TFN's Jim Baillie Reserve, 2018 (TFN Archives)
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
Hello Junior Naturalists! Thanks to everyone who submitted photos to the slideshow below. So exciting to have several folks raising caterpillars–please keep photographing your caterpillar pets and keep us up to date. Please have fun doing the Lepidopteran (Moths and Butterflies) Match-up by Vannessa. After you download the game, most PDF reading programs will allow Read More
Hello Toronto Field Naturalists Juniors! Welcome to the Toronto Field Naturalists Juniors weekly blog! A kid-friendly post will appear every week with a slideshow containing art, poems, photos and stories from Junior Naturalists. If you’d like to take part in the nature slideshow, please send us your contributions by Tuesday noon. You will also find Read More
Wow, what an amazing 10 weeks of nature adventures together. We really enjoyed all the sharing of photos and drawings, and all the chatting and learning. I discovered so many things about mammals, birds, insects, plants that share our province with us. And I especially enjoyed meeting you! I want to say a big ‘thanks’ Read More
Thanks to everyone who attended the Strickland/TFN Zoom Nature class today. Our challenge was to find tracks and traces of Mammals all around us. We found so many! Thanks for photos, drawings and stories. At the bottom of this post is a slideshow of all the kids’ contributions. Also find at the end of the Read More
It is the 8th week of our Strickland/ TFN Nature club and we are going strong! Thanks to everyone who has attended and everyone who has sent in cool nature observations. So great seeing the flying squirrel, the wild turkey, but also your amazing drawings! We are very excited to have learned to see more Read More
The peak of the songbird migration is a very exciting time for Toronto naturalists and for naturalists all across North America. It is a great time to stop and consider the miracle that bird flight is and to marvel at the long distances birds travel –anywhere from 4,000- 7,000 kilometers. A bird’s body is like Read More
Sometimes you hear a cacophony of sounds when you are out birding in spring. Learn bird calls, and you can find your favourite bird, or that unusual bird, you aren’t used to seeing. Once you know bird calls and songs, you will know which bird to chase down with your binoculars!! This Sonogram drawing game Read More
Mining bees are the earliest bees to emerge in Toronto. Both males and females spend the winter deep underground. It can be very chilly in mid-April when they dig their way to the surface to begin the new season. The female has several challenges ahead of her if she is to launch a new generation Read More
A lot of us have been out poking around in ravines, looking for spring flowers–the trilliums are up!!–or tree buds in all their lovely variety. A creature that has been buried in mud all winter and is out braving the cold, way earlier than a lot of other cold-blooded creatures is the Red-backed Salamander. What 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.