Warming Up for Spring: Two Species of Butterfly Find Their Wings

From our friends, the outdooredguys, comes a blog post about two butterfly species, the Eastern Comma and the Mourning Cloak, and how they literally "warm up" for spring. Based in the Waterloo/Cambridge Ontario area, the outdooredguys teach kids from grades 1 to 12 about nature at 4 day-use Outdoor and Environmental Education Centres. This post by Al takes a look at the fascinating life-cycle of two species of butterfly:

"... I went to the south-facing slopes to find two species of butterfly – the Eastern Comma and the Mourning Cloak. These two species overwinter as adults, spending several months tucked away in hollow logs, underneath loose bark, or finding spaces between tree roots. As spring arrives and the snow melts they emerge from winter hibernation and begin to feed. These are not nectar-feeders because few flowers are blooming at this time. Instead, they feed on sap to get their energy and mud or animal droppings to gain valuable minerals ..."

Read the entire post here

April Photo of the Month

This month’s winner is a young reptile whose snappy charm we found hard to resist – we think you will too!

The common snapping turtle – the largest freshwater turtle in Canada – can weigh as much as 15kg and carry a shell up to 50cm long. Its diet consists of various aquatic plants and animals, including fish, frogs, birds and small mammals.

Mating occurs in the spring, followed by nesting in May and June. Females lay white, round eggs that hatch in September or October. Chelydra serpentine can live 30 to 40 years in the wild.

Their habitat spans southern areas of Canada, from Saskatchewan to Nova Scotia, and includes a large part of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

Do you love this photo? Put it on your desktop!

And why not share your photo with us for the chance to be featured as Nature Canada's photo of the month.

Save Our Frogs!

Northern Leopard Frog

We hear them calling at night. They live in our ponds, streams, marshes and backyards. We keep them as pets. Yet we take for granted that frogs and toads will always be around. Today is Save the Frogs Day, a day to celebrate our amphibious friends and raise awareness about their plight.

Around the world frog populations are declining in large part due to human activity. This is very significant – the health of frog populations has long been regarded as a strong indicator of how healthy our wild ecosystems are. Frogs have semi-permeable skin, making them very sensitive to environmental change and excellent “indicator species”. Of the approximately 6000 known amphibian species, it is estimated that 1/3 are at risk of extinction. The main threats to these beautiful creatures are habitat loss and destruction, chemical pollutants in waterways, invasive species, and disease.

Here is a small look at just a few of Canada’s noteworthy frog species:

Blanchard’s Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans blanchardi) – These greenish-brown, red, black or yellow-coloured treefrogs reach a maximum size of 4 centimetres, and can be found in Ontario. They live in marshes, drainage trenches and quarries. Feeding on small insects, these frogs on average live only 1 to 2 years. Pesticide contamination and habitat destruction are the main causes of population decline. Blanchard’s Cricket frog is listed as endangered by the Ontario and Federal Governments.

Great Basin Spadefoot (Spea intermontanus) – This British Columbian species can be found in vernal ponds, semi-permanent alkali lakes, and in arid areas near breeding sites. At 5 centimetres, the frog gets its name from a sharp-edged, horny tubercle on the inside of its hind foot, which is wedge-shaped. Their skin is quite smooth, and they have teeth in their upper jaw. It appears that populations have declined in BC due to threats from recreational vehicles and habitat destruction by cattle.

Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) – Even if you’re not familiar with the Spring Peeper, you’ve probably heard its unique repetitive chirping call each spring, which can carry over half a kilometre in range. At 3 centimetres, this frog has a wide range in Canada, and has been found from Manitoba to Prince Edward Island, and even in Florida. One female can lay 800 to 1000 eggs with tadpoles hatching in 6 to 12 days. Even though it is considered relatively stable in most of its habitat, the Toronto area populations have disappeared.

Western (Striped) Chorus Frog (Pseudacris triseriata) – This greenish-grey coloured treefrog can be identified by the 3 dark stripes along its back, and reaches an adult size of only 4 centimetres. This frog is only found in a small part of Canada - in Southern Ontario and along the Ottawa and upper St. Lawrence rivers in Québec.
   
