to know the land

I was out for a walk along the Eramosa River in Guelph with a pal on New Years Day, when she lifted a log and showed me some strange white patches along it. We both recognized them from our walk a couple of days before. I guessed by the appearance of them, being small, white and silken-like, with many around, that they were likely egg cases of some small invertebrate, but I didn’t know who may hav...

It is nearing the Winter Solstice once more. Only days to go, and that means with the dark nights growing longer, I am spending a little more time indoors. I have been baking, reading, writing, listening to a lot of film soundtracks and just relaxing with friends. This time of year also means the recurring celebrations of the solstice season are upon us again. Story telling, big fires, sharing foo...

I spent the day out tracking, first with a class backtracking a Red Fox ( Vulpes vulpes ) and examining the track patterns and interpreting their gaits, an afterwards, alone, following up a possible Fisher ( Pekania pennanti ) sighting, and instead finding a Coyote ( Canis latrans ) bed and trailing them through a rough hewn White Pine ( Pinus strobus ) plantation. I got to thinking about gifts th...

In 2017 I interviewed Arlene Slocombe for the second time but the first time it was recorded. She was telling the story of a successful event, “Waterstock” where thousands of people came out to support Water Watchers and raise awareness of exploitive water drawing in Wellington county to be sold as bottled water. The harm to the watershed, the incredible amount of plastic garbage, another corporat...

In the later part of the Summer, I was walking with my friend and colleague Tamara when we came across some scat with Apples ( Malus domestica ) in it. I can’t remember what brought it up but she mentioned that she has seen more scats composed mostly of Apple left by Coyotes ( Canis latrans ) rather than by Red Fox ( Vulpes vulpes ). This got me wondering.. who eats more Apples, Coyotes or Red Fox...

Listening to the land, in a very tangible way, can lead to some pretty special moments. Whether it is Black-capped Chickadees ( Poecile atricapilus ) scolding an Eastern Screech Owl ( Megascaups asio ), hearing the thunder heralding a powerful storm, or the waves washing up on the beach, the land speaks to us through sound in thousands of ways. We just have to stop and listen. To wake up early and...

Aside of our human cultural space there is the broad other-than human animal place. A world we exist along with, and yet are still achingly removed from. This wilder edge is always calling out, audibly and silently, with gesture, scent, behaviour and sound. George Bumann has been practicing paying attention to this world in ways that I long to. In his new book, Eavesdropping On Animals : What we c...

As Julie Beeler writes, it wasn’t until 1969 that fungi were taxonomically separated from plants and recognized as inhabiting their own kingdom. There is so much that we do not understand about their taxonomy, their natural history, their functions in their ecosystem, or their medicinal values. With all that we do not know, Julie Beeler’s amazing work, set on paper as the Mushroom Color Atlas draw...

While teaching up at the Lodge at Pine Cove this past weekend we came across lots of tracks and sign. Tons of Sawfly (wasplike insects) cocoons, some leaf miners, galls a plenty, Eastern Chipmunk ( Tamias striatus ) holes and feeding sign, Red Fox ( Vulpes vulpes ) and Moose ( Alces alces ) scat and lots more. But there was one bit of sign that was really annoying me… something I wasn’t sure about...

For the last couple of years, I have been going to Pawpaw Fest which my friend and neighbour Matt Soltys organizes. Matt Soltys, for those listeners who don’t know yet, is The Urban Orchardist . He teaches me about fruit and nut trees and I help him try and sort out which insects are leaving their sign on the trees. But back to the point… Pawpaws. Asimina triloba . A fruit with a comeback story. H...

Jewelweed ( Impatiens capensis ) is a very common, very attractive and conspicuous species on the landscape. We see them often and are probably pretty familiar with the flowers, fruit and form. I see them down by the river, in the understory of thick forests, and sometimes on the edge of wet meadows. I have also been hanging out with them recently in areas which can be called “post-industrial wast...

As an aspiring wildlife tracker I want to know about the signs that animals leave behind. Due to my annoyingly excitable curiosity this includes all animals, and all types of sign. This includes the regurgitated masses of undigested food that makes up a bird pellet. When it comes to pellets, I have found a couple before. Some full of hair, assorted skulls and other bones, feather parts and even a...

