Banner Start to Maple Syrup Season

Posted March 21, 2011

The Laurel Creek Outdoor Education Centre has surpassed last year’s maple syrup production already, and we have tanks of sap yet to boil. In a normal syrup season (March 1-April 10-ish). we usually produce 150 litres of syrup. Last year was our worst year ever with only 58 litres made.  So far this spring we have made […]

Spring is Here!!

Posted March 20, 2011

Spring arrives today, March 20, in southern Ontario at 7:21 p.m.  Although the season will have officially begun, we can expect a few last wintery blasts before shorts and t-shirts replace the long-johns and wool socks in my dresser drawers. The vernal, or spring, equinox is the date on which the sun is positioned directly […]

March Break Maple Syrup

Posted March 20, 2011

It was a busy week in the Camp Heidelberg OEEC maple sugar bush. A few frosty nights followed by warm sunny days stirred the sap to rise in the trees. Our boots now sink into the wetness of the fall leaves, exposed by the rapid melting of the snow that just days ago blanketed the […]

Some more signs of spring

Posted March 10, 2011

Just a couple of spring items to carry you through the rainy day… Yesterday I saw my first Groundhog of the spring, we had 2 male Red-bellied Woodpeckers courting a female, and Red-winged Blackbirds are now back in good numbers – Song Sparrows and Common Grackles should not be too far behind. I have also […]

Winter Break-up!

Posted March 2, 2011

With the fluctuating temperatures we’ve seen this week I am eagerly awaiting the break-up of ice here at Banister-Wrigley Lakes. I am a big fan of citizen science, programs where ordinary people can make observations that get used for real science (see previous posts by Al and Peter about ebird and Journey North for an […]

Sweet Spring…

Posted February 27, 2011

Tomorrow we tap the trees – it’s maple syrup time!!  Both the Laurel Creek and Camp Heidelberg OEECs run maple syrup programs for grades 1, 3 and 6 classes. Waterloo County, with our Mennonite and agricultural heritage, has the distinction of having more maple syrup producers than anywhere else in the world.  Just drive the […]

Wouldn’t you know it…

Posted February 24, 2011

[soundcloud width=”100%” height=”81″ params=”secret_url=true” url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/11052139?secret_token=s-9FyFw”] No sooner had I created the post about the red-bellied woodpeckers being missing in action, we located one down at the forest feeders.  It was literally a half hour between pressing “Publish” and re-discovering this long-lost friend.  A group of grade 6 students studying Biodiversity were doing a black-capped chickadee […]

RBWP MIA

Posted February 23, 2011

It’s been weeks since I’ve seen her, or either of the two “hims”. As of today, I officially declare MIA (missing in action) my RBWP (AOU – American Ornithologists’ Union abbreviation for the red-bellied woodpecker). Since November I’ve had 2 male and one female red-bellied woodpeckers at my feeders at Blair. They are beautiful birds […]

Carden Birds

Posted February 19, 2011

A burst of posts about northern shrikes begun by Sean led to a comment by our friend Fraser Gibson about the endangered loggerhead shrikes that nest on the Carden Plain near Orillia, and my own visit there last summer. This barn swallow was photographed on a rainy day last July from the blind constructed for […]

Remember this one, Al?

Posted February 18, 2011

Around the same time as indicated in the post below – 1999 or so – I took Al and another friend for a walk out along the Grand River at the end of Zeller Drive. I had been seeing a shrike fairly regularly at a spot on the drive there. As we approached that spot […]

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