Good day! Is it too late to wish you all a “Happy New Year”? Here we are in January 2017. The backyard so far for this year has been average, but let me tell you about how it ended in 2016. I guess the title gives it away though. Yes, …
This morning Rob and I took part in our first ever Christmas Bird Count for Bird Studies Canada. It was taking place at an area we have been birding for over a decade, The Humber Areboretum, and the organizers there, as well as from Bird Studies Canada were happy to …
Someone Flipped The Winter Switch! Hello again! It is most definitely winter up here in NW Ontario. In the past 3 days, we’ve gone from heavy rain to heavy freezing rain (about a 1/2 inch worth!) and now to blowing snow and about -15C wind chills. I had to bring …
Birding this past month in the Calgary area has – due to a variety of weather patterns – presented a lot of opportunities to photograph many species under different conditions. A particular favorite of mine is the always striking Wood Duck: An increasing number of Wood Ducks have taken up …
Hello! And welcome back to the T.O. Backyard here in the Bird Canada Blog. This month I’d like to share something a little different, stepping entirely away from our backyard. I call this blog “Giving Back” because that is what it is about… giving back to the birds. My wife …
Imagine you’re a bird in flight, high in the sky, heading from your wintering grounds in South America to the Boreal Forest, along with a dozen other birds. You make the journey every year because that forest is your breeding ground. Migration, built into your genes like the colour of …
Hello again! I sure hope everyone has been enjoying this wonderful autumn season. I dearly love autumn …. I just wish it would last a little longer. Like spring, it seems to be gone in a flash. Our tree colors are pretty much finished already and at least half of …
This August I had a very enjoyable week of camping with my family out on the prairie lakes and east of Calgary, during which I was able to photograph a number of migrant shorebirds as they passed southward through southern Alberta. Weather-wise, we were pretty lucky with only the one …
Thanksgiving weekend in Canada is just about a thing of the past, and now so is fall migration for 2016. The last couple weeks the birds have been passing through southern Ontario, heading on their journey south. It’s a treat for us to catch sights of any of these birds …
Islands and birds. An island full of birds. Birds in flight over a tropical island. Lovely images, right? But there’s more to it than meets the eye. I count myself incredibly lucky to live on an island, Gabriola Island, in the Salish Sea just off the coast of British Columbia. …