Remembering his cedar canoe
My grandfather's canoe, his pride and joy. Our neighbours out for a paddle in the canoe (Photo courtesy of Asha Swann/NCC intern)
The cedar canoe hanging from my grandparents’ garage roof stands out for good reason. A dusty photo album in the basement with “1993” scrawled in my grandmother’s cursive tells me that this canoe is older than I am, though...
Outside my window: Nature hidden in suburbia
Oblique streaktail on my wild nodding onion plant (Photo by Wendy Ho/NCC staff)
Over the summer, I’ve tried to be attentive and notice the nature in my eight-square-metre backyard. It’s where I can make unhurried observations without the looming thought of hogging the trail from fellow hikers. And you know what?...
Cockroaches and colours: Exercises in attention on Pelee Island
Woodburnings of some my favourite species on Pelee Island: the eastern banded tigersnail, broad-banded forestsnail, and striped whitelip. These snails are all nationally endangered and threatened by a range of factors including climate change, habitat loss and competition from introduced snails and slugs. (Photo by Hashveenah Manoharan/NCC intern)
On one of my first days working for the Nature Conservancy of Canada as conservation intern on Pelee Island, a cockroach had nestled itself into my copy of Mary Oliver’s collection of poems, Devotions. As a lifelong urbanite, my instinct was...
Reflections from 500 days of birds: A story of citizen science
Me and my birding sidekick (Photo by Jodi Elchyshyn)
Following the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic in early March 2020, many of us faced new challenges during these unprecedented times. As a recent graduate and working biologist, I was lucky to be able to work remotely from my apartment in...
Ode to a nature commute – part 4, summer
A bee on wild bergamot plant (Photo by Gayle Roodman/NCC)
This is part four of a four-part series on bike commuting through nature. Read part one – fall here, part two – winter here, and part three – spring here. Silly me, hoping that for part four of this blog I’d be back on...
The Wildflower Blog: Three favourite wildflowers to grow
Bloodroot (Photo by Thomas Noland)
Bloodroot, Dutchman's breeches and Virginia bluebells are three lovely spring-blooming wildflowers that are worthy of any flower garden, not just a wildflower garden. In my garden, its always a race between bloodroot and Dutchman's breeches for...
My best Canada's Parks Day wishes!
Penouille Beach, Forillon National Park, QC (Photo by François Duclos/NCC staff)
It was summer of 1983, or maybe 1984. I was six or seven years old, and this is the earliest memory I have of a national park experience. I vividly remember standing in the cold waters of the Bay of Gaspé, with the water just above my...
The calming effects of natural soundscapes
Birds, wind, rain – these sounds enrich our experience of natural landscapes. (Photo by André Cook, Pexels)
Birds chirping, wind brushing through treetops, the babble of running water — nature’s music is abundant and has long been a source of comfort for humanity. Shakespeare noted the beauty of nature’s sounds in The Tempest: The...
Keep your coffee mug covered: How spongy moths put a lid on my camping trip
A caterpillar crawling on my pants (Photo by Jensen Edwards/NCC staff)
As a west-coaster, I’ve come to relish the soothing splats of raindrops on my tent — so long as, of course, I am dry and warm inside. That sound, that damp smell that steams up from rainforest ferns, they awaken in me memories of...
Wild about chickens
Lacy Mae and Matilda (Photo by LM Neilson/NCC staff)
Today it starts at 5:36 a.m. The rusty cackle slides in through my open window with the early morning light. I pause for a brief second to make sure I really heard the sound before opening my eyes and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. The...
