Sparrows, sparrows, everywhere!
Harris's sparrow (Photo by Mhairi McFarlane/NCC staff)
I must admit to having a bit of a soft spot for sparrows. Often overlooked by people, and underappreciated by many, written off as “just” sparrows by birders, or “just” a brown bird by people in general, I think they do...
A pumpkin’s tale – life after halloween
Carved pumpkin (Photo by Ylanite Koppens, Pexels)
The moral of this story is a reminder to people not to discard pumpkins into forests or natural areas and how they can be recycled after Halloween. I, Jill-o-Lantern, remember being so excited when you scooped me up, and chose me over my...
The truth about ticks
Adult deer tick (Photo by Scott Bauer/Wikimedia Commons)
Ticks seem to be everywhere these days. They’re on the news, on your social media feed and maybe even on your skin. People, especially those in southern Canada, are dealing with blacklegged ticks (also called deer ticks) with increasing...
Fighting the good fight: getting rid of garlic mustard
NCC staff tackle invasive garlic mustard (photo by NCC)
Spring on Pelee Island for Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) staff Mhairi McFarlane and Jill Crosthwaite is a bittersweet time, because although the wildflowers are emerging and birds are returning, so too is a nasty invasive plant: garlic...
Dealing with the periwinkle problem
Hand pulling periwinkle (Photo by NCC)
Jill and I did some follow up to some invasive species removal we did last year at Lathrop. Just a few fragments of the very invasive Periwinkle left! We picked them out by hand, leaving the native mayapple, trillium, Jack-in-the-pulpit and...
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...
