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| Sharp Lobed Hepatica |
The natural areas inventory project is
quickly gearing up for our final field season. This year we will be checking
out many of the natural areas on the Hamilton/Halton border in Waterdown and
East Flamborough. There are quite a few wetlands, valleys, escarpment talus,
and deciduous upland sites in this area which we are excited to survey. Most of
the spring flowers are now in bloom, so it won’t be long until our ecological
land classification crew is out surveying the forests, thickets, meadows, and
wetlands. But for now, check out your local natural areas for these spring
ephemerals!
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| Bloodroot |
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| Squirrel Corn |
A spring ephemeral is a perennial forest
wildflower that blooms in early spring and produces seeds before summer. These
flowers take advantage of the sunlight that hits the forest floor before the
trees produce their leaves
You may
have heard that many birds are back from their wintering grounds down south.
Keep an eye out for chimney swifts, red-bellied woodpeckers, and orioles which
have all been heard and seen this spring.
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| Juvenile Brown Snake |
Our frog
and toad monitoring program has had a quick start. With the warm temperatures
lately, these amphibians have been calling all over the City of Hamilton. Spring peepers, wood frogs,
chorus frogs, and American toads are common at this time of the year. Keep your
ears open and you may start to hear leopard frogs, green frogs, and grey tree
frogs.
And don’t forget that this is the time of
the year that snakes are on the move too! Here is a juvenile brown snake that I
saw on a walk through the Dundas Valley.
Keep checking the website for more updates
on the Natural Areas Inventory Project.
Nicholas Schwetz
NAI Coordinator
Hamilton Conservation Authority
Help HCA win $25,000 with the Shell Fuelling Change Challenge! Vote for What's Alive in Hamilton and we can continue to educate our community
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