Forks of the Don River, 2015 (TFN Archives)
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Hello Junior Naturalists! This week’s theme is wetlands! Wetland habitats include swamps, marshes and bogs. These places are very important to humans and wildlife, even in big cities like Toronto. Wetlands help clean our water, protect us from floods and storms, and are great places to go hiking and bird watching! Here are some photos Read More
Hello Junior Naturalists. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the TFN Juniors slideshow this week. We always enjoy sharing the adventures everyone has been on this week. What a surprise for those of us that have been raising butterflies–a Black Swallowtail chrysalis was harboring a parisitoid wasp! What a handsome spider wasp mimic she was Read More
Lydia Wong, a PhD student from the University of Ottawa is hoping to launch a project to explore the impacts of a warming and drying climate on pollinator populations, specifically bees. If you have a garden in Toronto, preferably one with lots of flowering plants that attract pollinators, and are willing to have 2 artificial nesting structures (‘bee/wasp Read More
The Ontario government plans to open habitat of endangered and threatened species to destructive aggregate extractions in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GCH). Ontario Nature has uncovered this change (hidden in dry technical text) and has stated in a letter to the ministry: “Your ministry is now proposing to undermine this higher level of protection by Read More
Hello Junior Naturalists! Thanks to everyone who shared photos for this week’s blog. We continue to see interesting things in nature all around us. Please have a look at this week’s slideshow and enjoy the adventures others have been on! Many creatures look similar, and we are all learning to be more observant of slight Read More
“Rebel botanists” are loose in our cities, wandering laneways and back alleys armed with pockets full of sidewalk chalk and keen identification skills. Their goal? To open people’s eyes to the botanical wonders right under their feet, slipping out from between fence boards, and poking out from between people’s prized peonies. Botanical chalking is a Read More
Hello Junior Naturalists! Thanks to everyone who shared Nature photos and observations this week! Please enjoy the lovely images in the slideshow below: Now you can challenge yourself by doing Vanessa’s True-False game on Bees. You can download the Quiz, enter your answers, and email your page back to us. You can also check your Read More
Lockdown, physical distancing, and other pandemic-related rules & regulations upended virtually all of TFN’s various programs and initiatives, but few were hit quite as hard as our Junior Naturalists Program. Once a month our Juniors & their parents would take to Toronto’s parks & ravines, learning to appreciate and respect Toronto’s natural heritage through hikes, Read More
As in previous years, TFN will again be sponsoring students in the GTA to attend Ontario Nature’s annual Youth Summit for Biodiversity and Environmental Leadership – rebranded for 2020 as the Virtual Youth Summit for Mother Earth! For four Saturday afternoons in August & September this summit will bring together youth from dozens of communities Read More
Hello Junior Naturalists! Thanks to everyone who has been nature-watching this past week–even despite the extreme heat and thanks for sending in your pictures. Our challenge for this week was to study flowers and try to discover their pollination strategy–how do they trick the insects, or the wind, into carrying and depositing their pollen? Please Read More
Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.