Notes from the Wild

Without a proper ‘runway’, horned grebes are unable to achieve lift-off, effectively leaving them stranded if they happen to land in small watering holes.

This well-known salamander’s unexplained navigational super-power rivals the precision of our best GPS systems.

In nature, hole digging is replete with meaning, helping countless animals survive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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