This striking image, taken by José Luis Rodriguez, won the 2009 Veolia Environnement Wildlife photographer of the year competition. The subject is an Iberian Wolf (Canis lupus signatus), leaping over a farm gate somewhere in the Spanish countryside. At the time that the prize was announced in October 2009, Rodriguez has this to say about […]
Category: Nature
Bedbugs, Toronto and Class
photo credit: liz.novack We don’t have a problem with them in our apartment (thankfully), but because of an interest (I guess somewhat similar to gawking when an emergency vehicle goes by) in where they’re found in Toronto, I discovered the bedbug registry and a map of reported Toronto sightings. Now the usual caveats apply to […]
Two minds meet in a parking lot
Haines Ferry Terminal, Haines, Alaska I had just pulled the van into the ferry queue and stepped outside when they arrived: from the tree-tops of the nearby Pacific Northwest temperate rain forest, two Northwestern Crows (Corvus caurinus) glided and landed on the asphalt beside me. Hopping to a stop and quickly re-arranging their wings, they […]
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) […]
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 […]
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 […]
Female Blue Tits use home-made potpourri in nests to to attract males and have healthier chicks
Blue Tit used under a creative commons lisence by Marko_K. Thanks Marko! Blue Tits (Cyanistes caeruleus) nesting on the Medeteranian island of Corsica have been known to incorporate fresh sprigs of aromatic plants, like French Lavender (Lavandula stoechas) into their nest cups. New research ((Aromatic plants in nests of blue tits: positive effects on nestlings […]
Four weeks of Griff
, originally uploaded by Gavatron. The Griffaroo turned 14 weeks this Saturday and we’ve been living with him for the last four of those. When we brought him home, he was certainly very puppy-like and he continues to be: ankle-biting, mouthing and all that good puppy stuff. Compared to Ollie, he certainly was (and is) […]
Double-crested Cormorants self medicate by swallowing stones
Thanks to Flickr member mikebaird for sharing the DCC photo with a creative commons license. A just-published paper suggests that Double-crested Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) in the Great Lakes may swallow stones to reduce the number of parasitic nematodes–and in so doing, are self-medicating. Many birds ingest stones to help with the digestion of physically hard […]
Spring feels around the corner: things are moulting away…
The past two days in Toronto have been warmer than normal, leading to a large snow melt and the promise of spring (and I know it’s a tease, but it’s a nice break from what has felt like an especially cold winter). With spring comes the return of migratory birds, so this research seems relevant. […]