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Don Scallen

Don Scallen enjoys sharing his love of nature through his writing and presentations. Check out his blog "Notes from the Wild".

These Flora and Fauna Rely On Forests

Sep 18, 2020

Here are six plants and animals, representative of myriad others, that depend completely on forests.

Singing Insects

Sep 8, 2020

You likely won’t see many of these without a little dedicated searching.

Beetle Mania

Aug 4, 2020

Four beetles among hundreds of thousands, each with a unique story to tell.

Promethea Moths

Jul 6, 2020

While most moths release their pheromones after dusk, promethea moth females are an exception.

Red Foxes

Jun 16, 2020

The Georgetown fox family is lucky to be living in an older section of town where yards are spacious and tree filled.

Dispatches from a Vernal Pool

May 5, 2020

Vernal pools, like coral reefs, are theatres showcasing life and death struggles between prey and predators.

Flying Squirrels

Apr 7, 2020

Remarkably, flying squirrels can glide up to 90 metres, though most of their aerial journeys are much shorter.

Where the Moose and the Elk Used to Roam

Mar 24, 2020

Wildlife populations in Dufferin and Caledon have come and gone over the past few centuries, most dramatically since European settlement. Some species have vanished from the landscape. Others have arrived. Now things are changing again.

Otters

Mar 9, 2020

The reappearance of otters in our hills is a hopeful sign that the capacity of our rivers and landscapes to support wildlife is improving.

Animal Tracks

Feb 6, 2020

Tracks inscribed on snow by unseen animals offer tantalizing multilayered puzzles.

Insect Engineers

Jan 10, 2020

Football-sized bald-faced hornet nests, hanging from branches, are prominent in the winter landscape.

Burls and Trees on Stilts

Dec 5, 2019

The reasons burls grow on trees are still not fully understood, but infection by viruses, fungus and bacteria are likely causes.

Tree Co-operation

Nov 12, 2019

The research into the co-operative nature of trees is in its infancy.

Night Creatures

Oct 8, 2019

Most of the nocturnal critters my friends and I find are insects, but spiders, millipedes and amphibians also appear in our flashlight beams.

River World

Sep 16, 2019

The Credit, the Humber, the Grand and the Nottawasaga rivers are home to a lively community of creatures that form a complex, interdependent web of life.

The Flight of the Mayflies

Sep 14, 2019

The annual emergence of mayflies, wherever it occurs, brings predictable responses.

Amazing Beavers

Aug 6, 2019

This serendipitous meeting with a near-sighted beaver was my favorite type of wildlife encounter!

Benthic Invertebrates

Jul 3, 2019

The abundance of these aquatic larvae in our streams and rivers is a good thing.