Leopard Frog (Rana pipiens) – With its unique large, light-edged spots adorning its green or brown coloured-body, the Leopard frog can be spotted very easily. It can be found in every province and territory except for the Yukon, and can also be found in the northwestern United States. But the Northern Leopard Frog is found only in Canada. A single female can lay up to 7000 eggs, and the average lifespan for an adult in the wild is 3 to 4 years. The male Leopard frog call sounds like a low-pitched snore quickly followed by low grunts. Although very widespread, there is strong evidence that Western Canadian populations are declining, due to habitat loss and long-term drought.

So, what can be done to help our amphibious neighbours? Here are a few suggestions:

• Nature Canada’s FrogWatch program is a great way to get to know common frog species and contribute to citizen science. FrogWatch provides tips for identifying frogs by sight and sound and encourages people to collect information on frog species and submit that data to help scientists get a better understanding of frog populations across the country.
• Learn about the main threats to frog species living near you and learn how to prevent further damage to our natural ecosystems. Dumping chemicals into our waterways, or releasing non-native species of mammal, fish, amphibian or bird into the wild are two of the biggest threats to Canadian amphibians.
• Take a look at the Save the Frogs Day website to learn about the global initiative to protect, save and educate ourselves about frog and toad species facing extinction.
• Never purchase wild frogs, toads or other amphibians from pet stores or breeders as this greatly affects native wild populations.

Nature Canada would like to thank Michael Berrigan for contributing this blog post.

Canadian and American IBA Programs Have Much in Common - An Interview with John Cecil, National Audubon

As a follow-up to Mara Kerry's post on the National Important Bird Areas meeting in Port Rowan last week, Ted Cheskey, manager of bird conservation, shares his thoughts on the meeting and speaks with John Cecil of National Audubon about the Canadian and American IBA Programs.



IBA Canada partners have been working hard to engage volunteers – called IBA Caretakers – to care for and be the "eyes, ears and feet on the ground" for Canada's IBAs. These volunteers were a focus of the National IBA meeting in Port Rowan last week. Between presentations on monitoring protocols for IBA Caretakers, and animated discussions on habitat definitions, John Cecil, Manager of the Important Bird Area Program with National Audubon sat down with me to discuss his impressions of the Canadian program and the potential of collaborating more closely on bird conservation.

John was a very welcomed full participant in the two-day workshop, held at the spectacular Bird Studies Canada headquarters in Port Rowan, Ontario. He provided us with a good overview of the IBA program history in the USA. We compared notes on challenges and opportunties, and came away feeling motivated to share more – we have much in common with our American IBA colleagues.

We had scheduled the workshop for late April, to avoid the "field season", for many of the participants from across Canada, but still take advantage of migration in this internationally famous World Biosphere Reserve and Globally significant IBA.

I really wanted to interview John outside, but Mother Nature had the last word, throwing high winds and rain at us for most of the workshop, allowing us to happily toil inside without regrets. For the interview, we were able to find a quiet spot in the excellent BSC library to chat for a few minutes.

There were some brief moments during the workshop when the weather was more accommodating. We went on a brief trip on the trail to a lookout over Long Point Bay, and saw thousands, perhaps even tens of thousands of ducks, Ruddys, Scaup, Redheads, Canvasback, Buffleheads, Mergansers, Coots, and many more species, all milling about in the bay. The build up in late April was a sign that things were still frozen much further north, where most of these birds breed. Somehow they know this. . . .

Moments like these - being fascinated and inspired by the birds and habitats like Long Point, or sharing and learning from colleagues - are what motivate us to protect our IBAs, and the birds that depend upon them and the surrounding landscapes and habitats.

Workshop attendees, including Ted Cheskey (front row, second from left), Ian Davidson, Nature Canada's executive director (front row, third from left), and Mara Kerry, Nature Canada's director of conservation (back row, 8th from left)

Live Lightly in May - Make Every Day Earth Day!

Photo: tkeneipp

Today marks the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day. Why not celebrate by making these small changes every day for the month of May:

• Watch less TV
• Buy fewer things
• Eat more vegetables, grains, and fruits while eating less meat
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator
• Ride the bus or your bike to work or school
• Use less water in and around your home

Tells us about your act of green in the comments – and ask your friends and family what they’re doing!

Earth Day is also the first day of advanced voting for the federal election. As you go to the polls, choose the party that will protect and conserve nature on behalf of all Canadians. Not sure who to vote for? We’ve put together 7 Questions for your candidates and a list of 4 things the government must do to effectively protect nature.

