Follow our adventures living in the woods and meeting wild ones. This year we’re alternating between poisonous plants and continuing to write about pollinators and their host plants.
Dear Wood Folk, I’ve seen and taken pictures of dozens of tiger swallowtails around Haliburton, and every single one of them was identified as a Canadian tiger swallowtail (papilio canadensis). Eastern tiger swallowtails don’t seem to get north of Oshawa much, and hybrids (p. canadensis × glaucus) are rare. There’s also a rare black female … [Read more…]
Dear Wood Folk, In 4 days our featured edible and medicinal plant will be pearly everlasting, which we’ll then go into the human uses for. But I thought it fitting to feature it as today’s pollinator host plant in our second such diary, with one of my favourite local butterflies. I rarely get the chance … [Read more…]
Dear Wood Folk, In Ontario, monarchs are presently (as of 2021) of “special concern”, not endangered or threatened as they are in some areas. On our side of the Rockies they are doing okay, but they’re not out of danger. The largest threat to Ontario monarchs is habitat loss at overwintering sites in central Mexico … [Read more…]
Dear Wood Folk, Did you know that only recently the native common milkweed plant was removed from our governments official noxious weeds list? This is the host plant of the monarch butterfly caterpillar (an endangered species). /Facepalm. There’s far too much anti-bug and even anti-“weed” sentiment out there. But the sentiment is changing – hopefully. … [Read more…]
Dear Wood Folk, The vireo I see most around Haliburton county is the red-eyed (vireo olivaceus). I usually see the blue-headed vireo a couple times per year too. (Here are both in one of our Instagram posts!) iNat sightings here mirror this frequency. As I write this, one person besides myself has spotted and reported … [Read more…]
Dear Wood Folk, Around Haliburton, Ontario we have a few mimids/”mimic” birds. There’s the brown thrasher, which sometimes gets mistaken for a woodpecker or roadrunner. There’s the northern mockingbird, which I’ve yet to see, and has only been recorded once on iNat for Haliburton county. And there’s this slate-colored mimic called the gray catbird (dumetella … [Read more…]