A walk through the prairies with Jared Clarke (Podcast)
Aerial view of Fairy Hill South, Saskatchewan (Photo by Shaylee Booty Sebastian)
After work on April 25, I went out with Jared Clarke from The Prairie Naturalist radio show (CJTR community radio) to Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC's) Fairy Hill property. Our conversation starts after we’ve walked down the hill...
Something's Fishy: Little fish, big questions
Pygmy whitefish (Prosopium coulterii) (Photo by John Lyons)
In deep, dark waters all across Canada are ghosts, swimming skeletons and predators but the most mysterious of all are the fish species with an unknown past. Every day biologists are asking and answering the questions posed by nature. Trading in a...
In pictures: Ten years of planting, pulling and birding for conservation
Birders join in on the CV fun in Codroy, NFLD, 2013. (Photo by NCC)
A picture is worth a thousand words. It is a visual representation of a moment in time, captured within a frame, and serves as a memory of an event. In the 10 years of the Conservation Volunteer (CV) program, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC)...
Paradise for daytrippers and stargazers
Star trails over Butala Homestead in OMB at dawn, SK (Photo by Alan Dyer)
Imagine plains so vast and wide that the night sky is flooded with stars and the Milky Way as far as the eye can see. There is one Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property renowned for its rolling grasslands and nightscape: Old Man on His Back...
Look up more
Old Man on His Back, SK, has just been named Canada's second Dark Sky Preserve (Photo by Alan Dyer)
I love the dark. I am that person that perpetually goes around the room and turns off all the lights, so that you, slightly annoyed at the lack of visibility, have to go around and turn them all on again. I’m that person that wears...
Sand dunes that want to be free
Asquith North 3 starts off pretty unassuming, a fairly flat piece of dry grassland, but a somewhat stunted forest of aspen and shrubs hides a transitioning to dramatic sand dunes frozen in place (Photo by NCC)
Asquith North 3, a Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property that abuts Crown land, is one of my favourite places to visit. That’s a little weird for a NCC staffer in Saskatchewan to say because it really isn't good burrowing owl habitat,...
Something's Fishy: The legendary lamprey
The Lamprey, 2. The Pride, 1866 (Illustration by Robert Hamilton)
Anyone who knows me could tell you I’m really into folklore. Fairy tales, spooky stories and legendary accounts of people, places and mystical things have intrigued me for as long as I can remember. I'm also really into fish. So if there is...
A winter hike at Fairy Hill
A winter hike in Fairy Hill. Thanks to whoever placed pink ribbons along the trail. New fencing marks one boundary of the property. Coming down the trail here my footing was sort of “under control.” (Photo by Bill Armstrong)
I wouldn’t say I’m one of those Canadians who heartily embraces winter, but I do enjoy getting out of the city to do some winter photography; at least until my ears and fingers tell me it’s time to retreat into the warmth. Since...
Birdie num nums
Black-capped chickadee (Photo by Paul Turbitt)
You're not going to believe me. I'm going to tell a story with a crazy little hook and you're going to tell me I'm making it up (even after I show you the photos) or making a big deal out of nothing. But it is a big deal, so here goes. A couple...
Fence fighting at Fairy Hill
Fairy Hill, an NCC property in Saskatchewan. (Photo by Gail F. Chin)
I have been photographing in this area called Fairy Hill, which is a Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property, for more than five years. Fairy Hill is 36 kilometres north of Regina on Highway 6. It is one of the most beautiful places in...
