Category: Nature

  • Black Scoter Belly Flops

    Point Lepreau is a great spot to watch the spring migration of Black Scoters and other sea birds heading north to their summer breeding grounds. Sticking out into the Bay of Fundy, this point is a significant location along the North American Atlantic Flyway, a migratory route for millions of birds. This is the home…

  • Trailing Arbutus

    The trailing arbutus is a lovely spring flower – blooming in April in New Brunswick. The leaves are tough and leathery and can be found spreading out on the ground just as the snow melts. It is a perennial shrub in the Heath family, Ericaceae. It is found in acidic sandy or rocky soils, in…

  • Backyard Sugaring

    During our second year of the pandemic, we began tapping our backyard maple trees. Baby-blue pails, taps and spigots, special filters and a Brix refractometer were added to our household inventory. We were new to the production of maple syrup but we learned by trial and error and with some help from the internet. By…

  • Beaked Hazelnut

    Beaked Hazelnut; Noisetier à long bec. Corylus cornuta; Family: Betulaceae In my back yard, there is a beaked hazelnut shrub. It was the unique-shaped nuts on the ground that caught my attention to this shrub. It is the only native shrub in New Brunswick that has an edible nut, called a filbert. It is tolerant…