What paths are for …
We mow narrow paths in the no-mow lawn (the "mead") so that the outdoor staff can easily get around in their constant search for a snack ... Download a FREE book 1001Species: A Natural History of a Small Town
Never-Mow Update … 25 May
No-mow May has taken off it seems judging by the dandelions seen on lawns as we walk around town - there have even been areas of parks that so far have remained longer than tradition dictates and at the council meeting earlier this year two councillors extolled the virtues of not mowing [...]
Today’s Visitors
Having established (see the previous post to this journal - LINK) overnight that the new trailcam records nighttime visitors in the dark, I set it up by the waterfall for a few hours during the day - here are some video highlights of the birds that dropped by the waterfall in the [...]
Creatures of the Night
New ventures in neighbour-watching ... four footed, furry neighbours. A member of an on-line naturalist group from Ontario recently posted some splendid trail-cam images of deer and other wildlife at a vernal pool. Inspiration was sparked. A few years ago, ten perhaps, we had purchased a trail-cam to watch birds visiting our garden [...]
Mining Bees – first of the year
Temperatures a bit above 10C in the past couple of days and some warm sunshine produced the emergence of a number of tiny bees busily investigating leaf litter and Sanguinaria and crocus flowers near the garden waterfall this afternoon ... the camera and I went outside to meet them. These bees are a [...]
Hydro-“engineering” the Pond
20+ years ago when we were new here, I would come home from work each day in late summer and spend an hour digging a hole for a pond in the garden and heaping up the excavated spoil into a hill for the eventual creation of a waterfall. I had not realised [...]
First shoots of Sanguinaria –
The first shoots of Sanguinaria (Bloodroot) have appeared in the last 24 hours. Very soon the flowers will open and after that the Cigar" will unfurl to reveal the leaves.
Raccooning
We were visited by a couple of raccoons in the garden, one barely being impeded by next door's fence which it scaled without effort. The other passed through to investigate what we had, digging several holes with its busy little paws as it went. The sludge on the bottom of the only partially [...]
The Episodic Garden (15 April)
Now we are in the middle of April the days, and most nights, are above freezing - albeit not by much today. There is up to 15cm of snow currently forecast for next Tuesday, but if it arrives it won't stick around long as the forecast is for somewhat warmer days afterwards. [...]
Birds at Lunch (Video)
In the recent snows we have had a lot of "winter finches" visit the garden. There are still photos in a separate post on this journal but here is a brief video of a Common redpoll interacting with American Goldfinches at one of our feeders.