Don Scallen

Milksnakes, a threat to no one except Mickey and Minnie.

Green frogs sometimes strike out cross country in search of new ponds and new environments, boldly going where no frogs have gone before!

Cowbirds, if unlikely to garner much human sympathy, are fascinating creatures.

Take time to notice the fox, white-crowned and white-throated sparrows.

The flight of the timberdoodle should continue through April and can be witnessed at dawn as well as dusk.

Humans have long had a love-hate relationship with these ingenious creatures.

The heart-gladdening beauty of early wildflowers is a signal all is right in the woodland. Which one is your favourite?

The redpoll feeding etiquette is decidedly boorish; they jostle each other rudely for favoured perches on the feeders.

Chickadees are consummate risk takers and they pack a lot of smarts into their tiny bird brains.

Hairy woodpeckers brandish large dagger-like beaks; the beaks of downys are smaller and more chisel-like.

Opossums, having migrated north are also unlikely winter survivalists. Naked ears, feet and tails slough off frozen fragments during our harsh winters.

Many ferns boast exquisite form and are splendid photographic subjects. Seeking them is a fine excuse for a late season ramble.

Denuded and sterilized, the land waits sullenly for the homes and strip malls that characterize the inexorable expansion of Brampton.

Like everything in nature, mimicry is complex and nuanced.

Dragonflies have been on Earth an incredibly long time, way before the appearance of the first dinosaurs.

Giant swallowtail caterpillars are branded as “orange dogs” in the American south because they eat the foliage of citrus crops including orange trees.

Bobolinks, though, are only one patch in the quilt of the glorious grassland ecosystem that exists at the Forks.

Moth communication hints at the wealth of cryptic messaging all around us.