54 Years ago !! A few weeks before Christmas, after dithering for a couple of years, we took advantage of a seasonal offer at Best Buy and bought a new (Sony OLED) TV. This afternoon I finally got around to hooking up a DVD player - I mean, who uses DVD anymore? - [...]
Strolling in Winter near Montreal We were out a few days ago counting winter birds and thought a couple of minutes strolling through the snowy forest with us might be calming for your soul. Immediately by the start off this short walk there were four different species of Woodpecker in the trees [...]
The fellow was clearing an ice skating track on the river ice while some serious cloud loomed menacingly overhead. If you peer closely there's a plane below the clouds coming down to land at the airport. Two ways of moving about.
One of the must do tasks for New Year's Day around here is to total up the number of species of birds that we have heard or seen in or from our garden during the preceding year. The garden list for 2021 topped off at a gratifying 76 different species of birds. [...]
Hudson Christmas Bird Count (Route 2) 2021 This is probably the 20th year that J and I have done the annual Christmas Bird Count centred on Hudson, and all but the first year we have censused the same route. It's unusual in that there is far more driving than walking - not a [...]
THE SHORTEST DAY So the shortest day came, and the year died, And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away. They lighted candles in the winter trees; They hung their homes with evergreen; They burned beseeching fires all night long To keep [...]
In Baie-D'Urfé, and in other similar towns blessed with lots of trees, we often speak of the importance of our trees. This extract from an excellent book about urban nature, speaks to that understanding and explains why providing small, replacement trees ("oh, they will get big in a few years") are not [...]
Temperatures have been up and down like a yo-yo recently and after a bit of snow last night this morning was one of the warmer times so the snow was giving off "snow mist" with a white hazy fog amongst the trees when we went out to see birds. A late lurking Tufted [...]
Snow - then a brief marginal thaw - and now cold again with ice. Only a week though to the winter solstice after which the days begin to lengthen again on the way to the return of spring. Before that, however, we have January and February and serious winter days ahead. [...]