On May 15th five of us (Janie van Essen, Brian McCulloch, John Hepburn , Susan Ethelston and Patrick Capper)  continued our removal of garlic mustard on the GART, West of Lucknow Line filling five large garbage bags.  While pulling up some garlic mustard at the edge of our property Imore…

On Thursday May 4th five of us tackled the garlic mustard on the GART/G2G between Lucknow Line and Sharpes Creek Line, collecting about  40 lbs which were put into black garbage bags. While returning to our vehicles we saw an Eastern phoebe,( a new species for me), three garter snakesmore…

By the time you read this, an attack on the garlic mustard has been made on the GART/G2G trail between Lucknow Line and Sharpes Creek Line.  While checking for the garlic mustard on a sunny afternoon I saw 35 Midland painted turtles at the ponds just East of Lucknow Line.more…

The cooler weather has meant that I have not seen new species of wildflower recently but flowers such as white trilliums and marsh marigolds are now much more abundant. Again on Tuesday April 25th there was an excellent turnout of 23 Tuesday Trompers  who hiked the Bannockburn Conservation area trails.more…

April weather can be full of surprises and this year was no exception, with a record breaking heat wave quickly followed by some freezing conditions. The hot weather brought out more wildflowers including white and red trilliums, dutchman’s-breeches, wild ginger, blue cohosh and large flowered bellwort all seen before Aprilmore…

Spring has now arrived. I saw my first butterfly of the year, an Eastern Comma, on April 9th on the Front road trail, and on April 12th saw a Mourning cloak butterfly on the Maitland Trail near Bishop’s road. Also on April 12th  I saw a garter snake on themore…

The Maitland Trail Association would like to document the species observed within 10m of the trail, with the spring flowers appearing this is good opportunity to photograph them and submit them to iNaturalist.  There is no cost to join and when you submit a photo the system suggest an identification. more…

Spring is now here. As well as seeing some birds such as Turkey vultures, Sandhill cranes, killdeer as well as the earlier robins, red winged blackbirds and grackles,  some wild flowers are appearing.  I have not only seen snowdrops but also skunk cabbage blossoms.  The spathe – the purplish hoodmore…

There are quite a few trees along the local trails, with burrs (also known as burls) on them.  They are often like ink blots and different people see the resemblance to different things.  They are commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled withmore…