Of the innumerable and untold advantages of having a birder in your family, a big one is just how easy they are to buy for at Christmas. Birders are happy with anything that supports their habit. Me, I’d welcome a forty pound bag of black-oil sunflower seed. Or a carton …
This past weekend (December 14 and 15), I participated in two back-to-back Christmas Bird Counts in the Calgary area. On Saturday, December 14, I drove out to Canmore before sunrise to cover an area near Quarry Lake for the second year in a row, and on Sunday, December 15, I …
At this point in the year I had hoped to be presenting some shots of some of our annual winter visitors, particularly finches like grosbeaks, redpolls and crossbills. Alas, the grim winter finch forecast appears to be depressingly all-too-accurate to date and I have not seen one of these birds; a …
Some alarming statistics have recently been reported concerning the number of birds killed by cats in both Canada and the United States. According to a study by Avian Conservation Ecology (2013) between 100 million and 350 million birds are killed each year by cats in Canada. In a report …
Once in a while someone asks me why I feed the birds. Usually the question stems from plain old curiosity. But periodically the overtone is: wouldn’t it be better not to interfere? To let the birds get their food naturally, from native flowers and plants? It’s a fair question. Certainly …
Many North American birders and photographers fawn over the majesty and beauty of birds of prey. From the soaring raptors and eagles, to the swooping and diving falcons, to the deft and agile accipiters, and of course the ever popular owls, there remains one family of carnivorous songbirds whose ingenuity …
Here in southern Alberta winter is well and truly on its way, and the lakes, ponds and streams are starting to freeze over. The freeze tends to concentrate birds into open water areas, and this is something of a positive if you are trying to find certain birds as it …
Written from northern France, by H.H. Munro, who was killed at Beaumont-Hamel on 14 November 1916. Considering the enormous economic dislocation which the war operations have caused in the regions where the campaign is raging, there seems to be very little corresponding disturbance in the bird life of the same …
One of the benefits of teaching at a rural school on Vancouver Island is the daily lunch time walks. The country roads are bordered with hedgerows and there is usually good birding. I always keep an eye open for unusual birds birds and every now and then something turns up. …
