The word ‘mushroom’ often conjures up an image of a white or brown cap-and-stem fungus, but mushrooms come in a variety of shapes, sizes,...

On PEI, spring foraging offers up lots of leafy greens and tasty roots, but there are crunchy succulents on the menu, too. Today’s...

Here on PEI, we’re in that brief but magical part of spring when the days are long, it’s pleasantly warm, and the onslaught of blackflies...

Some of PEI’s rarest and most interesting plants are a bit like your favourite seasonal foods: you can only find them for a short time...

If you’re counting the days until you can enjoy vegetables fresh from your garden, I have good news: many of PEI’s wild greens and root...

Welcome back to Ask a Naturalist, your own personal Google for information on all things natural on PEI! Today’s topic comes from my own...

When I think ‘spring mushrooms’, Morels and False Morels are the first that come to mind. We have both here on PEI and – despite the...

Over the winter, we’ve explored the story of PEI starting with formation of its bedrock 300 million years ago, through the last ice age,...

Some of the Island’s earliest spring wildflowers appear on their plants before the leaves. From the subtle blooms of Red Maple and Beaked...

Last week, we looked at how and why mammals such as Raccoon and Skunk were introduced to PEI in the early 1900s. These were among our...

Fall may be peak mushroom season on PEI, but fungi can be found at all times of year.  One that I’m seeing a lot right now is the...

Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored how and why PEI lost its large, native mammals during the 18th and 19th centuries. But in the...

Welcome back to Ask a Naturalist, your own personal Google for information on all things natural on PEI. Today’s topic is courtesy of...

In the last few posts, we’ve looked at aspects of PEI’s forests and wildlife hundreds of years ago, before European settlement. In each...

Reading wildlife tracks is one way to know who’s been around, but our neighbours of other species leave other signs as well. There’s...

At the end of the last Ice Age about 12,500 years ago, PEI would have looked more lunar than Earthly: no vegetation, just clay, silt,...

There are two types of tracks I am seeing everywhere on PEI this year: Snowshoe Hare (featured March 3), and the topic of today’s post:...

Last week, we looked at some of the large mammals that once roamed PEI, including Black Bears, Lynx, Walrus, and Caribou. You may think...

If it looks like a Mouse and squeaks like a Mouse it. . . might be a Vole! This week, we explore Vole tracks and sign, and look at Voles’...

Last week, we explored the PEI landscape of three centuries ago, around the time Europeans arrived. Those pre-settlement forests and...