One of our hoped-for series of field trips for this year is to participate in the annual Credit Valley Conservation’s Butterfly Blitz. This citizen science program is creating a watershed-wide inventory of butterflies. The data you collect will give insights to protect and restore wildlife habitat in the Credit River Watershed. Headwaters Nature were hoping for three field trips, along the lines of the three we had several years ago. While these may still be able to happen in some form or other, as individuals we certainly can participate on our own properties or where it is safe to practice physical distancing. We’ll send more details as the potential easing of lockdown restrictions unfold. In the meantime, CVC is holding three free online training events, on Saturday May 23rd and Sunday May 24th, and on the next Saturday, May 30th. You can register online for these free webinars. CVC is… Read more »
Marvellous stretch of weather, eh? After such a long lush wet growing season, we’re finally having a true Southern Ontario summer that’s straddling the astronomical boundary between Summer and Fall. Highlights of my natural history this summer include the amazing diversity and beauty of fungi produced on one old poplar stump right in by backyard! On a twenty-year-old stump that’s only ever had Dryad’s Saddle, Polyporus squamosus, suddenly beginning in the middle of July and continuing to the present, I’ve had a succession of amazing finds, only one of which I’ve ever seen before! The surprises began with the brilliant yellow Creeping Dog-vomit Slime Mold, Fuligo septica — which is the one find I’ve actually had before in my yard. (It’s actually a slime mold, not even related to fungi, but I hope you’ll excuse my sloppy phylogeny …) Then came a large brownish brown-spored gilled fungus that I’ve not… Read more »
Despite the early April snow, our native plants are showing courage and beginning to grow. Yesterday, I visited the colony of Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus, Aracacae, that grows south-west of Orangeville right alongside a well-travelled road. (You can see the road gravel thrown off the roadside by the snow ploughs in one of the photos.) Skunk Cabbage is a fascinating plant with several quite unusual adaptations to getting an early start in Spring. Its upper parts are capable of generating a significant amount of heat: 15+ Celsius degrees above ambient air temperature! This added heat seems to accomplish several functions simultaneously. It means that Skink Cabbage can literally melt its way through snow. It means that the warmth inside the flower helps keep the early pollinators basking in the extra heat, hanging around and maximizing the chance that they will transfer pollen to the benefit of the plant. It also means that… Read more »
