Wily

Posted January 5, 2018

Here is a trail cam video of a coyote at Laurel Creek. The trail camera has a 2-second delay before it comes on, so I bet another coyote set off the camera, and it captured the second one trailing behind. There were two sets of tracks in the snow. For the two seconds it is […]

Bird list

Posted January 2, 2018

Each year I keep a list of birds seen at Laurel Creek over the calendar year. I usually have a goal for 100 species. Here is my 2017 list: Northern Cardinal Black-capped Chickadee American Crow White-breasted Nuthatch Fox Sparrow Red-bellied Woodpecker Dark-eyed Junco Mourning Dove European Starling Tree Sparrow Canada Goose Tundra Swan Killdeer Red-winged […]

‘Possum

Posted December 13, 2017

Here is a young opossum that wandered around the Laurel Creek Nature Centre a couple of weeks ago.

Good Morning, Deer

Posted October 13, 2017

A doe and two fawns on the lawn at Laurel Creek Tuesday morning.

Anniversary

Posted September 22, 2017

Sunday, September 24th marks the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Laurel Creek Nature Centre. It represents a successful partnership between the Waterloo Region District School Board, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board and the Grand River Conservation Authority. It has been a pleasure to work here for the last 18 years. Happy birthday Laurel […]

Words of Wisdom

Posted September 15, 2017

  A great poem, reproduced with the author’s permission.   On Being A Naturalist By David J. Hawke   They came here today on a big yellow bus, Another class of students that were booked in with us. I had tidied displays and made things just right, They were just off the bus when two […]

Wild Goose Chase

Posted July 20, 2017

Yesterday evening, after a relaxing dinner on the back patio, I gave chase to a wild goose.  Here is how it happened. We live near Laurel Creek (the creek not the Nature Centre) and we we have a couple of parks near our house.  Since the spring there have been at least 4 adult geese […]

Busy Bees

Posted July 6, 2017

At the Laurel Creek Outdoor Ed. Centre, we had a swarm of bees move into a wall on our deck. We tried to be tricky and coax them out, but after a few weeks, decided that a more direct approach was best.   After opening the wall, we found quite a large hive, with perhaps 15,000 […]

What lies beneath…

Posted June 6, 2017

I have always wanted to get underwater video of the Common Snapping Turtle in the pond. Perhaps anticipating egg-laying, she has been hanging around the edges for a few days, so I took the opportunity. Check it out!

The Swarm

Posted May 21, 2017

At the Laurel Creek Outdoor Education Centre, we have 4 hives of honeybees. If your bees are healthy, and there is lots of food for everyone, sometimes the workers begin making new queens (that process is for another post). This is a signal for the old queen to plan for departure. This is just a […]

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