January program

All right! January is nearly finished. I have sent everyone an email regarding the upcoming meeting, and have an update: I have picked up the skis! So we have a number of different sizes of skis, poles and boots.

If you didn't get the email, the most important points were these:

• If you have your own skis and boots, please bring them along to the meeting! This includes both kids and any adults who are planning to ski.
• Please let me know either by email or by commenting on this entry if you are planning to be at the meeting, or if you know for sure that you will not be able to join us this month.
• If you are planning to come and use our skis, please let me know shoe sizes so that we can attempt to get enough boots of proper sizes. Just leave a comment on this entry by following the link at the end of the entry.
• Remember to dress warmly! It is supposed to be chilly, and we are going to be outside for most of the meeting. Extra socks are always a good idea.

Thanks everyone! We'll see you at the Nature Centre!

Summer Jobs in Algonquin Provincial Park

Hi all Young Nats

The following is a message I received from Ontario Nature about summer jobs in Algonquin Provincial Park. If any of the Young Naturalists have older brothers, sisters or friends who might be interested in working in Algonquin Provincial Park please let them know about this website.

My name is Justin and I work at Algonquin Provincial Park as a Park Naturalist. You may have received a letter from me last year, informing you of summer jobs for keen naturalists in high school, college or university. We are once again looking to hire talented and enthusiastic naturalists to join our team as Seasonal Park Naturalists in summer 2009 (they should be at least 16 by June 2009). I would be most grateful if you could share this information as well as the attached job poster with anyone you know that you think would appreciate it. For more information, you can visit our seasonal employment website: http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/news/jobs2009.html. Thanks for your attention and thanks in advance for your assistance!

thanks for a great field trip!

Hey everyone, I just wanted to say thank you for making our field trip a resounding success! I learned quite a bit and had a wonderful time, and I hope all of you did as well. One really cool thing I enjoyed was seeing those chrysalids from the caterpillar that changes its chrysalis colour to camouflage with its surroundings. Also, I thought those quail were awesome.

I wanted to pass on what Meagen said to me after the program was over: she said it was really nice to be able to work with a group that was really interested and knowledgeable about the topic, and that you guys were great.

If you have any photos from the trip you really liked (including photos of Young Naturalists, as long as parents approve -- I will not post any photos of Young Naturalists that parents don't approve first, in writing or email) you are welcome to send them to me at my email address (my name at uc.org) and I will post them here.

October sightings

Reminder: KWFN YN tomorrow morning! Hope to see you all there.

As promised, our sightings from last month:

• Mourning cloak butterfly
• Rabbit
• Chipmunk
• Juncos
• Grackles
• Goldfinches
• Cedar waxwing
• Jelly cup fungus
• Golden-crowned kinglet
• Canada geese

See everyone tomorrow morning!

November program reminders!

Just a couple of reminders:

Wings of Paradise is this weekend! I've sent out an email -- if you didn't get it, please let me know so that I can send it to you. I included a map and the list of people who are coming. The program will be about Monarch butterfly migration, and it should be really interesting! And what a great time of year to be reminded, just a little bit, of what summer is like...

Also, if you haven't sent your photos to me yet, I'm looking forward to seeing them! I have a couple already and I'll be posting them here once I've added a small copyright note to them.

I hope everyone is enjoying the snow. I'm looking forward to getting out my skis this weekend. And my birdfeeder is full of all sorts of critters, including a Cooper's Hawk who thought maybe I was providing a buffet for him. Also, I've seen big flocks of Snow Buntings in fields along the road as I'm driving -- always a sure sign that winter's really here.

My next thing to post will be our sightings from the October meeting. Hopefully I can get to that tomorrow!

Random cool bird fact:

"Although breeding and nonbreeding males look quite different, the Snow Bunting has only one molt each year and no true "Alternate Plumage." After the molt in the late summer the male looks brownish with a brown and black striped back. Underneath the colored feather tips, the back feathers are pure black and the body feathers all are white. The male wears off all of the feather tips by actively rubbing them on snow, and he is immaculate white and jet black by the time breeding begins."

Cornell Lab of Ornithology. (2003). All about birds bird guide: Snow bunting. Retrieved November 18, 2008, from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Snow_Bunting_dtl.html

October program

All right everyone! Hope you're ready for a spectacular fall weekend. We'll be out taking photographs of fall colours and possibly fall critters.

This means you need to remember to:

• bring along a camera if you have one -- digital or film
• dress for the weather!

If it's raining, we won't be out destroying our cameras in the wet, but your intrepid leaders will make sure that there are plenty of interesting things indoors for photographing.

I'd like to try to have my own laptop there so that we can see some of the photos we've taken on a larger screen, but I'd like most of our time to be spent actually taking photos. I would really like to put some of your photos up here on the blog, and maybe even show them to the adult club in January!

If you don't have a camera of your own, we are going to try to have a few extras along with us to share.

Looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday!

Just a reminder: I'll have a sign-up sheet for November's trip to Wings of Paradise. I need to know how many people are coming so that I can let Wings of Paradise know, and so that I can make sure I have the correct funds!

September 2008: Bug Hunt!

Thanks again to everyone who came out for our first meeting of the year! We had a great time, despite the rainy weather. After sightings, we played the insect punch game outside, and then we took our nets and our jars out into the damp morning and did a very thorough search for critters without backbones -- the invertebrates.

I'm happy to report that our list was long and impressive, despite the weather! We saw or caught:

• white faced meadowhawks
• other meadowhawk species
• white-marked tussock moth caterpillar
• a different species of tussock moth caterpillar
  
• bumblebee
• blow fly
• spread-winged damselfly (male)
  
• milkweed bug nymphs
• aphids
• long-horned grasshopper (female)
• a species of eupelmid
• several different leafhopper species
• cucumber beetle
• yellow jacket wasp nest
  

Very impressive for a cool, rainy morning!

In addition to the invertebrates, Young Naturalists also caught or saw:

• tadpoles
• leopard frogs
• a spring peeper
• minnows
• great blue heron

We're off to an awesome start for the year!

Remember, our next meeting is going to be about Nature Photography. If you have a digital camera, please remember to bring it. This is a rain-or-shine program; if we can't go outside, we'll bring nature inside. More information will follow!