Hide and seek in the city: Exploring Toronto's plants...with my phone
Using a smartphone to identify nature (Photo by Pixabay)
Having been on the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s (NCC’s) editorial team for a few years, I’ve read countless stories from field staff and guest bloggers of various expertise. My job has nurtured my curiosity for animals and made...
Magnificent bryozoan
A jelly-like mass submerged in the canal near our garden. (Photo by MaryLin Howard Photography)
It was early October in the beautiful little hamlet of Shrewsbury, Ontario. My husband and I were doing some autumn cleanup in our flower garden, under a large willow tree on the bank of a canal. We noticed that some branches had fallen into the...
Private land conservation: Another option
One property that I helped monitor this summer stood out from the rest, with its old-growth forest and fern-covered forest floor. (Photo by NCC)
As this past summer’s Nova Scotia conservation engagement intern with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), I was given the opportunity to explore the province from one tip to the other, seeing parts of the province I had never seen...
Living out my passion for conservation
Brock Hussey (Photo by NCC)
I have always had a passion for nature, like many people in the conservation field. Growing up, I was always outside, surrounded by nature, observing the plants and animals around me. It wasn’t often you would find me without my eyes glued...
Making friends with the solitary bees
Blue orchard bee (Photo by Robert Engelhardt)
When you think of bees, your mind probably goes to honey, hives and stingers. But what if I told you that there was a species of bee, native to the Saskatchewan prairies, that didn’t make honey, live in a hive or (usually) sting? Mason bees...
Ain’t no mountain high enough
Hikers in Happy Valley Forest, ON (Photo by NCC)
So, you’re the master of hiking up hills in the Greater Toronto Area, are you? You take the stairs over the escalator at the shopping mall. You’ve conquered the stair climber at your local gym. Perhaps you’ve even climbed the CN...
The land is our identity
Treaty 4 territory, Qu'Appelle Valley, SK (Photo by Dane Roy)
Indigenous Peoples have lived on, cared for and maintained relations with the land we now call Canada for thousands of years. Their relationship with the land isn’t just one of sustenance and livelihood; it also encompasses a deep sense of...
Paddling through the “Everglades of the North”
Kayaking through the canopy in the Minesing Wetlands, ON (Photo by NCC)
It’s a foggy spring morning, quiet and still, not a whisper of wind in the air, and you’re paddling through a forest of silver maple, hackberry and bur oak trees. The canopy above is perfectly reflected in the glass-like water, which...
Best places to bird in Ontario: Pelee Island and NCC’s natural areas
The burrowing owl is the bird that really started it all for us on Pelee Island. On a whim back in April 2008, we decided to bird on the island, and, incredibly, found a burrowing owl. (Photo by Mike Burrell)
We had an interesting first visit to Pelee Island back in September 2001, where we “dipped” (missed) a trio of wood storks that had been on the island the entire summer, only to have had them leave the evening before we managed to make...
Alvar explorations of a wandering biologist (part two)
Esme on the alvar in Malham Cove, U.K. (Photo by Esme Batten/NCC staff)
In part one, I explained what alvars are, where they occur and their importance. Now, I talk about my alvar explorations in the U.K. On Boxing Day in 2018, I set off early in the morning from Cornwall, in the southwest end of the U.K., to drive...