Advanced voting takes place on Friday, April 22, Saturday, April 23 and Monday, April 25. Find your local advance polling stations here.

Tell Canada’s leaders where you stand – vote for nature in 2011!

Encouraging Land Protection Announcement from Nova Scotia!

Happy Earth Day!

This Nature Canada employee got an early Earth Day gift in 2011... Yesterday morning the Nova Scotia government released boundaries for two proposed Wilderness Areas in the northern central part of the province – near the isthmian border with New Brunswick. Wilderness Areas are the gold standard in Nova Scotia’s provincial protected areas network, and one of the proposed sites, the Kelly River Wilderness Area, could become the third largest such area in the province!

I'm excited to see this announcement, as I coordinated a grassroots campaign for a new Wilderness Area in the Chignecto region on behalf of CPAWS Nova Scotia several years ago. In addition to CPAWS Nova Scotia, other organizations including Cumberland Wilderness, the Nova Scotia Public Land Coalition and Ecology Action Centre have been calling for permanent protection of provincial crown lands throughout the Chignecto region for years.

I was very lucky to have canoed down the Kelly River with former area resident and professional photographer, Dale Wilson, in addition to visiting parts of the two sites with members of Cumberland Wilderness. Those firsthand experiences proved to me the outstanding conservation potential of crown lands in the Chignecto region. The area is one of the last strongholds of endangered species including the Nova Scotia mainland moose, the wood turtle and Inner Bay of Fundy Atlantic salmon.

Here’s a map showing the proposed areas in yellow. Environmental organizations had been hoping that all of the provincial crown lands (shown in light green) would be captured in a single proposed Wilderness Area, but support for industrial use/development in the region (e.g., commercial logging, mineral and oil and gas exploration/extraction, wind energy development) seems to have influenced the current boundary proposals. Nonetheless, the proposed protected areas capture beautiful elements of Nova Scotia’s upland, interior forests and its rugged Bay of Fundy coastline (see photos).

Three globally significant Important Bird Areas are located beyond the proposed wilderness areas, scattered along the coastline of the Cumberland Basin. The new protected areas should play a role in reducing the negative impacts of industrial and other human activities on the waters entering the basin – as well as the fish, birds and other species that frequent them.

The public is invited to submit comments on the boundary proposals as of May 11th 2011, with the deadline for submissions on August 12th 2011. More information is available here. While the proposed boundaries are a good start, including more of the crown lands surrounding the two sites in the final boundaries would better protect important wildlife habitats in the area.

Connect with Nature: Celebrate Earth Day!

Photo by Jim Salvas via Flickr

Tomorrow, April 22, marks our annual celebration of the planet we live on. But did you know that Earth Day was originally conceived by an American senator as a teach-in - a practical, participatory, action-oriented day of learning about the environment? In 1990, Earth Day went global and is celebrated in more than 175 countries each year; in 2009, the United Nations officially recognized International Mother Earth Day on this date.

Since Earth Day also coincides with a holiday for most Canadians this year, why not plan to spend some time with nature tomorrow? You can find an event near you, or just get outdoors and enjoy some fresh air. Try to learn or notice one new thing about the world around you, and then share that knowledge with others.

Happy Earth Day!

National IBA Meeting Brings Together Provincial Partners

Mara Kerry, director of conservation, Ted Cheskey, manager of bird conservation (5th & 6th from top, clockwise)

Three of Nature Canada's staff are presently participating in an annual national meeting of Important Bird Area program partners. Bird Studies Canada is hosting the meeting this year at their wonderful head quarters located in Port Rowan at the base of Long Point on Lake Erie.

Long Point is the largest freshwater sand spite in North America. It extends 40km into Lake Erie, reaching out almost half way across the lake. As such, it is a significant area for migratory birds. Today alone we have seen barn swallows, purple martins, bald eagles, killdeer, and at least another 20 species. Long Point is also home to the hemisphere's oldest bird banding station. Over the last 50 years, scientists, students, volunteers and staff have banded some 830,000 individual birds.