While looking into possible Red Wolf ( Canis rufus ) genetics found in a Coastal Louisiana Coyote ( Canis latrans) populations, biologist Dr. Joseph Hinton set a trap. Sadly, when a Coyote, later named LA25M was caught in this trap, his leg was irreversibly damaged. Joe decided to bring this Coyote to a vet and get the leg amputated, an unusual procedure when working with study animals, but possib...

Every year I get the privilege of co-leading a spiritual retreat weekend with the wonderful Greg Kennedy at the Ignatius Jesuit Centre . This year we revamped the “Trees” retreat from a couple of years ago and I switched it up, including a talk on Friday night on “What is a Forest : Of exclusion and of Community”. This wasn’t a talk about a particular ecosystem necessarily. Instead it was an explo...

I have been feeling a little bit distant lately. Like some sort of anxious attachment distant. Avoidant even. While trying to not be too clingy or handsy with the land, I have slipped into a disconnection, being one that just observes but doesn’t participate in the ways that brought me into relationship with so many plants in the first place. I have been feeling this disconnect, and recognizing so...

In the midst of a lowland forest at the edge of town, out for a slow walk with a pal, we heard the calls of Cedar Waxwings ( Bombycilla cedrorum ) and started looking for them. We saw them first in an Eastern White Cedar ( Thuja occidentalis ) tree, as they were quickly making their way towards the South. Then when we turned a corner we got to witness some courting behaviours which somehow reached...

For the past few years I have been going out at night in May to record the calls of American Toads ( Anaxyrus americanus ) and Leopard Frogs ( Lithobates pipiens ) by the Eramosa River. I used to live much closer to the river and I could hear the songs from my window at night. When I heard those songs, I knew it was time to go record, and that the radio show that week was going to be the calls of...

The Eramosa River Valley is the place where I live, play and work. Having spent roughly the last 20 years along the banks of the river, sitting, running, riding, and learning about the lives lived along the shores and walls, there are many days where I just sit back and realize how much I love this place. When I heard about a group of folks who were working to conserve the land as a national urban...

This past weekend I got to participate in my second track and sign evaluation with Tracker Certification North America and one of the most interesting things I learned was some new Earthworm sign which triggered the thought… I really don’t know much about Earthworms (class Oligochaeta), but I want to start digging in. I ended up crawling through all of my books to see what I had on the topic, but...

I have been thinking a lot about the diversity of sexuality and gender in nature. Wondering about how different animals, plants, and fungi present sexually. How do different species mate? What characteristics are considered belonging to one sex, but in reality, may be shared by many sexes? Many sexes? How many are there? Why do some species have thousands of sexes, and some species only have one?...

When I look into the authors who wrote most of the naturalist, ecology, natural history books on my shelves, I mostly see white people, especially the older books. When I do interviews with folks in the field, I still find a majority of those who I am talking with are white folks. I wholly recognize that is on me in a lot of ways, but I also recognize that historically, access to these fields has...

Ok, so this is weird, but I love death. Dying, decay, decomposition, breakdown.. synonyms that sort of warm my heart in a strange kinda way. When I think of death I think of nutrients breaking down into small parts, making it easier for other things to consume and to continue to grow and live. I think of how death makes all life possible. How without consuming things like veggies, grains, fruits,...

This passed weekend I was able to go out tracking with folks at Wiijindamaan where I once again notice the Poplar Vagabond Aphid Gall. And last week, I was having another conversation with folks about the Spruce Pineapple Adelgid Gall. Galls persist through the Winter and into Spring when many of the insects which have created them will begin to emerge. Since now is the time to be keeping an eye o...

Did you know that birds are more closely related to turtles, than turtles are to snakes? I just learned that. Did you know that the scutes on a turtle’s back are made from keratin, the same stuff as our fingernails and Rhinoceros horns? Just learned that one too. Even better, do you know what cloacal breathing is? I bet you do… but how does it work? That’s some of the interesting stuff I got to as...

I just got home from Algonquin Park. I got the privilege to spend the past week tracking Wolves, Moose, Martens, Grouse, Flying Squirrels, and so many other creatures throughout the length of the park. We woke up at 6am every morning and were out by 7, scouting for new trails. When were were through with our day we came back to hit the books and share stories of all that we’d seen. It was magical,...