From I Love Gardening:

Making small adjustments, like switching to a red porch light, can have a big impact on protecting nocturnal wildlife. Red lights are less attractive to insects, thus supporting bat populations by allowing them to hunt naturally, benefiting the whole ecosystem

From Ontario Nature:

ON Nature: the magazine that brings readers closer to nature. Experience the great outdoors, even when you’re indoors.

• The common green darner’s multi-generational migration
• Making forests resilient to climate change
• Green corridor connects cootes with the escarpment
• Climate action needs electoral reform

Download yours today.

From the University of Guelph with the University of Guelph College of Biological Science:

University of Guelph researchers are calling for international collaboration to protect eastern North American monarch butterflies. Dr. Ryan Norris, an ecologist in the Department of Integrative Biology, has co-developed a conservation strategy to guide habitat restoration.

This research shows how immediate coordinated action between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico is necessary to prevent further decline of a species whose population has dropped by 80% in recent decades.

Learn more: https://uoguel.ph/fcxxd

From Nature Canada:

Did you know? Moths are more efficient pollinators at night than day-flying pollinators such as bees and butterflies?

Both moths and butterflies belong to the order Lepidoptra, but what’s the difference?

Find out in this months blog: https://naturecanada.ca/…/the-cecropia-moth-art-on-the…/

From the Nature Conservancy of Canada:

Nature + prizes? Yes, please! For every photo you tag on social media using #NCCBioBlitz from July 28 to August 4, you’ll automatically be entered into a daily draw for a $100 Visa gift card.

Sign up today: https://brnw.ch/21wUfrp

From Fanshawe Conservation Area:

Have a beginner birder in your family? Join us to learn the basics of birdwatching on Saturday, August 9, 2025, at 9 a.m.

From The Mill Pond, Dorchester, Ontario:

Did you know?

In Ontario, it is illegal to capture monarch butterflies or their caterpillars without a permit from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), according to Ontario Nature. While the Ministry has issued permits for activities like monarch tagging and rearing, they are typically not issued to individuals. Organizations may have blanket permits that allow for activities like rearing monarchs, but individual permits are often difficult to obtain.

You can help without capturing:

Planting native milkweed and wildflowers, and participating in citizen science projects like “Butterflies in My Backyard” can help the Monarch population says Ontario Nature.

The Act defines “specially protected invertebrate” to include the following 14 species, all of which are butterflies:

* Black Swallowtail (P. polyxenes)

* Bog Elfin (C. lanoraieensis)

* Canadian Tiger Swallowtail (P. canadensis)

* Eastern Giant Swallowtail (P. cresphontes)

* Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (P. glaucus)

* Frosted Elfin (C. irus)

* Karner Blue (L. melissa samuelis)

* Monarch (D. plexippus)

* Mottled Duskywing (E. martialis)

* Old World Swallowtail (P. machaon)

* Pipevine Swallowtail (P. philenor)

* Spicebush Swallowtail (P. troilus)

* West Virginia White (P. virginiensis)

* Zebra Swallowtail (E. marcellus

From Saving Monarchs:

Will you personally leave this earth trying to help others on your way out?

From The Mill Pond, Dorchester Ontario

Just a heads up to trail walkers!!

Starting Tuesday, July 15, 2025, this section of Mill Pond trail is scheduled to be CLOSED while Upper Thames will be completing some crib wall repairs.

This will take place between the dam and the Byron Road access.

Trail walkers need to make alternate plan.

From Journey North:

The summer months are here, and that means the return of the International Monarch Monitoring Blitz!

Now in its ninth year, the Blitz will take place from July 25 to August 3. This event invites individuals and organizations across Canada, Mexico, and the United States to participate in a trinational effort to collect data on monarch butterflies and milkweed plants.

Organized by ten partner organizations across North America, the Blitz encourages everyone to contribute to monarch butterfly conservation, and all you have to do is submit your sightings of monarchs and milkweed to Journey North (or a partner organization) during these 10 days!

Data collected during the Blitz will be published in the Trinational Monarch Knowledge Network, a repository of information available for anyone to consult and download. This snapshot of monarch and milkweed distribution helps scientists better understand how to protect and conserve one of North America’s most iconic species.