The annual IBA meeting brings together provincial partners from across the country to plan, coordinate and share information and tools. The focus of this year's meeting is on developing our technical tools and capacity. We have heard updates on the great progress that is being made to steward and protect IBAs across the country, from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador. A special guest from National Audubon, John Cecil the national IBA manger in the USA, gave a comprehensive overview of the IBA program south of the border. It seems we share many of the same challenges and opportunities with our southern colleague and there are exciting opportunities to collaborate and learn from each other.

Each year we expand our reach by recruiting more "caretakers" to take on stewardship responsibility for an IBA. Each year, we seek to improve our tools, outreach and support of this valuable network of IBA caretakers. The partnership has grown in recent years to include new provincial partners. We hope and anticipate that all our combined efforts will help protect and improve the habitat at IBAs in Canada and the birds that depend on these sites.

Stay tuned for more updates from Port Rowan.

Vote for Nature, part 5: Lead Canadian Conservation

Volunteers from the Canadian IBA Network raise awareness about shoreline habitat.

Conserving wildlife, wild spaces, and the environment is a big job. Fortunately there are many people helping. Aboriginal, provincial, and territorial governments, nonprofit organizations, local clubs, landowners, businesses, industries, and others are doing their part. For example, Nature Canada is part of the global BirdLife International network that implements the Important Bird Areas (IBA) program. There are over 600 IBAs in Canada in need of various kinds of stewardship. There are countless other programs that tackle individual conservation issues. What Canada needs is an ambitious national plan to support and coordinate these efforts. The federal government has its specific areas of responsibility but it also has another role as our national government. We turn to our federal government to lead and coordinate action across Canada to conserve and protect what we hold dear.

By working together we can be much more effective, here at home and beyond our borders. Consider for a moment that ninety percent of our birds migrate out of Canada every fall. We can’t conserve “our” birds unless we look beyond our borders to the places they go through and go to. These places are uniquely linked along “flyways”, the great migratory routes that birds follow up and down our continents. We need to collaborate with partners in the United States and throughout Latin America. We need a conservation plan for Canada that recognizes our international obligations.

Imagine what we could achieve if we were all working together to protect nature, for wildlife, for us to enjoy, and for future generations. The federal government can help make this happen by leading the development of an ambitious national conservation plan.

Ask your candidates:

What will you do to show national leadership and give Canada an ambitious vision and a plan to protect nature for all?


For more about the federal election visit our Vote for Nature page.

Vote for Nature, part 4: Prevent Environmental Disasters

We all know how horrible environmental disasters can be. Massive oil spills, mining waste accidents, ducks dying in oil sands tailings ponds, and the mounting impacts of climate change are just a few examples. These incidents can have enormous personal and economic consequences as well, closing fisheries, damaging human health, and sometimes costing lives.

This is why the federal government has legal powers to protect Canadians by preventing these kinds of environmental disasters before they ever happen. Environmental Assessments are supposed to study the potential environmental harm of proposed projects and find less risky alternatives. The Fisheries Act is supposed to prevent activities that harm freshwater and marine fish habitat. Canada should be doing its fair share to combat climate change by acting decisively at home, negotiating constructively on the international stage and helping the most vulnerable to adapt.

Instead the recommendations from too many Environmental Assessments have been ignored, and even the law itself has been weakened. Canadian lakes are handed over to private mining companies to use as dumps for mining waste. Instead of acting at home and abroad to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, our government continues to subsidize oil and gas companies, with pipeline megaprojects now looking for handouts too.

It’s time for the federal government to stand for good planning, and live up to its responsibility to prevent environmental disasters so current and future generations of Canadians can continue to benefit from Canada’s natural wealth. This means strengthening the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, and closing the loophole in the Fisheries Act that lets mines dump waste in our lakes. It means supporting the development of renewable energy, and advocating a global treaty that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to avoid catastrophic climate change.

Ask your candidates:

How will you do a better job of using federal regulations and environmental assessments to prevent environmental disasters?

What will you do to end dirty subsidies?

What is your party’s plan to really move Canada to a green economy powered by renewable energy?


For more about the federal election visit our Vote for Nature page.

Alarming Deforestation in the Paraguayan Chaco

Our BirdLife partner in Paraguay, Guyra Paraguay, has been raising the alarm about the rapid deforestation of the Chaco for years. This area is critically important for indigenous peoples, wildlife and ecosystem services, like water.

