Don Scallen
Don Scallen is the author of Nature Where We Live: Activities to Engage Your Inner Scientist from Pond Dipping to Animal Tracking and Spotted Salamanders and Their World, and the monthly blog "Notes from the Wild."
Beetle Mania
Four beetles among hundreds of thousands, each with a unique story to tell.
Promethea Moths
While most moths release their pheromones after dusk, promethea moth females are an exception.
Red Foxes
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
Vernal pools, like coral reefs, are theatres showcasing life and death struggles between prey and predators.
Flying Squirrels
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
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
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
Tracks inscribed on snow by unseen animals offer tantalizing multilayered puzzles.
Insect Engineers
Football-sized bald-faced hornet nests, hanging from branches, are prominent in the winter landscape.
Burls and Trees on Stilts
The reasons burls grow on trees are still not fully understood, but infection by viruses, fungus and bacteria are likely causes.
Tree Co-operation
The research into the co-operative nature of trees is in its infancy.
Night Creatures
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
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
The annual emergence of mayflies, wherever it occurs, brings predictable responses.
Amazing Beavers
This serendipitous meeting with a near-sighted beaver was my favorite type of wildlife encounter!
Benthic Invertebrates
The abundance of these aquatic larvae in our streams and rivers is a good thing.
Spring Songbirds
May and June herald the arrival of a trio of supremely beautiful tropical migrants: indigo buntings, Baltimore orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks.
The Return of the Salamanders
This year I managed to take video of the underwater breeding of spotted salamanders.
