Author: Gavan

Fragmented & Young Forest preferred by Migrating Songbirds

photo credit: Jim Frazier Research published in Vol. 126, Iss. 3, pg. 579 of The Auk has some interesting implications for habitat conservation for migrating bird species here in eastern North America. In short, during Spring and Fall migration, migrants showed no preference for stopover locations based on distance from a continuous, connected (river corridor) […]

Waves

Water & Waves, originally uploaded by Gavatron. We’re back from our annual kayak trip to Cedar Island & Northern Georgian Bay. We had a great trip: Ollie enjoyed himself (as usual) and Griff went on his first kayak trip. Rather than being the crazy puppy that we expected him to be, he cooled down after […]

Black Widow Spiders and Toronto: No Need to Panic

photo credit: snowboard4bradley On July 22nd, 2009, The Toronto Star reported that two Northern Black Widow spiders (Latrodectus variolus) have been found in the GTA within the last year. This shouldn’t be news, as the article itself outlines that these spiders have been found throughout Ontario over the “past decades” but the reporting in the […]

One week, two confrence-esques

photo credit: jnthnhys I’m in la belle provence for the next seven days attending & presenting at the 5th World Environmental Education Congress and participating in the 10th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research (you can read more about the outcomes of the 9th seminar). The congress is during the latter half of the […]

Why are people intrigued about Dolphins protecting Chinese ships from Somali pirates?

A recent story, that appears to have originated on Chinese news radio and picked up by Xinhuanet, suggests that thousands of dolphins helped protect a Chinese ship from attacking Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Best line in the whole thing: The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their […]