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 …
Hello again! This is not the busiest time of the year in my yard but there are still a few visitors making an appearance lately. It’s quite noisy in the yard these days, actually, because we are being overrun with Grackle and Starling juveniles. When you get 20 or 30 …
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, …
Hello from Manitouwadge, in Northwestern Ontario. I will soon be contributing to Bird Canada on the 20th of each month, mostly about bird sightings in, near or around my yard but sometimes, maybe my flowers too! Just so you know, I am nowhere near being a professional birder or ornithologist …
The past month I’ve been hitting the birding pretty hard trying to capture as much of the spring action as I can. A highlight of the month for my first ever trip to the famous spring migrant trap – Ontario’s Point Pelee National Park located on the northern coast of …
Have you seen the cartoon – on Facebook recently – with two crows sitting on a beam in the middle of an expanse of lawn, looking off into the distance, for … something? Being a lover of both birds and words, I laughed like crazy. Not everyone does, apparently. Crows are …
Well, things continue to hot up around Calgary as more and more returning birds make their way north. This time of year I like to go visiting ponds and sloughs all over Calgary and its outskirts as I never know quite what will be around. One returning species that I …
On the brink of becoming an official card-carrying senior, I find myself embarrassed, more and more often, at the things we humans do. As a younger person, I was rather optimistic about the world. Now I’m not. Now I wonder, every ten minutes, what are we thinking? What are we …
Well spring migration is really kicking into gear since my last post, and it’s been great to see swags of species coming back to southern Alberta each week. Many waterfowl species are in making their way through, from the American Wigeon, Canada Geese, mergansers and Mallards: I was also quite …