooray!) and, after an absence of 10 weeks, it felt good to be back. As I got out of the car, the first thing I heard was the wonderful sound of multiple song sparrows singing. There were at least 6 in the BYG and another 14 [...]
Leafcutter Bees
By Christine Hanrahan As spring very slowly chugs its way into our region, many of us find our thoughts turning, longingly, to gardens and gardening. Those of us inclined to create and maintain gardens for wildlife, are also interested in the various things we can do to enhance our site for birds, bees, and other creatures. Bird boxes, bird baths, squirrel houses, roosting boxes, toad houses, and bee boxes are just some of the things that can be installed to [...]
Overwintering butterflies
by Christine Hanrahan Milbert's Tortoiseshell on 27 May 2010 Winter may seem an odd time to be thinking of butterflies, but on your winter walk, you may actually be passing a butterfly or two, without knowing it. How can that be, you may ask? Well, our overwintering butterflies frequently find hibernation sites under loose bark of trees or in crevices, cavities, and even caves. I’ve also seen butterflies emerging in spring from the eaves of old buildings. Many [...]