Something's Fishy: Redheads unite
Copper redhorse (Illustration by Jan Sovak, 1989)
Growing up, I hated my hair colour. I was teased relentlessly, often wishing I was more like my light-haired classmates and the kids lucky enough to be born brunettes. My mother would tell me how fortunate I was to be different, but as a kid the...
Tracking wood thrush through Ontario forests
Adult wood thrush at her nest (Photo by Sue Hayes)
Each year, the wood thrush travels thousands of kilometres from its over-wintering habitat in the tropical regions of Central America to its breeding habitat in forests throughout southern Ontario. This medium-sized songbird, like many other...
Lakeside daisy: The yellow jewel of spring
Lakeside daisy (Photo by Charles Peirce)
There is nothing quite like witnessing the beauty of flowering lakeside daisies across an alvar in early June. This brilliant yellow member of the aster family is found almost exclusively on the alvars of the Saugeen Bruce Peninsula and southern...
Heard it from a Scout: The business of bees
Female squash bee on a male pumpkin flower (Photo by Margaret Chan)
Everything in our world is connected. So when you get a group of species dying at an extremely rapid rate, such as bees, it not only affects them, but humans and other species too. Pollinators provide a monumental impact on wild plants and crops,...
Canada's role in preventing species extinctions
Greater sage-grouse (Photo by Gordon Sherman © Audubon Canyon Ranch)
One of the most powerful tools of nature conservation in the 21st century is our ability to put the protection of Canadian species into a global context. By documenting Canadian species that are not just rare in Canada, but rare everywhere, we can...
Something's Fishy: Shock me like an American eel
American eel (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
The electrofishing boat gently rocked against the current of the water below. It was a scorching summer day in late August on a tributary in Lake Ontario, and no amount of SPF could have saved my freckled shoulders from the sun’s...
The wonderful world of sparrows
House sparrow (Photo from Wikimedia Commons)
When asked to picture a sparrow, I think a lot of us, especially city dwellers, think of the common house sparrow. Though ubiquitous across southern Canada, this little sparrow is not actually native to North America. This introduced species hails...
A species' international highway
White-tailed deer (Photo by Lorne)
Humans aren’t the only creatures on Earth that need to get around. Animals in the wild have to travel as well, some to migrate, some to hunt and others to find mates. And that explains the importance of the Frontenac Arch, a...
Cracker Jack and caribou: Are we failing Canada’s species at risk?
Black-footed ferret (Photo by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Mountain Prairie)
I lost my Cracker Jack wildlife cards sometime in the 1980s, but the images printed on the cards are still vivid in my mind. The small cards came wrapped in clear plastic and featured a holographic image of a wildlife species in danger. I can...
True North: A look at the NCC Magazine Winter 2017 issue
NCC Magazine Winter 2017
The winter 2017 edition of the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) Magazine — the cover adorned with a mother polar bear rambling toward the camera, with two cubs trailing behind — arrived in my mailbox on one of the...