The rate of deforestation is estimated at about 36,000 football fields per month. Watch this video to learn more: 

Know the past. Enjoy the present. Protect the future.

What's the link between a fort, a huge rock, an old guy, a tepee and a bison? Check out the My Parks Pass video and find out:

If you're a Grade 8/Secondary 2 student, you'll get your My Parks Pass from your teacher so that you can visit over 200 Parks Canada destinations for a full year - for free.

It doesn't matter if you're into camping, skiing, paddling, exploring or if you just want to discover more about Canada's past at your own pace; My Parks Pass has something for everyone. With more than 200 destinations across the country, there's an adventure closer than you think!

Broadcasters Support Keith's Green Initiative

Handsomely dressed in kilts for their on-air broadcasts, Hugh Burrill of CityTV Sports and Jeff Hutchison of CTVCanadaAM showed their support for Alexander Keith's Green Initiative. Keith's donated $6,000 on behalf of Jeff and Hugh to Nature Canada, Waterkeepers Canada, Trees Ontario and NLSC Adopt-A-Stream. Way to go!

Watch clips of the broadcasts:

Débat : qui parle de l'environnement?

Qui à parlé de l'environnement au cours du débat des chefs des partis ce soir? Voici ce que j'ai entendu :
Stephen Harper : 0 fois
Michael Ignatieff : 2 fois
Gilles Duceppe : 4 fois
Jack Layton : 2 fois

Vote for Nature, part 3: Preserve Natural Areas

Suffield National Wildlife Area. Photo: ateucher

The federal government is accountable to Canadians for permanently protecting natural areas, using a number of different legal tools known collectively as “protected areas”. Parks Canada establishes and manages a system of National Parks and National Marine Conservation Areas to permanently protect representative examples of each of Canada’s natural regions. Environment Canada manages National Wildlife Areas, Migratory Bird Sanctuaries, and Marine Wildlife Areas to protect important wildlife habitat across the country. The department of Fisheries and Oceans is responsible for Marine Protected Areas which protect significant marine ecosystems and important habitats for marine wildlife and species at risk. But there are problems.

We are still losing too much of Canada’s unique wild lands, waters, and oceans to our growing human footprint on the environment. Our National Parks system only covers 33 of Canada’s 68 terrestrial and marine natural regions. The job is only half done and as time goes on it is getting harder to establish parks in the remaining regions. Parks Canada does not have the resources needed to act fast enough to establish new parks while the best opportunities still exist. For example the March 2011 federal budget only provided 2% of the funding needed to meet the federal government’s commitment to establish new National Parks, according to the Green Budget Coalition.

Of course it is not enough to create protected areas on paper. Laws have to be enforced on the ground and on water. Several reviews have concluded that Canada’s protected areas are losing species and suffering environmental damage because of insufficient protection in practice. In fact oil and gas drilling has even been allowed in some National Wildlife Areas and other protected areas. This is obviously wrong. We also need these agencies to work together, and we need these protected areas to be linked together across the landscape.

Our federal government must provide enough money to the agencies we are all counting on to preserve natural areas for us and future generations. This includes $50 million per year for Parks Canada. The federal government must simply say no to oil and gas development in National Wildlife Areas and other protected areas.

Ask your candidates:

What will you do to protect more lands, waters, and oceans for nature and future generations?

How will you make sure nature is really protected in all federal parks and protected areas?


For more about the federal election visit Vote for Nature.

Leaders Debate: Environment anyone?

If you were hoping for one or more questions about the environment in tonight's federal election debate, you were certainly disappointed. The subject did come up a few times in the leaders' remarks on Canada's place on the international stage, economic priorities, and closing statements.

So, who raised the environment in tonight's leaders' debate? Here is my count:

Jack Layton: 3 times
Stephen Harper: 1 time
Gilles Duceppe: 1 time
Michael Ignatieff: 1 time

I'll be keeping score again tomorrow night during the french debate.

Double-hulled Tankers Won't Protect Northern BC Coast From Oil Spills

Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline Project proposes to take tar sands oil from Alberta to the northern BC port of Kitimat for export to Pacific markets. Enbridge believes petroleum products can be moved safely through the northern BC coast, in part thanks to "modern and double-hulled" tankers.

In a report released last week, Living Oceans Society takes a close look at the limitations of double-hulled tankers and concludes they're not the panacea they're touted to be.

