All Archived Reports

Here are some of the short videos Susan took at the Butterfly Conservatory. They are combined into a single video. Floral Showhouse Because Susan’s grandparents lived for some time in Niagara Falls, her family often visited the floral displays at the Niagara Parks greenhouse, now apparently called the Floral Showhouse. https://www.niagaraparks.com/visit/nature-garden/floral-showhouse/ The greenhouse is still […]

We didn’t have time to fully explore all that the Botanical Gardens have to offer https://www.niagaraparks.com/visit/nature-garden/botanical-gardens-2/ We went to spend time in the Butterfly Conservatory, but first, we explored the tallgrass prairie around the conservatory. The prairie features a variety of wildflowers and grasses, including ironweed, Tall Coreopsis, New England Aster, Smooth Blue Aster, Stiff-leaved […]

Before we took a break, we walked the circular trail past the far ponds. This starts as a wooded trail along one of the ponds and then moves through an open meadow that is full of goldenrod at this time of year. In the pond, we found two Great Egrets and three Great Blue Herons. […]

After a few days of relief from the sweltering heat, the humidity began to climb. On Tuesday, a thunderstorm rolled in just before sunset. You can see in the photos above, and the one below, that some trees have already started to fade from green to yellow and others are turning red. We are told […]

After the rain on Sunday cleared the heat and humidity, we’ve had cooler weather with temperatures as low as 8 degrees C at night. Good weather for sleeping. A few early migrating warblers had been reported at Kilally Meadows Environmentally Significant Area. There is always much to see there, whether we spotted any warblers or […]

Our weather has been warm, but less humid. An evening stroll along the river is even more welcome as the day cools. Constructed wetlands are now a common feature of new housing developments in London. These act as stormwater retention ponds to temporarily store rainfall and surface runoff. They are meant to allow sediment and […]

The rain and hot, humid weather continued throughout the week, but started to clear on Tuesday evening. On holiday Monday, August 5th, we headed to Western University in the morning to walk before the heat and humidity became unbearable. It was already too late for that, but we persevered. First we tried a shady wooded […]

We’ve had a few sunny days with little humidity. Perfect summer weather! Now the heat and humidity have built up and thunderstorms have arrived. On a clear, hot, sunny day last week, we went to Hawk Cliff where we thought we might find some butterflies and other pollinators in the open field and the wildflower […]

In July, 2022, we helped organize a hike at Wardsville Woods, one of the properties managed by Thames Talbot Land Trust. There are open fields, a community wildflower garden, a ravine forest with a mix of deciduous trees and a wetland associated with the creek that runs through the property. Here we were happy to […]

After the rain from Hurricane Beryl came much more rain. There has been widespread flooding across London and beyond. The Thames overflowed its banks. Before the river flooded, warm rocks were available for basking turtles. From left to right, the first two turtles are Northern Map turtles (so called because there are lines on the […]