What's Alive in Hamilton!

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!

Bloodroot

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. 

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

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