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Blogs

Borrowed Credit

Mar 4, 2024 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

A recent documentary, “Living on Borrowed Credit”, takes a discerning look at the future of the Credit River and its brook trout populations. 

Five-lined Skinks

Jan 25, 2024 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Ontario’s only lizard species happens to be one that utilises a clever survival tactic — dropping its tail when scared.

Ontario Rattlesnakes and Their Mimics

Jan 8, 2024 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Rattlesnakes in Ontario are largely harmless, save for the Massasauga rattlesnake, the only venomous one in the province.

Three Species That Ontario Has Lost

Dec 6, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

As habitats shrink, these three animals have become ‘extirpated herptiles’ — reptiles and amphibians that are now regionally extinct in Ontario.

Walking Sticks

Nov 6, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Look closely in the forests of Headwaters and you’ll find walking sticks, one of nature’s cleverly disguised doppelgängers.

Caterpillars Darwin Would Love

Oct 12, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

With UV flashlight in hand, strolling in the night-shrouded escarpment woods reveals fantastic caterpillars, some of which glow under a black light.

A Monarch Magnet

Sep 5, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

The sweet nectar of liatris ligulistylis is renowned for its ability to lure monarch butterflies to gardens.

Midsummer Pollinator Plants

Aug 8, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Summer holidays might be halfway over, but the bees are still having a field day thanks to these flowering pollinator plants

Carnivorous Plants

Jul 4, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Plants can be killers too, and in Headwaters we have at least three varieties of carnivorous plants that consume small animals.

Wonderful Warblers

Jun 15, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Naturalist Don Scallen explores the many species of Warblers found in Ontario; though if you want to see them, you’ll have to leave suburbia.

Streamside Salamanders

May 3, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Long-tailed and tiny-legged, these slow moving salamanders face formidable challenges as our urban footprint grows.

Screech Owls

Apr 4, 2023 | Don Scallen | Notes from the Wild

Listen closely for their distinctive vocalizing and you just might manage to catch a peek of these pint-sized predators.