January 2010 sightings

Just a quick reminder: our special full-day extra event is this weekend! So hope to see everyone there. Please remember to bring lunches, warm clothes, and a mug for hot chocolate.

And without further ado, our sightings from last month's meeting (a fabulous winter list):

• snowy owls
• crows
• red-tailed hawk
• American bald eagle
• winter crane flies
• spiders
• coyote
• hawk
• deer
• screech owl
• great horned owl
• cooper's hawk
• sharp-shinned hawk
• long-eared owl (roadkill)
• red-bellied woodpecker
• pileated woodpecker
• downy woodpecker
• hairy woodpecker
• midges
• wild turkeys

Awesome work, Young Naturalists! Keep your eyes open as spring starts creeping up on us!

big plans for January and February!

Happy new year, everyone! Today is a beautiful sunny, wintery day and I hope everyone's getting a chance to spend at least a little of it outside. Even if it is just for shoveling.

A couple of important notes:

1. Our next meeting is coming up on January 30 at 10am. Hope to see everyone there, especially since Gabe Camozzi from Ontario Nature is going to be joining us. He'll be telling us about the planned Youth Summit on Biodiversity, the Youth Writing and Art Contest (check out the link! it's very cool for Grade 7 and 8 students) and other opportunities for young naturalists to get involved. Because Gabe will also be talking about opportunities for kids who are 12 and older, please invite and bring along any nature-loving teens you know who would be interested. We'll all be going outside for some wintery fun, so dress warmly!
2. Again, courtesy of Ontario Nature, there's a big activity day planned for Saturday, February 20, hopefully located at the Valens Conservation Area. Guelph Junior Naturalists and Hamilton Junior Naturalists will also be there, and some of the proposed activities include: snowshoeing, animal tracking, shelter building, and maybe even ice fishing. This is a fabulous opportunity to visit a new natural area, meet some great young naturalists, and to get to do some activities we might not be able to do at Laurel Creek. Please RSVP via comments or email to Kiirstin. If you have any questions, let me know or ask Gabe at the meeting on the 30th!
   

Looking forward to seeing everyone, with your December and January sightings, on Saturday, January 30!

KWFN YN Fall Bird Count 2009

Here's the count numbers for our Fall Bird Count at the last YN meeting. Good spotting, everyone! We did really well. In total, we saw 17 different species of birds, and 124 individual birds, which is excellent!

American crow - 31
American goldfinch - 1
American robin - 14
Black-capped chickadee - 16
Canada goose - 2
Downey woodpecker - 3
Eastern phoebe - 1
European starling - 3
Golden-crowned kinglet - 5
Great blue heron - 2
Great egret - 1
Gull sp. - 36
Mallard - 21
Nuthatch sp. - 2
Ring-billed gull - 1
Red-tailed hawk - 2
Song sparrow - 1

Excellent work, birders! Thanks for your help.

Bats: Not So Spooky!

In the spirit of the spooky season, I give you: bats! Traditionally associated with vampires and Halloween, sucking blood and getting tangled in human hair, I know I don't have to convince you Young Naturalists that bats are extremely awesome and not at all scary once you know a little bit about them.

The Hinterland Who's Who website has a great fact sheet about bats, plus cool video clips, and even instructions on how to build a bat house. Check it out!

A couple of cool things I learned:

• Canada has 19 recorded species of bat, 17 of which are regular residents
• Bats can live to be over 30 years old! Ontario has the record for the oldest in Canada: a 35 year old little brown bat.
• Canadian bats typically eat somewhere between 50% and 100% of their body weight in insects every night.

Enjoy! And have a spooky and safe Halloween.

flying squirrels: September 2009 program summary

For those of you who were not able to make it to the first meeting in September, Kristina has very kindly written up a summary of events!

***

Young naturalists from Laurel Creek and Guelph along with their parents and leaders gathered in the Laurel Creek Nature Centre. The air was full of excitement, and kids rushed for front row seating as soon as the lights dimmed. Steve the “Crazy Flying Squirrel Guy” as he introduced himself began his presentation for the eager audience. He told a story, explaining that he thought everything important had already been discovered, but if you just sit quietly in the forest, you can learn new things just by observing. When it came to introducing the stars of the night, his flying squirrels, he let the kids guess at where they were. He surprised the audience when he declared they were in his shirt. Shrieks and giggles of delight came from the younger part of the crowd when he pulled out a little gray creature that filled his palm. After being introduced to his two flying squirrels, Sabrina and Scooter, Steve explained more about the species and how special they are. Emphasis was placed on the fact that Sabrina and Scooter are not pets, they are wild animals. There are two species of flying squirrels in North America although many people never realize it because they only live in heavily wooded areas and come out at night. The presentation was enlightening about many aspects of the flying squirrels, and even included an interactive skit. Volunteers got costumes to show how important flying squirrels are, spreading an important species of mushrooms with their droppings. The grand finale was a gliding demonstration by both Scooter and Sabrina. They were timid at first but gladly glided to their “mom” Steve. It was a fantastic new experience to see and learn so much about a species rarely seen.

***

Thank you Kristina!

If anyone is interested in learning more about flying squirrels, check out Steve's website for videos, activity pages, nest box plans and tonnes more.

2009-2010 Schedule is Out!

I can't believe it's that time again. We're getting revved up for our first KW Field Naturalists' Young Naturalists meeting in a week and a half, and it's one I'm really excited about for more reasons than one!

Everyone on our snail mail list should have received this year's events brochure by now. If you haven't, I'll post a summary of our plans for this year here, but please get in touch with Pat (via comment here, if you don't have her email or phone number) to get your full copy.

September
Steve Patterson, aka The Flying Squirrel Guy, will let us into the wonderful world of Canada’s native flying squirrels! This is a joint meeting with the Guelph Young Naturalists. Be prepared for an evening hike.

October
This will be our Fall Bird Count meeting! Bring binoculars if you have them, and be prepared to spot and identify as many birds as you can.

November
Still to be decided... (If you have anything you really want to do, let us know!)

January
One of the January or February meeting will be a snowshoe trek, but we'll have to wait on the snow.

February
Still to be decided... (If you have anything you really want to do, let us know!)

March
Maple syrup time! We’ll be meeting at the sugar bush and sugar shack just around the corner from the Nature Centre.

April
Spring is sprung, and so are the spring wildflowers. We’ll go on a field trip to one of the many beautiful natural parks in K-W. This spot has beautiful trails, lots of wildlife (a great horned owl nesting site and a beaver dam, among others!) and amazing displays of spring wildflowers.

May
Bring your rubber boots and a sense of adventure – we’ll be testing the waters the creek to find and study the creatures that live there! We’re also going to provide a bbq lunch for an end-of-year celebration.

See everyone in a couple of weeks, ready to meet some squirrels! Bring your registration forms along, but if you don't have one, just show up and we'll make sure we have a few extras. Bring some friends, too! There's lots of room in the program for more people this year.

Blog for Vultures

This isn't the post about the schedule. That's upcoming. We're going to have one, never fear! No, this is a post about International Vulture Awareness Day. Did you know there was one? Because there is! I've written a little piece about my love of turkey vultures over at my other blog, so I thought I would link to it here. Enjoy!