Fungi have great names – turkey tail, pigskin poison, honey mushroom – and come in all shapes and sizes
My local nature club recently hosted a mushroom walk. No, that’s not where you take your pet mushroom for a walk. We visited some trails in central Ontario looking for different types of mushrooms, poisonous and edible. We weren’t foraging so we left the woods as we found them, although many others go to local…
Don’t be afraid to enjoy nature – just do it on their terms and with their survival in mind
With COVID-19 an overriding part of our lives, many folks have begun to see and appreciate nature like never before. Whenever we encounter nature, and while our actions may seem harmless, they might be dangerous to wildlife. Wildlife can be negatively impacted by what we do and how we do it. Having studied wildlife most…
I bought some hardware items the other day. The plastic wrapping outweighed the things I was buying
A few columns ago I started a dialogue about climate issues and how we could, and should, react to them. I become more confused than enlightened as I strive to learn more about the issue and the proposed solutions. I have a few questions that trouble me: If we should reduce our dependence on fossil…
Fires are a form of selective harvest
The media is abuzz with the devastating wildfires in western and central Canada and across parts of Europe. Tens of thousands of hectares and countless lives and families have been impacted. As you read on, please don’t think for a moment that I’m uncaring for those affected. But is there an upside to these fires…
One might find a shrewdness of apes, a congress of baboons, or an obstinacy of bison
Often we struggle to name a group of animals when we see several feeding or playing together: Was that a bunch of birds or a flock of felines or a gambit of gnus? Actually, it’s none of those. I decided to compile a list of as many names as I could find for as many…
Insects reduce their functions so only essential processes work: respiration and waste elimination
I know it’s still summer but soon it will get colder and things will be radically different. Sometimes I wonder where all the bugs go in the winter. Seems a bit silly but they’re out there somewhere all winter – at least most of them. But where are they? Insects and their allies (e.g. spiders,…
The wolf came within 25 metres and stared at me as if looking through me, then trotted back into the bush, satisfied that I was neither tasty nor a threat
The eastern grey wolf is a mysterious animal that evokes different emotions in us. How you react comes down to how much time you’ve spent with them or, more importantly, how much time you’ve taken to learn something about them. I’ve always revered them, having had several close encounters over the years. Each has left…
Only the female mosquito seeks a blood meal. She needs to penetrate the skin of warm-blooded mammals to get her meals
As a naturalist, I wonder about things – sometimes obvious things, sometimes odd things but always interesting things. Today’s thought surrounds interactions with insects, their kin and other critters that on occasion negatively interact with us. People often claim to have been bitten by an insect. “That mosquito just bit me!” But did it? Or…
Insects are already in serious decline throughout the world, so killing insects for the sake of killing them seems ill-advised
This seems to be a good year for gypsy moths and a bad one for people who love trees. Have you never seen a gypsy moth? This might be the best time to find them. Look for a light to dark brown, medium-sized moth flying in a seemingly erratic way. These are the males. They’re…
Cats have contributed to the extinction of 33 species worldwide
What a lovely sight! Look at Patches as she heads out for her morning jaunt in the fields near her home. How cute is she as she tiptoes through the dew-drenched grass, trying her best to keep her paws dry? Millions of cats do exactly this every day, and the outcome is always devastating for…