May 23rd, 2007
eastern ontario nature blogs
As mentioned yesterday, things are really picking up around here. I’m seeing many creatures wherever I look. The bird feeders have been very active, with many Goldfinches, Purple Finches, Cardinals, Chickadees and various sparrows. There are Spring Peepers calling from the drainage creek and American Toads trilling from all around in the evening, and Gray Treefrogs (Hyla versicolor) calling and making occasional appearances in the bushes around the house quite regularly. That’s one of them perched on my finger in the above photo, and the same frog on the palm of my hand to the left. As you can see, this one is quite small – body length approxiately 3 cm. If you look closely at the photo on the left (click on it for a larger view), you’ll see the bright yellow inner leg markings that are one of the identifying features of this species, although they’re seldom seen unless you happen to find one of these frogs sticking to the outside of a window as it hunts for moths in the evening. Anyhow, yes, it’s busy around here and I’ve already managed to accumulate a backlog of photos to be sorted and ID’d, so there will be plenty coming up in the next few weeks.
Okay, back to the topic of this post. I just wanted to pass along some links to other eastern Ontario nature-related blogs for those who might be interested. All three blogs are the creations of members of the NatureList – Eastern Ontario Natural History list-serve, to which I also belong. The first two are new blogs on the block:
The first is thenaturejournal.com, created by Aleta Karstad, a renowned artist and author, who, with husband, Dr. Fred Schueler, operates the Bishops Mills Natural History Centre. Aleta is no stranger to writing a nature journal, as she has been keeping illustrated journals for much of her life. Keeping a nature blog would seem to be a natural extension. Please do drop by to visit her new blog and take some time to view her art at some of the links provided.
Chelsea’s Blog is another new addition to the eastern Ontario blogosphere. It’s already off to a great start with a nice post about a Ring Neck Snake, and another about baby Painted Turtles. Also a longtime participant on the NatureList, the author is interested in nature photography, so you’ll find plenty of nice photos to view.
The final blog doesn’t really need an introduction, as it’s been around for awhile and is, no doubt, known to many of you. However, I did want to mention Thomasburg Walks in this post as Pamela Martin is another longtime member of the NatureList here in eastern Ontario. An avid naturalist and photographer, her blog also highlights some of the best nature in our region.
Well, it’s too nice to remain indoors. My camera batteries are all charged up and I’m ready to go, so I’m off to do a bit of walking around the fields and woods before settling down to transplant tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in the vegetable garden. Btw, for those of you looking for an update on Sabrina, she’s coming along well. She returns to the vet to have the staples removed and some follow-up blood work later this week. Yesterday morning, she gave me “the look” to let me know that she wanted to go for a bit longer walk than our recent tours around the garden, so we took a leisurely stroll along one of the shorter trail loops near the house. I took her photo while she waited for me to finish up photographing some bees on apple blossoms. She seems to be looking better every day.
Tags: Gray Treefrog, Hyla versicolor, thenaturejournal.com, Chelsea’s Blog, Thomasburg Walks