On the ground In cyberspace News from elsewhere The Fletcher Wildlife Garden is a project of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club. It is located on 6 ha of land just south of the Arboretum in Ottawa, Canada. photo by Claudia Burns Check our Blog often for photos and notes on what's happening at the FWG. And, for a longer-term view, read our Progress reports	What's up at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden July 2008 Volunteer at the FWG! We desperately need help controling swallowwort and other invasive plant species at the FWG. If you can spare an hour to cut or pull swallowwort, please let us know. Our summer employee, Chris Lauzon, is on hand to provide advice and answer questions. Your help would be much appreciated. Contact us if you can help. Our Backyard Garden crew (Friday mornings, 9 a.m. to noon) has been hard at work getting the garden spruced up for our busy season. Lots of birds, chipmunks, frogs, toads, a turtle, and of course hundreds of insects are going about their business among the flowers and shrubs. And the Wednesday evening volunteer group (6 to 8 p.m.) has cleared a new area of the Butterfly Meadow and will be filling it with plants that are nectar sources or larval food for our local butterflies. New volunteers are welcome. Just come to the garden on Friday morning or Wednesday evening and we'll give you a job to do. See Volunteer at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden for more information.
On the ground	More about butterflies On Saturday, 21 June, Peter Hall led a very successful workshop on skippers — those little orange butterflies that appear in large numbers at this time of year. With the help of photos and slides, Peter took us through the various groups of common local skippers, describing their distinguishing features and quizzing us on what we learned. As a bonus, Peter gave us a copy of his notes so that we can refer to them in the field. See Skippers of the Ottawa District New feature on our web site — Christine Hanrahan contributed photos of almost all the butterflies we've found at the FWG over the years and these are now linked from our Butterflies of the FWG page. Arranged by family, the added pages show several views of each species and provide wingspan measurements and flight times. Please let us know if you find this useful or have any suggestions for improvement. Coming up Saturday, 5 July, 8:30 a.m. (rain date: Sunday, 6 July) Second annual Ottawa area butterfly count led by Jeff Skevington and Peter Hall. Please register with Jeff at 613-832-1970 by July 3. More info...
	Thanks to PwC volunteers! On June 27, the PriceWaterhouse Coopers Green Team spread gravel on our trail, erected new signposts and bird box posts, pulled out buckthorn and swallowwort, and tidied the area around our plant nursery. A big thanks to these enthusiastic and energetic people for all their help! See blog for more...
	Mulch is the answer At the FWG, we aim for low maintenance. Heavy mulching during the summer months not only inhibits weeds, it also holds in moisture and returns nutrients to the soil. More about mulch...
	We need your advice! The FWG is for wildlife. That doesn't mean we don't want people in the garden, but it means that we should all be thinking about the wildlife as we walk the trails to make sure we don't disrupt their lives. Accidentally scaring a bird that is busy feeding its family can cause it to abandon its nest and the babies will die. Our management committee is trying to figure out how to make visitors more aware of the creatures who live in the garden and the consequences of disturbing them. We would really like your advice! We don't want to pepper the trails with "NO" signs or post a long list of rules. How would you alert people? What's the best way to ask people to stay on the trails and not interfere with the wildlife? Email us. We'd love to hear your ideas!
In cyberspace	Trees and shrubs of the FWG In response to several requests, Christine Hanrahan has now put together an inventory of all the trees and shrubs at the FWG. This accompanies our earlier inventories of amphibians and reptiles, birds, butterflies, insects, mammals, moths, and wildflowers. All can be found at Inventories of wildlife species.
	Focus on insects This is the time of year when many insects are most abundant. We've been adding to our inventory and including as many photos as we can manage (thanks again to Christine!). See Insects of the FWG
	FWG is a star! The FWG has been celebrating International Migratory Bird Day with an open house and birding walk for over 11 years. This activity has now been recognized on the IMBD web site, which includes a photo of Peter Fuller leading a walk. See EFTA Recognizes 10 Years of Participation
News from elsewhere	Fern Walk Monday, 4 August, 1 p.m. (for about 2 hours) 6114 Carp Road (an easy 40 minutes west and north of the FWG) Lis Allison, who was at our plant sale selling a number of species of ferns that she had grown from spores, is leading a walk to look at some of these plants in her garden and woods. Close to 30 native ferns, many growing naturally but all locally indigenous, will be seen from garden paths and an easily walked trail. Many of the ferns, as well as a few other native plants, will be available for you to buy for your garden. The walk will be a very relaxed one, allowing time for photography and discussion. If you would like to come, please let Lis know at 613-832-2156 or lis@pine-ridge.ca.