The risk of an oil spill in the northern BC coast is one of the main objections to this project. A spill could cause irreversible harm to the livelihoods of many coastal and aboriginal communities, the area's unique marine ecosystems, the Great Bear Rainforest and 28 Important Bird Areas.

A Joint Review Panel has been established to review the environmental assessment of the project, but a date for the hearings is yet to be announced. Nature Canada plans to participate in the review, together with BC Nature. However, opposition to the project is building and a proposed legislated ban on tankers in the area could put an end to this threat. Watch spOIL for a glimpse of the wilderness at risk.

Vote for Nature, Part 2: Protect Wildlife

The federal government is accountable to Canadians for protecting and recovering endangered species and other threatened wildlife through the federal Species at Risk Act. The federal government also has the legal responsibility to protect migratory birds in Canada. The Migratory Birds Convention Act is the law that implements our international agreement with the United States to conserve waterfowl and other migratory birds that fly across our borders.

Many of our bird populations are declining rapidly. Shorebird species and those that depend on Canada’s native grasslands are particularly vulnerable. Unfortunately Canada is not doing enough domestically and internationally to protect our loved and invaluable bird populations. We are not even fully enforcing our own laws to protect wildlife, according to several Canadian and international investigations. For example the Commission on Environmental Cooperation found that Canada was failing to enforce the Migratory Birds Convention Act by allowing logging operations that routinely destroy the nests of migratory birds. There is a similar lack of government regulation of a wide range of industrial activities that harm migratory birds.

Canada’s list of endangered, threatened and special concern species gets longer every year, never shorter. Species that get re-evaluated are typically doing worse rather than better. Time is ticking for these species, yet internal reviews by Environment Canada found a failure to meet the legal requirements and deadlines of the Species at Risk Act. A number of court rulings have also found the federal government not complying with this law, particularly with the requirement to identify critical habitat.

We need the federal government to live up to its responsibilities to protect wildlife. It must do a better job of enforcing the Species at Risk act by identifying critical habitat as required by the law and meeting deadlines. It must uphold the Migratory Birds Convention Act and change industrial activities that harm birds and their nests.

Ask your candidates:

What will you do to make sure Canada does a better job of enforcing our laws to protect wildlife like caribou, whales, and migratory birds?

For more about the federal election visit our Vote for Nature page.

All Eyes Are On Nature!

Cast Your Vote for Nature on May 2, 2011!

Canadians expect their government to protect nature. We live in a time when the planet's health is in peril, a time when strong leadership and decisive action are required to address the urgent threats of climate change, habitat loss, and species extinctions.

To effectively protect nature for future generations, the Government of Canada has to do four things:

1. Protect Wildlife
2. Preserve Natural Areas
3. Prevent Environmental Disasters
4. Lead Canadian Conservation

Visit Vote for Nature 2011 to find out more about what the government should do on these four issues. We've also put together a list of 7 Questions for Your Candidates.

Tell Canada’s leaders where you stand – vote for nature in 2011!


Music for All Eyes Are On Nature is courtesy of Pitx.

Vote for Nature, Part 1: The "Federal Environment"

Candidates make a lot of statements and promises during elections. But what power do politicians really have to protect nature on our behalf? Funny you should ask - today I start a blog series on this very question!

Under the Canadian constitution, the provincial, territorial, and federal governments each have specific areas of responsibility. This means that the candidates asking for your vote will be accountable to you for protecting nature in specific ways.

The federal government has legal responsibility for specific areas of nature conservation based on existing laws and constitutional authority. So what part of the environment is federal jurisdiction? Simply put, the government of Canada has a duty to do four things for us:

1. Protect Wildlife
2. Preserve Natural Areas
3. Prevent Environmental Disasters
4. Lead Canadian Conservation

I will look at each of these in more detail in a series of blog posts. Please let me know what you think.

Connect with Nature: April Showers

April shower by zanzibar (via Flickr)

Spring days can also mean the return of cloudy, rainy weather. But you can still enjoy nature, even when the raindrops are coming down.

I'll often hear the birds singing up a storm to rival the rain showers, even though they're all safely tucked away in the trees. Why not test your ear by sitting on the balcony or porch and seeing which birds you can identify by their songs alone?

