Something's Fishy: The freshwater slasher
Westslope cutthroat trout (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)
When you think about Halloween, spooky species such as spiders with venomous fangs and blood-sucking bats usually come to mind. Of course, Hollywood is often to blame for these misrepresentations of species, with accounts of bats turning into...
Vernal pools (Part Two)
Vernal pool (Photo by Bernt Solymar)
In Part One of this blog I provided a 101 on vernal pools; why this seasonal ecosystem created from rainfall that accumulates in land depressions is so important to wildlife, in particular amphibians. Here I will go into detail about the...
Vernal pools (Part One)
Vernal pool (Photo by Bernt Solymar)
Ecosystems come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from as large as the Amazon Basin to as tiny as your backyard pond. Regardless of their size, ecosystems and habitats provide homes for animals to breed, raise their young, forage and feed. Some...
Something's Fishy: A year underwater
Eastern sand darter, Grand River, ON (Photo by Alan Dextrase/Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) © Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2016
For someone who writes about fish, it is no surprise that when I tell people what I do, it is always prompted by an inquiry about which finned species is my favourite. That’s like asking a mother which of her children she likes...
Life in freshwater country: How helping water helps Canada (Part Two)
Bow Lake, AB (Photo by Sarah Boon)
In Part One of this blog I presented an overview of Canada's freshwater resources and the need to protect them for people and nature. Here I will further explain how today’s problems need new solutions. Over the last year the Nature...
Life in freshwater country: How helping water helps Canada (Part One)
Elbow Lake, Frontenac Arch, ON (Photo by NCC)
If you are Canadian, either by chance or by choice, you probably have a story about water. It might be learning to paddle a canoe, pulling your first fish from the water or standing on the dock on the May 24 weekend with friends, challenging each...
Something's Fishy: Here comes the sun(fish)
Warmouth up-close (Photo by Clinton & Charles Robertson/Wikimedia Commons)
“We rise when the fish do!” exclaimed my grandfather just as I was settling into the guestroom, known fondly as my room-away-from-home, at my grandparent’s house. “When’s that, grandpa?” I called back in...
Eddying out
Our cedar-strip canoe (Photo by CBT/NCC)
I can't remember the first time I ever held a paddle, but I do remember our family's first canoe: hunter-green, its aluminium gunnels were harshly unforgiving on knuckles if I dipped my paddle too close. My knees quickly became criss-crossed with...
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'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...
