September is already half over and fall migration is in full swing. Geese are flying by the hundreds overhead, the trees are changing color and dropping leaves already. And my yard is FULL of Grackles! Sometimes, a dozen or so Starlings are with them. It’s been an interesting few weeks …
Winterizing my trailer already? Where did the summer go? Just when things seemed to be warming up, it starts to cool down again…typical Alberta. I can’t complain though, the summers may be relatively short here (at least compared to Australia where I grew up), but they are mighty sweet! August …
Above pic- A male Northern Cardinal with one of his young. I had thought the summer of 2015 in our backyard was going to be something along the lines of spectacular. Spring was certainly making it seem like things were only going to get more interesting in the weeks/months …
I don’t know how long he’d been in the garden room. Maybe hours. Busy in the house, I’d decided to take a break and work on the 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle my grandkids had left for me to finish, just that morning. (It’s a bit of an addiction.) As soon …
Late summer already … it’s such a shame that the shortest season of the year has to disappear in a blink! I think it should be a rule that summer runs more slowly than the other 3 seasons, don’t you?? I was very excited this week to have another first-ever …
The 17th season of the British Columbia Coastal Waterbird Survey begins on September 13, and we have several vacant sites in Vancouver, Tofino, and Ucluelet. This long-term monitoring program helps identify population and distribution changes in overwintering waterbirds. Volunteers conduct counts of ducks, loons, grebes, gulls, and other waterbirds on the …
“It all started with a pair of Cardinals”. This is my standard response when asked how we got into backyard bird feeding or birding in general for that matter. Rob and I started dating in January of 2004, and that spring I suggested he get a bird feeder for his …
This summer we’re “feeling the heat” as we deal with drought and worry about the threat of fire on our island. (Where would we go??) Water conservation is nothing new to any gulf islander, of course. Although Dennis and I have a good well, many islanders buy drinking water year …
I love birding and I love camping (both of which I consider a form of ‘candy for the soul’), so when the two combine in summer I’m in a particularly happy place! My first family camping trip this year was out to Dinosaur Provincial Park in south-eastern Alberta, world-renowned for …
In June 2012 I submitted my concerns about Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline (NGP) to the Joint Review Panel of the National Energy Board (NEB). As I told the panel then, “Honestly, I’d rather be bird-watching, but sometimes there’s just no choice.” Of the 1161 citizens who made submissions to the NEB, …