Connecting Lake Simcoe's Community

          By David Hawke -- This week’s column is about gypsy moths; more precisely it’s about the caterpillar stage of the gypsy moth’s life cycle.

By David Hawke — Throughout June you have a very good chance of seeing a female snapping turtle sitting on the shoulder of the road. Hopefully it is still alive and in one piece when you see it… because sometimes they are not.

By David J. Hawke — Back in the “old days” when we attended school inside a building and had a teacher at the front of the room, June was always a difficult month to get any classwork done. In elementary grades it was a time of field trips (in my area it was always Wye Marsh, Martyr’s Shrine, Ste. Marie Among the Hurons, Huronia Village and/or Simcoe County Museum).

By David Hawke -- With all the media attention these days seeming to be centered around murder, mayhem, family strife and other crises, I bring you a story of the Troglodyte family, consisting of a sweet charmer of a husband who murders to please his wife, and a wife who is so demanding that her husband has to build house after house until her satisfaction is met.

         Ah, sweet spring… the flowers are blooming and the birds are singing. What we perceive to be a peaceful, perhaps even tranquil, scene, however, is actually a war zone. Avian territorial boundaries are constantly being established, challenged, trespassed, defended and realigned. It’s a dynamic world out there!

By David Hawke -- It’s always exciting to learn something new, even if it’s something that others have already discovered and researched.

By David Hawke -- Without a doubt one of the most easily recognized signs of spring is the blooming of the white trilliums in our local woodlots.

By David Hawke — It's 6:30 a.m. and Lea remains snuggled in her bed.

  By David Hawke — The common loon is a bird that is familiar to most if not all of us.

By David Hawke — The word "catharsis" means to clean or purify, a word brought forward from the ancient Greek language. This word is the root that defines an unusual group of birds, one of which we see here fairly regularly. High in the sky is Cathartes aura, perhaps better known as turkey vulture, the roadside cleaner, the remover of messy road-killed animals.

By David Hawke -- What has five hearts, no lungs, legs or eyes, and is living in your lawn and garden? Hey, no fooling you is there? Yes, you’re right… earthworms!

By David Hawke -- The annual spring bird migration is fully underway, and with it comes the opportunity to witness this very dynamic natural event.

By David Hawke — Spring has been sprung upon us and a number of natural things are happening right on cue. One of these events is the appearance of the spring ephemerals, that small group of wildflowers that bring joy and hope to folks like me who are not what you would call “winter people”.

By David Hawke -- I have always been a collector of things, a penchant that started with the challenge of earning my Boy Scout badges. Started with stamps, then coins and progressed to include comic strips, bird eggs, butterflies and moths, heritage guns, motorcycles, Classic Illustrated comic books, out-of-print nature books, camera gear, Crown jars, wildlife art and whatever else caught my attention.

By David Hawke — As the photo period (amount of daylight per day), the humidity and temperature are combining to make the days actually feel like springtime, I was enjoying a walk through the local hardwood forest. As is sometimes the case, an event of great magnitude was happening right under my feet… or should I say, under my boots, although the new insulated insoles cushioning my feet are really appreciated.

By David Hawke -- Over the past week I have had the pleasure of being the guest speaker for a couple of community groups, the topic being Spring Things: The Natural Pace of Seasonal Change. Within the presentation I highlight numerous events that have or are happening within Nature that signal the shift from Winter to Spring.

By David Hawke — The returning migrants will soon be arriving daily, those birds that have completed their winter get-away trip and are coming home to roost, and nest.

        By David Hawke — As the icy breeze slipped around my coat collar, I wished that a scarf had been included in my winter wraps.

By David Hawke – It has been said that winter is the time for planning ahead, supposedly because you have all this idle time on your hands. Ha! But okay, maybe it is the time to prepare for some Spring-related things.

By David Hawke — What is it about firewood that still catches our attention in these modern times? Few people use it as primary heat for the home, and even homes with fireplaces rarely actually spark them up. Yet there sits a pile of birch or ash beside the grate, neatly split and ready to go, more for aesthetics than practical use.