Top Ten ON Nature Magazine Articles

Here are our top ten favourite articles from our award-winning magazine, ON Nature. You can read them on your desktop, tablet or phone. Let us know which one is your favourite!

Looking for more environmental news? You can read current and back issues of ON Nature online. Get closer to nature by exploring Ontario’s natural species and spaces, and stay informed about important conservation issues across the province.

ON Nature magazine is supported by the generosity of Ontario Nature members. For just $50 per year, you’ll get a printed magazine mailed to you and you’ll help support important conservation projects such as habitat restoration that protects species at risk in Ontario.

Here Be Giants

First overfishing, then hydro dams. Lake sturgeon, Ontario’s largest and longest-lived fish, now belongs to one of the most beleaguered groups of animals on the plant.

By Peter Christie

Butterflies

The monarch odyssey is the most famous of butterfly migrations. But this insect is only one of more than 17,000 butterfly species that range from the tropics to the Arctic. Nearly 300 species are resident in Canada, and 138 of those can be found in Ontario.

By Dan Schneider and Peter Pautler

Wolfsong

Lonesome or aggressive, mournful or spirited, few sounds in nature thrill and mystify like the nocturnal dirge of this top predator. A listener’s guide to the meaning of wolf howls.

By Ray Ford

Ontario’s Woodpeckers

Ontario has nine species of woodpeckers. All nine species are members of the Picidae family – the “true” woodpeckers, meaning hole nesters that excavate their own cavities.

By Dan Schneider and Peter Pautler

Nesting Instincts

As barns become increasingly scarce, nature lovers are hoping that special structures can stand in as nesting habitat for barn swallows. So why are the birds not flocking to them?

By Don Scallen

Salamanders

Salamanders are perhaps the most elusive of the amphibians – they are rarely encountered after spring breeding – yet they outnumber all other vertebrates that inhabit our forested areas.

By Dan Schneider and Peter Paulter

A Southern Ontario Sanctuary

The south shore in Prince Edward County is a rare natural area amid southern Ontario’s rampant development. Why protecting the shore’s natural bounty presents a rare opportunity to preserve biodiversity.

By Conor Mihell

Ontario’s Bats

As the only flying mammals in the world, bats can make an impressive claim to fame. Eight species of these nocturnal creatures live in Ontario.

By Dan Schneider and Peter Pautler

Coniferous Trees

Confined, for the most part, to habitats shaped by cold, dry, windy climates, coniferous trees dominate the enormous northern boreal forest, a region that blankets 11 percent of the earth’s surface.

By Dan Schneider and Paul Pautler

Poisonous Plants

Why are some plants poisonous? What evolutionary purpose does toxicity serve? After all, many plants depend on insects and other animals to disperse their seeds and pollen.

By Dan Schneider and Peter Pautler

Noah Cole is Ontario Nature’s communications technician and a regular contributor to Ontario Nature's blog and ON Nature magazine. Noah is an accomplished naturalist with a passion for protecting the great outdoors and a nature photographer. Noah is the author of Ontario Wildlife Photography (canadianimages.net).