On Wednesday January 19, 2022, David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman led a group along the Linear Trail and then into Riverside Park in Cambridge. Here are a few photos from that walk.
On Saturday January 22, 2022, a second smaller group repeated that walk. Here are a few photos.
For the full report on the walks, with many more photos, see David’s blog at The Linear Trail and Riverside Park, Cambridge, ON.
On Tuesday January 11, 2022, David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman led a small group on an all day outing to the Long Point area looking for birds. Due to the lack of open water they didn’t get many water birds, but they certainly got more than a few Sandhill Cranes and Bald Eagles. Here are a few photos from that day.
For the full report on the day, with many more photos, see David’s blog at Waterloo Region Nature Outing to Long Point, Norfolk County, ON.
On Sunday December 19, 2021, David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman led a group on an all day outing along the shore of Lake Ontario looking for birds. Here are a few photos from that day.
For the full report on the day, with many more photos, see David’s blog at A Waterloo Region Nature Winter Outing.
On Wednesday December 8, 2021, David Gascoigne led a group around Columbia Lake looking for birds. Here are a couple photos from that walk.
The high winds on Saturday delayed the second outing to Sunday December 12, 2021. Here are a few more photos.
For the full report on the walks, with more photos, see David’s blog at Waterloo Region Nature Outings, Columbia Lake, Waterloo, ON.
On Wednesday November 24, 2021, David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman led a group along the trails in Hillside Park. Here are a few photos from that walk.
On Saturday November 27, 2021, a second group repeated that walk. Here are a few more photos.
For the full report on the walks, with many more photos, see David’s blog at Hillside Park with Waterloo Region Nature.
On Wednesday November 10, 2021, David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman led a group along the Linear Trail and then into Riverside Park in Cambridge. Here are a few photos from that walk.
On Saturday November 13, 2021, a second group repeated that walk. Here are a few photos.
For the full report on the walks, with many more photos, see David’s blog at Outing for Waterloo Region Nature to Linear Trail and Riverside Park, Cambridge, ON.
On Wednesday October 27, 2021, David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman led a group along the trail at RIM Park. Here are a few photos from that walk.
On Sunday October 31, 2021, a second group repeated that walk at RIM Park. Some of them later made an extra stop at Bechtel Park to look for a Screech Owl. Here are a few photos from that walk.
For the full report on the walks, with more photos, see David’s blog at Two Outings to RIM Park for Waterloo Regional Nature.
On Wednesday October 13, 2021, David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman led a small group along the Mill Race Trail, St. Jacobs. Here are a few photos from that walk.
Unfortunately the second walk planned for the following Saturday got rained out.
For the full report on the walk, with more photos, see David’s blog at The Mill Race Trail with Staunch Naturalists of Waterloo Region Nature.
On Saturday, September 25, 2021, David Gascoigne led a group of 11 people on a field trip to the north shore of Lake Ontario (second of two this month). As usual, David has provided a full report on his blog with lots of photos, so here are just a few of those photos and a link to that report:
On Wednesday, September 1, 2021, David Gascoigne led a group of 8 people on a field trip to the north shore of Lake Ontario (first of two this month). As usual, David has provided a full report on his blog with lots of photos taken by two of the participants, so here are just a few of those photos and a link to that report:
David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman organized five walks along the Mill Race Trail, St. Jacobs during the week of October 25 to 29, 2020, with a limit of four other singles or couples per walk, so that it would be easy to maintain social distancing. Here are a few photos from the various walks.
For the full report on the walks, with dozens of photos, see David’s blog at COVID Walks along The Mill Race, St. Jacobs, ON.
What a wonderful morning the Montgomery Team had on Friday, October 16th! The air was crisp, the sun was shining, and the autumn colours were stunning!
It had been a year since this team assembled at the property as a group because of the pandemic. Everyone wore masks as we assembled to discuss some business before heading onto the property for the work. We discussed the possibility of having the teens’ group come out on a Saturday after our spring clean up to do some garlic mustard pulls and setting tarps to deal with the invasive periwinkle.
As the newbie committee chairperson, I was thankful that this team is such a well-oiled machine! Everyone came dressed, brought tools and equipment, and set off to work.
There were numerous trees which had fallen over sections of our trail that needed to be removed. The whole team also bushwhacked their way through other sections that were overgrown with vegetation over our heads!
The duck boxes are always a highlight of the morning. The west box had two unhatched screech owl eggs and many woodpecker feathers in it. The east box had a collection of feathers and several owl pellets, as well. It is surprising, and a bit disappointing, that there was no evidence of Wood Ducks using the boxes.
Not a single piece of garbage was collected, perhaps a sign that people really are heeding the message to stay home! How lovely to find the property in a “natural” state!
Several birds were heard and seen throughout the morning, including a Downy Woodpecker, several Turkey Vultures, and many Blue Jays. Fraser also pointed out a Greater Yellowlegs on an island outcropping in the river near the bridge. (Apparently it is “Greater” because its call has 3 hoots whereas the Lesser Yellowlegs usually calls with only two!) Thanks for the memory trick, Fraser!
Wayne noticed a large plant and suggested it might be Velvetleaf. iNaturalist agreed with his assessment. A group of us had a conversation about Giant Ragweed. A little further down the path we discovered a small cluster of Giant Ragweed, some with simple leaves and some lobed. There is something to wonder about every day!
As we exited the property, we met 2 people wearing hip waders. I assumed they were there to fish but soon discovered they were working on an environmental assessment of the area as mandated before the reconstruction of the bridge can begin. Dean Fitzgerald is in charge of the assessment and he shared an explanation of the process, some of the findings (like discovering two species of threatened fish under the bridge: silver shiner and black redhorse) and invited questions and comments.
Following our conversation with Jessica and Dean we refreshed with some muffins and cider and headed off after a long but productive morning. Well done, team!
Anita Smith
Fraser Gibson led two small group fern walks on Saturday Oct 3 and Tuesday Oct 6, 2020. Here are a few photos from the Tuesday walk.
David Gascoigne and Miriam Bauman organized five walks on the Linear Trail in Cambridge during the week of September 28 to October 3, 2020, with a limit of four other singles or couples per walk, so that it would be easy to maintain social distancing. Here are a few photos from the various walks.
For the full report on the walks, with dozens of photos, see David’s blog at WRN Teens and COVID Walks.