Spotting wildlife in the city
Coyote pups (Photo by Jason Bantle)
The province of Alberta is teeming with wildlife, and you don't necessarily need to go to a Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) property in order to spot some. Some Alberta towns have reputations as being great places to see the local fauna, and...
Adventures along the Humber River
The Humber River at sunset (Photo by Adam Hunter/NCC staff)
Whenever I stay with my dad and step-mom in Toronto during the spring and summer, I often cycle and walk on the Humber River Recreational Trail near their house. As its name implies, the path goes along the Humber River, a Canadian Heritage River....
Nature Destinations: Alfred-Kelly Nature Reserve
Alfred-Kelly Nature Reserve, QC (Photo by NCC)
The Alfred-Kelly nature reserve is an oasis within an area where residential development is rapidly increasing. The nature reserve is named for an ornithologist who, in 1983, donated his property in Piedmont to Bird Protection Quebec (Protection...
Exploring Elora
Elora Quarry (Photo by Adam Hunter/NCC staff)
Earlier this summer, my friends and I took a day trip to Elora, Ontario, to visit the Elora Quarry and Elora Gorge conservation areas. Elora is a small town near Guelph, about a 90-minute drive west of Toronto. The drive there was very scenic,...
What the heck is a neotenic salamander?
Lemon-yellow prehistoric-looking creature that I later found out to be a western tiger salamander (Photo by Sherry Nigro)
My dad told me about it during a phone call. A neighbour had discovered some weird, not-seen-here-before creatures in his dugout. Bright yellow ones, dark ones, some with frills around their necks like miniature dinosaurs; these creatures were...
A natural misconception
The lake near the campsite (Photo by Logan Salm/NCC staff)
The idea that nature is silent is a lie. Nature is loud, and sometimes obnoxiously so, especially when you’ve been paddling or hiking all day and just want to fall sleep. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll take the sounds of nature over...
Obituary for a curlew
An Eskimo curlew taxidermy is likely the only way to see this species in the flesh nowadays. (Photo taken at the Royal Ontario Museum by Dan Kraus/NCC staff)
It’s probably unusual to think about writing an obituary for a bird. But the story of the Eskimo curlew recently led me to do just that: Eskimo curlew (Numenius borealis), after a long battle with market hunting and habitat loss, passed...
Producing Nature Talks, the podcast (Audio blog)
Voicing the podcast in my home recording studio (Photo courtesy of Tiffany Cassidy/NCC staff)
This is the story of Tiffany Cassidy, the Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC's) national media relations manager, and the lessons she learned while producing a podcast series called Nature Talks. Listen to the audio blog and view the transcript...
Something's Fishy: A whirlwind of a problem
Whirling disease can cause a severe spinal deformity in infected fish (Photo by Colorado Parks and Wildlife)
As I spend most of my free time outdoors, I’ve been fortunate enough to see many great examples of Canadian nature. I have watched a family of deer feeding by a stream in Alberta, seen tracks of several elusive mammal species, such as...
Understanding how roads affect wildlife in the Chignecto Isthmus
Documenting roadkill helps me investigate the interactions between wildlife and roads in the Chignecto Isthmus (Photo by NCC)
Whenever I talk to people about my summer field work, I am often initially met with expressions of disgust or sadness. The knee-jerk reactions are not surprising. I work very closely with everyone’s least favourite summer road trip sight:...
