What's Your Nature?
Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!
Lower Lake morning arrives.
I woke up early and heard the loons calling from Lower Lake at Upper and Lower Lake WMA.
I decided to head over to watch the sun come up, most of the birds ( and muskrat ) were off in the distance, but it was still well worth the visit to see the colors change before the Sun actually made it's appearance.
Why did the salamander cross the road?
This may seem like the start of a joke (to get to the other side, right?) but it actually has a serious answer and some complex systems at play.
Plant a Tree, or Rent It?
Planting a tree isn’t rocket science, which is good. If it were that complex, I’d wager we’d have a lot fewer trees around. It may not take a genius to plant a tree correctly, but a lot of money is wasted each year to buy and install trees which may as well be rented, because they will only live a fraction of their potential lifespan.
A daybreak walk.
I woke up to see mist rising from the Oswegatchie, so I went out to sit on a milkcrate for an hour or so and see what came by to visit.
Among the ones that came by were Mallards, Wood Ducks, Common and Hooded Merganser and a Pied Billed Grebe.
They are usually all very skittish and leave anytime we exit the house or are within around 100 yards from them, so I got a slightly better chance to get phots by being there first and waiting for them to arrive.
Snapped a Snipe
Wilson's snipe was out by mud where the river had receded recently.
I've seen them up here before, but it's the first time one stayed around long enough for me get a good picture of it.
Crow overlooking the landscape
I saw this American Crow while on a walk on the Saddlemire Trail today. It was perched on this dead tree watching over the area. I had my binoculars with me, so I lined up my phone camera with the binocular lens to get this picture. Did you know that crows can remember faces? They're pretty cool birds!
First Frog
On a walk in the yard between the river and wetlands, this Bullfrog was sitting motionless.
The first frog we have seen in 2025, we later heard some spring peepers as well.
North Country Sustainability Day and Green Living Fair
For more information on this event, check out their web page by following this link.
This event is free and open to the public and the academic community. It will include an exhibit & fair, workshops, posters and keynote speaker. The exhibits feature tabling by community organizations, renewable energy and environmentally oriented businesses, topical posters created by area students, outdoor learning activities, an informational display of electric vehicles.
North Country Wild Showcase - Part 2!
Spend a morning in beautiful Heritage Park in downtown Canton learning about Nature Up North's North Country Wild (NOCO Wild) community science program!
The NOCO Wild program has the goal of studying the ways in which animals move throughout St. Lawrence County and how they behave in different habitats. We're hoping to enlist community members from across the North Country to help us answer these questions by having them take game cameras home and put them on their properties, recording the animals that are there.