Monarch butterfly habitat selection
Monarch butterfly (Photo by A. Dabydeen)
The monarch butterfly is one of the most recognized and loved insects in the world. It is known, in part, for its phenomenal migration from its Canadian breeding grounds to overwintering sites in the mountains of Mexico. Unfortunately, the...
Atlantic Salmon: Lake Ontario’s ghost fish
Atlantic salmon jumping in Humber River (Photo by Tom Moffatt/ASF)
The Atlantic salmon is usually associated with Canada’s east coast, where declining populations of the species have inspired conservation efforts by the Nature Conservancy of Canada, as well as Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Historically,...
O’Canada! Culture of the wilderness: A day at the NCC Nebo property
Overview of the Nebo property, SK (Photo by Gail F. Chin)
Nebo, some 70 kilometres due west of the city of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan is the largest and northernmost property recently acquired by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). This is an interesting acquisition, as it is located in the...
Starry, starry nights and big-eared bats
NCC Magazine Summer 2016 issue (Photo by NCC)
When I received the Summer 2016 issue of the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) magazine the cover photo had me wishing I was somewhere else, specifically the Old Man on His Back Prairie Heritage and Conservation Area, a flagship NCC property in...
Let's make a toast to stopping feeding bread to birds
Mallards — male on the left, female on the right. (Photo by Pia Vahabi/NCC staff)
Junk food is great, but I bet you wouldn’t eat it every day for a week, at the risk of feeling terrible at the end of it. You know it tastes good but it lacks nutritional content and I’m pretty sure parents don’t want to feed...
World Listening Day 2016: Sounds Lost and Found
World Listening Day 2016 (Photo by World Listening Project)
Each year since 2010 the World Listening Project (WLP) has invited people around the globe to participate in World Listening Day. July 18 was selected because it is the birthday R. Murray Schafer, the renowned Canadian composer, educator and...
NCC's new Happy Valley Forest Hike Series
Participants listen in as Todd Farrell talks about the plants in Happy Valley Forest (Photo by Evelyn Senyi)
City, meet nature “How far do you think we are from Dundas Square?” It’s an odd question that Todd Farrell, coordinator of conservation biology in central Ontario for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), poses to a group of...
O'piping plover where art thou?
Group shot at the Mather Lake census (Photo by Gail F. Chin)
2016 marks the 5th international census of the piping plover population. Recently, I joined the Saskatchewan chapter of the Nature Conservancy of Canada in a two-day count at Mather Lake and Shoe Lake West in an area of central southern...
Where are the monarchs?
Monarch butterfly (Photo by André Sarrazin)
Even as we delve deeper into the mysteries of the monarch butterfly’s migration, we still know very little about its breeding habits in the northern part of its range. To get to the bottom of the mystery, a group of experts has gotten...
Getting down at the Yellow Quill Prairie
The Yellow Quill Prairie Preserve on a sunny day (Photo by Diana Bizecki Robson)
Last week I started my field season by getting down on my hands and knees to collect plants and pollinators at the Yellow Quill Prairie Preserve south of Brandon, which is owned and managed by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. While that may not...
