Niagara Nature Tours

11/10/2024

I'm excited to know if you know what Ontario's provincial tree is?!

11/10/2024

This is so stunning and in full brilliant berry this time of year. Buy the native shrub!!

Always check the Latin name when purchasing a Beautyberry plant. The photo on the left is the Callicarpa japonica - Japanese beautyberry, non-native. You can tell the difference by the way the native Callicarpa Americana berries are attached to the stem, not dangling. Also notice the size of the leaves, the native Beautyberry are much larger and are a different shape than the non-native.

Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) is a deciduous shrub found naturally in the southeastern United States. It grows between 3 and 6 feet tall and wide on average, though it's been known to reach 9 feet tall. It has a moderate to fast growth rate, gaining around 1 to 2 feet per year until it is mature. Beautyberry’s native habitat is open meadows, thickets, or woodlands. In the spring, green leaves emerge on upright arching stems.

The shrub's clusters of berries are a food source for many songbirds, including the American Robin, Brown Thrasher, Purple Finch, and Eastern Towhee. The berries are also consumed by armadillos, foxes, opossum, raccoons, and squirrels.
Photo credits -- Margaret Hindman and Scott Keimig

10/24/2024

Thanks for the shout out Wolf! From Barefoot Bushcraft!

10/17/2024

Remembering my friend Kay McKeever who would have been 100 years old today. The founder of The Owl Foundation in Vineland Station at her family's original fruit farm. First met her at the veterinary hospital in 1975 where she brought her injured owls for evaluations and operations. I was the young animal nurse that helped with these operations. 19 years old and meeting Mrs. McKeever, what a memory. Then she and her husband Larry McKeever asked me to live with them in 1981 as a summer student. What a wonderul, amazing summer! So many stories and memories. AND the most amazing part is that decades later I was able to purchase her family home where she was born. So, just by sheer luck and coincidence I live in the middle of the The Owl Foundation I opened our doors as Bonnybank Bed and Breakfast 22 years ago, naming it in honour of her family's farm, Bonnybank Farm, started in 1920.

08/24/2024

Robin Blue in the days of May. May 14, 26, 28'24