Whatever your interest may be, this month-by-month guide to the key natural events in Central and Eastern Ontario will let you know exactly what’s happening — and it’s often in your own backyard.

Nature’s Year is an almanac of key events in nature occurring in Central and Eastern Ontario, a region that extends from the Bruce Peninsula and Georgian Bay in the west to Ottawa and Cornwall in the east. The book is a chronicle of the passing seasons designed to inform cottagers, gardeners, photographers, suburban backyard birders, and nature enthusiasts alike as to what events in nature to expect each month of the year.

Whatever your interest may be — birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fish, invertebrates, plants, fungi, weather, or the night sky — just turn to a given month and you’ll find a list of what’s happening, often right in your own backyard. This book will also provide a reassuring measure of order and predictability to nature and help the reader become more attentive to and appreciative of the many wonders of the natural world that surround us in this exceptional region of Ontario.

As a youngster, Drew Monkman's interest in nature began with frogs and turtles but soon grew to include birds and, eventually, all of the rest. He is a board member and past president of the Peterborough Field Naturalists and popular field trip leader. Drew also participates in a number of wildlife monitoring programs such as the Breeding Bird Survey, the Marsh Monitoring Program and the new Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. As an educator, Drew emphasizes environmental education in all his teaching and strives to develop in his students a basic literacy in the workings of the natural world. Drew has also been involved for the past twelve years in schoolyard naturalization and has written several articles on this topic. A journalism graduate from Université Laval in Quebec City, Drew is married with four children. Nature's Year in the Kawarthas is the result of twenty years of careful observation of natural phenomena in the Peterborough area where he has lived for almost his entire life.

Drew Monkman's profile page

Embracing the seasons with all their distinctive offerings, Monkman explains to the reader through photo diagrams and maps the greatness that can be found in central and eastern Ontario.

The Echo Haliburton County