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 […]

Bumble Beehaviour

Posted March 13, 2017

There was an interesting experiment in the news recently, where researchers taught bumblebees how to get a treat (sugar water) by rolling a marble into the centre of a circle. Bees were able to do the task just by watching another bee do it first.

Read more about Bumble Beehaviour »

Syrup Season

Posted March 8, 2017

I’m thrilled that it is maple syrup season.  This will be the first week I am working with Al at Camp Heidelberg Environmental Education Centre.  Today was a great day for making syrup.  Warm daytime temperatures after a period of sub-freezing nights, means the sap is flowing!  Our first batch of syrup came off yesterday, March […]

High Water

Posted January 13, 2017

I went down to the bridge at Blair Creek to check out the water level yesterday.  We have had heavy rain overnight two nights in a row.  All this rain caused a significant snowmelt, adding to the pressure on streams and rivers.  As water levels rose, the Grand River Conservation Authority issued a flood watch. […]

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