Jetbead: A new threat to conservation
Mhairi McFarlane with leucospora (Photo by NCC)
Conservation is full of mysteries. Recently, my colleague Jill Crosthwaithe and I found ourselves having to turn to gardening literature in order to identify the many non-native, ornamental shrubs and other plants that we kept stumbling across in...
Off to see the swans! My day out in the field with the National office's birdwatching enthusiasts
Amy Wu, Helen Kim, Rosemary Park, Suzzette Chin (Photo by NCC)
After many cold and wet days of a long winter we woke up to a very sunny Sunday on March 30. A group of "wannabe" lady bird watchers from the National office piled in to one car and drove to Port Rowan to see the swans. None of our job...
Any bird you can spot, I can spot better: My backyard bird bonanza
Chickadee at feeder (Photo by Kaitlyn Finnegan)
As I washed dishes at my kitchen sink I saw a flicker out of the corner of my eye. By the time I looked up, my backyard and the high wooden birdfeeder filled with sunflower seeds were both perfectly still and empty. I looked back to the sink and a...
Clarence Smith's giving nature
Clarence Smith (Photo courtesy of the Smith family)
The deerfly and mosquito whirl was unrelenting under 90 degrees of humidity. I was walking with two land appraisers deep into the Minesing Wetlands. We were wading through waist-high ostrich ferns through a cedar swamp, searching for the...
Making peace with the Scotch pine (I mean, Scots pine)
Young volunteers tackling Scotch pine on an NCC reserve, ON (Photo by NCC)
When it comes to Christmas trees, I am a balsam fir man through-and-through. I like the form, the smell and the smooth, soft needles. I also admit that I am not crazy about Scotch pine, a main alternative here in Ontario. You could say we have...
