Visiting family and friends in Australia for the first time in 3 years is my excuse for not delivering my monthly post in November, but I’ll do my best to make up for that this month! So to catch up… Late September and October in southern Alberta is a great …
Rob and I feed the birds year round, but even they get a few extra treats on Christmas Day. Since 2009 we’ve set up what we call the “Critter Christmas Tree” in our backyard. We don’t have a tree in the yard that would work, so we buy an evergreen …
My bird-feeding habits are seasonal. In the spring and summer I let most of the birds fend for themselves. Natural food abounds and I like them to eat the larva and bugs on the trees and bushes. It’s cheaper and easier for me, and probably healthier for them. I do, …
Another month has passed already and winter is right around the corner. We had a really sloppy (for lack of a better term!) storm last week that brought some heavy rain in the morning before turning to wet, heavy, slushy snow by noon. I picked that afternoon to take a …
With September ending off with our first Junco appearance to the backyard; I didn’t think we’d be getting Red-winged Blackbird appearances through the first 2 weeks of October. Sure they were sporadic, like 1 among a flock of 100 or so Common Grackles, but they were popping in. A couple …
My first passion was not birds but words: I started writing in my twenties, but only discovered birds in my mid-fifties. So maybe it’s not surprising I have a thing about how birds are named. As a novice birder I expected (foolishly) that the common name of a bird would …
Hello, again! Another month gone and now, winter is right around the corner. We had our first official dusting of snow on October 16th. Crazy how fast time goes and it’s funny: it seemed to CRAWL by when I was a kid! Anyway, I don’t really mind the approach of …
How’s that for a post title? 🙂 As readers of my blog posts will know, I particularly enjoy the fall season for all the gorgeous colors that it brings. Combine that with some of the most spectacular plumage to be found on any North American bird – such as the …
September is a busy and unpredictable month in our backyard. We’re sad to see our summer visitors leave us, but we look forward to the freshness of Fall. The Baltimore Orioles were gone by September 1st, and our last Ruby-throated Hummingbird sighting was September 13th. We still keep the sugar …
In May I got an iPhone for my birthday – the one that made me, officially, a card-carrying, pension-getting senior. Now I text with friends and get emails wherever I am. I like these features in a phone. But more exciting is the fact that I can download apps. …