On April 26, I was extremely surprised and excited to hear a Whip-poor-will calling from the field out behind our house (7th Line Smith & Peacock St. area in Selwyn Township …. near the Otonabee River). It was about 8:45 pm when I heard it, and it “sang” it’s classic Read more…
The ice left Stoney Lake on April 12 this year, which is a little earlier than I had anticipated this year. I have included the dates of freeze-up and ice-out for the past few years. I know I have older records and will send them along. Freeze-up in 2015 was Read more…
On the afternoon of April 23, Sylvia and I went for a walk in the Trent Wildlife Sanctuary. When up on the drumlin, where the Tree Swallow boxes are, we met two young women birders who said they had just seen what they thought was a Northern Mockingbird. Almost on Read more…
One of the greatest gifts you can give a child is a sense of wonder in the natural world and how everything in nature can be explained by science and critical thinking. And nowhere is there a better example of the power of critical thinking than when it comes to Read more…
Spring is springing forth at a rapid pace now – hard to keep up! I was so excited to see a Ruby-crowned Kinglet in the brushy trees near our house this morning -just classic and unmistakable -white eye ring and white wing bars, and he even showed a bit of Read more…
Kids make great amateur scientists. They love to ask “why” questions. “Why is the monarch butterfly so colourful? Why does it start life as a caterpillar? Why does it migrate? Thanks to Charles Darwin, we now understand that questions such as these are entitled to an evidence-based answer – and Read more…
A pair of bearded hen and tom Wild Turkeys photographed April 8 near Peterborough. Doug Gibson
When I used to hear the words ‘brook trout’, the image that came to mind was a pristine lake in Algonquin Park. Well, that image has changed. What I now see is a tiny stream running along Rye Street in this busy commercial and industrial sector of southwest Peterborough. As Read more…
Happy spring! Today, April 4, there were 2 Osprey on the nesting platform in Young’s Point. Most of Stony is still frozen but there were pair of absolutely resplendent Common Loons dancing and calling. Rob Welsh, Stoney Lake This morning, April 5, I heard my first Common Loon (Upper Buckhorn Read more…
Three recent studies point to just how broad, bizarre, and potentially devastating climate change is to life on Earth. And we’ve only seen one degree Celsius of warming so far. Source: The Guardian Author: Jeremy Hance Date: Wednesday 5 April 2017 Climate change is rapidly becoming a crisis that defies Read more…
Source: The Conversation: Academic rigor, journalistic flair Date: April 5, 2017 Authors: Gretta Pecl: Deputy Associate Dean Research, ARC Future Fellow & Editor in Chief (Reviews in Fish Biology & Fisheries), University of Tasmania; Adriana Verges, Senior Lecturer in marine ecology, UNSW Ekaterina Popova: Senior Lecturer in marine ecology, UNSW; Read more…
My wife, Mathilde, spotted a Virginia Opossum in our backyard on the evening of March 24 at around 9:30. We saw the white face and body by the light from our livingroom windows. It was eating a pomegranate that she had set out for some robins. Ralph Colley
On March 23 at about 5 pm, I used a hooting call to lure in this fabulous Barred Owl. To our surprise, a female also showed up. They quickly mated, and then hung around for a bit before going their separate ways. We were in the vicinity of Sandy Lake Read more…
April 2 – I heard a Wilson’s Snipe quietly calling in the marshy area on the Parkway trail, east of Chemong, directly underneath the WalMart parking lot. Also, 3 Northern Leopard Frogs hopping along the new not-yet-opened road that skirts east of the airport as well as 3 Killdeer in Read more…