Today’s post comes from the family at CreateWithMom.com — a family of four living in the GTA, looking for adventure whenever possible!
Our first learning experience on how to car camp was with the Ontario Parks Learn to Camp program a few years ago.
After this, we invested in camping equipment and have gone on many camping adventures at different Ontario Parks.
Camping has become an activity we love doing as a family.
Continue reading Gaining experience with the Learn to Camp program
Today’s post comes from the Discovery Program staff at Killbear Provincial Park.
Snakes: some people love them, some people don’t.
However you feel about them, they are an important part of our ecosystems, and you may see one when you visit us.
Here at Killbear, we get a lot of questions about snakes, and especially the difference between watersnakes and rattlesnakes as they are often confused for each other.
In today’s post, Rondeau Provincial Park Interpreter Shane Smits will take us through identifying just a few of the many sparrow species found in Ontario.
For several reasons, whether rightfully so or not, sparrows are often overlooked when it comes to birdwatching.
For starters, they tend to be plentiful. There are usually many sparrows seen hopping around near the forest floor or within dense cover.
But seemingly the most common reason to overlook sparrows amongst beginner bird watchers — that “all sparrows look the same” — is actually a misconception.
This is admittedly something that I have said on multiple occasions. Here’s why it’s wrong. Yes, all sparrows have their similarities. But after spending some time getting to know these little brown birds, their differences become more apparent.
Today’s post comes from Shane Smits, senior park interpreter at Rondeau Provincial Park.
Are you terrified of snakes?
Do you believe they’re all large and frightening?
Well, everyone has a right to their own fears, but what if snakes aren’t all what the movies make them out to be?
It’s a common misconception that snakes are big and scary creatures. In reality, there are many species that are actually quite small and rather harmless.
Let’s discuss a few of Ontario’s smallest snake species, so we can hopefully change some opinions on snakes:
If you’ve ever watched a dragonfly speed over the water, you know how captivating they are!
But while they’re among the oldest flying insects – they’ve been around for 250-300 million years — scientists are still just learning about them.
Today’s post comes from David LeGros, a Natural Heritage Education Specialist at Algonquin Provincial Park.
I spent most of my youth in rubber boots and obsessed with nature. I was always looking for interesting animals and plants.
There are a few creatures then, just like now, that always inspire me.
Top of my list: the Snapping Turtle.
Today’s post comes to us from the Discovery Program staff at Charleston Lake Provincial Park.
Most summer visitors to the park will no doubt hear a loud buzzy “droning” sound, broadcasting from high up in the trees. The sound starts soft and gets louder, before tapering off. Some people say it sounds like a buzzing electric saw, with each burst lasting about 15 seconds.
Continue reading What’s that loud buzzing sound from up in the trees?
Today’s post is a polite rant from Quetico Provincial Park’s Librarian Jill Sorensen.
We seem to constantly hear about expedition-style trips. Grunt narratives where people have broken speed records, paddled the longest distances, or have been “the first” to complete a route. The blisters. The sleep deprivation. The endurance.
And that is fine. I have no problem with kilometre tracking or race attempts. But if you insist on measuring all of your trips, may I suggest that you count something else? Something that instead connects you to the landscape, or a piece of cultural history.
A little less pace. A little more place.
Here are some suggestions of other things to count:
Provincial parks are not islands.
Well, some of them are. What we mean is: there is no invisible wall around parks limiting their relationships with the outside world.
Even if you never visit a park, you benefit from the pollinator diversity they protect, the CO2 they sequester in wood, roots, and peat, and the clean water filtered by protected wetlands.
Plants, animals, fungi, microbes, water, and air move in and out of protected spaces, with intimate connections on both local and global levels.
In the same way, things that happen outside of park boundaries affect the ecosystems within them. What you do at home, work, or play can impact our parks.
Whether you live next door to a park or 100 km away, here are six ways your everyday actions can help keep parks and nature reserves healthy and biodiverse:
If you’ve ever seen a Five-lined Skink, you know just how neat they are!
The Five-lined Skink, which looks a bit like a salamander, is the only lizard species native to Ontario. And while researchers continue to study skinks, we still don’t know very much about what they do on a day-to-day basis, particularly from September to May when they’re hibernating.
Here are five cool things we DO know about Five-lined Skinks, courtesy of Alistair MacKenzie, Resource Management Supervisor at Pinery Provincial Park.
