Blog  June 15, 2012

Robbing banks at EBW

L: Leigh picks up a baby robin. R: Phillip, what’s that on your hat? (Photos: Jen Hill)

By Leigh Paulseth, EBW Monitoring Volunteer

On a typical Sunday evening at Evergreen Brick Works, you’ll find families eating dinner together, catching up on news from the weekend, or individuals resting up to meet the daily chaos of the week ahead. I like to think that for the wildlife who call this site home, it’s not much different. One difference, however, is that there are a bunch of humans who, instead of relaxing at home, are out viewing the various Sunday rituals of the birds, amphibians and reptiles of the wetlands in and around EBW.

Affectionately known as “Team Pollywog” by Phillip Careless, one of the head monitors, this group of volunteers has been working this spring to record the presence of wildlife in the restored wetlands of the Weston Family Quarry Garden. Part of the province-wide monitoring programs, FrogWatch and Great Lakes Marsh Monitoring, the effort seeks to build a species list for the EBW site in order to see which species are using the habitat and how that changes over time.

Highlights this spring include a Great egret in the ponds and a beautiful Baltimore oriole enjoying the apple blossoms! A personal favourite, the Yellow warbler, has been particularly friendly on a couple of outings. Although only one frog call has been heard thus far, we’re hoping that more start piping up before the end of monitoring season.

For more information on these and other monitoring activities at Evergreen Brick Works, and how you can take part, visit our website.