Or, once the rain has passed, put on your rubber boots and take your favourite nature walk - notice all the new life that has popped up. It's also a great time to find worms more easily, so you can take the opportunity to add to our knowledge about these fascinating creatures by participating in the WormWatch program.

If heading outside in the rain still seems too daunting, this is still a great season to curl up with your favourite nature book or eco film. Learn something new about our natural world and then share it with your family, friends or community.

How do you like to connect with nature on a rainy day? Let us know in the comments below!

Love Nature? Love Beer? Then You Can Help!

If you love nature and you love beer, combining your two passions while making a difference has just gotten easier with the launch of Alexander Keith's Green Initiative!

By entering a PIN from specially-marked 24 IPA packs and 15 -bottle mixer packs of Alexander Keith’s beer on Keith’s Facebook page, you can reveal a donation amount of between $0 and $1,000 which Keith’s will donate on your behalf to four great causes and their national partners across Canada:

• Nature Canada
• Waterkeepers Canada
• NSLC Adopt-A-Stream
• Trees Ontario

Entering your pin also gives you the chance to win a Keith’s Eco-Adventure. You could be on your way to an eight day dog-sledding adventure in the Yukon!

Not a beer drinker, but still want to help nature? Share Keith’s Green Initiative with friends on Facebook and Keith’s will donate $1 to one of the above four charities! Sharing also enters you to win a Keith’s Eco-Prize Pack. Keith's estimates that as much as $75,000 will be donated through this program.

A few words from our executive director, Ian Davison, on the initiative:

“Alexander Keith’s Green Initiative is helping to protect nature in this country, something we know Canadians care deeply about. Wildlife is the clear winner when one of Canada’s most respected conservation organizations teams up with one of the country’s oldest commercial breweries.”

A big thank you goes out to everyone who has shared Keith's Green Initiative on Facebook and to those who have purchased specially marked cases of Keith's beer.

Cheers!

Get to Know Your Wild Neighbors!

The 2011 Robert Bateman Get to Know Contest kicks off this Sunday, April 10.

This year, the contest encourages Canadian youth to enjoy nature by getting outside and creating art, writing, digital photography, and videos.

Submit your art for the chance to win cash prizes, an invitation to the week-long Get to Know Art & Nature Camp in Victoria and much more.

In celebration of the International Year of Forests, the theme of the 2011 Get to Know Contest is "This is My Forest". Whether it's a single tree in a backyard or acres of boreal forest in a national park, the contest offers youth the opportunity to learn about and celebrate their local forest and its inhabitants.

The contest runs from April 10 to May 23, with launches at participating parks, zoos, and museums all across Canada during National Wildlife Week, April 10 – 16. To learn more and find out how to enter, visit www.gettoknow.ca.

The Best of Environmental Film Comes to Ottawa

Every few weeks, my daughter Cassie insists we visit the Canadian Museum of Nature here in Ottawa -- what she calls "the dinosaur museum" -- so that she can visit the triceratops models and feed them her lunch. The museum staff is very accommodating toward these wholly unsanctioned fantasy mealtimes.

This week, I have another good reason to visit the museum, and it has nothing to do with giant lizards. From April 5-8 the Canadian Museum of Nature will present some of the best environmental documentaries from Toronto's Planet in Focus Film Festival.

The Ottawa screenings are part of a national tour with stops at other natural history museums in several Canadian cities, including Whitehorse, Halifax and Victoria. I've looked at the line-up; it's a mix of the fear-inducing and the awe-inspiring. There are award-winning films about the coming crisis in drinking water, the dire effects of a mass bee hive collapse, and the alarming effects of global warming. But there is also an uplifting story about indigenous peoples saving the Yukon River, another about former enemies joining forces to save the hawksbill turtle, and a fascinating underwater journey into Alaska's inside passage.

Nature Canada joined famed author and nature advocate Margaret Atwood on the red carpet at the 2010 Planet in Focus festival for the premiere of the Ron Mann film In the Wake of the Flood, a documentary about Atwood's worldwide Year of the Flood book tour. Since Atwood helped to raise funds and awareness about Nature Canada on the tour, we make a small appearance in the film.

(Ron Mann's film isn't on the docket for this travelling film fest -- but you can still buy the DVD!)

Check out the museum's web site for film schedules and other details, or the Planet in Focus site for more info about screenings in other cities.