Notes from the Wild

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.

These plants can switch genders throughout their lives in response to growing conditions.

Twenty times more admirals than normal are moving into the province.

The next day spring peepers, chorus frogs and wood frogs heralded the early spring from sylvan pools.

There are probably more deer now than there were before European settlement.

Most of our butternuts are dead or dying, stricken by a fungal disease called butternut canker.

Help the turtles by signing a petition being circulated by Friends of Ontario Snapping Turtles.

Cardinals appear at feeders most frequently at dusk and dawn. Perhaps during the twilight hours they are less visible to predators.

A lovely shrub that waxwings find irresistible in late fall and early winter is a native holly called “winterberry”.

Our rural roads and historic schoolhouses may have ended up as dull as suburbia in the fall.