Spring migratory birds in the Garden I suspect that anyone reading this journal entry will already be aware of the pleasure we take in enticing birds to visit our garden. This week has proved to be the (slightly delayed) peak week for northwards migration soy can feast your eyes on some of the [...]
In Search of Spring Flowers in the Arboretum It's the time of year when the trees are in blossom and forest ephemerals are flowering and making the most of the available light before the tree leaves cast the forest floor into shade. Mid-week the Arboretum suggested a walking route that would take visitors [...]
" ... how about you, you, you?" The snow has almost all gone, the sun was shining, it was cool enough to keep the crowds down and there was a major birthday being celebrated so we celebrated by going to the zoo. Not just any zoo - this is a zoo about [...]
Song Sparrow There are a couple of pairs of Song Sparrows in the garden at the moment starting the process of looking for a nesting site and generally settling in. After Christmas we had put the ex-Xmas tree out on the deck near to the heated waterbath in order to provide shelter [...]
Last winter morning at the banding station Today (this is being written on 21 March) is the vernal equinox and probably our last day this winter managing the bird feeder array at the local bird banding station. There is a some snow forecast over the weekend but otherwise the spring thaw has [...]
Out birding on Thursday morning we happened upon this old tree which has clearly seen better days, has gained a lot of boring insects larvae and is now the chosen restaurant for the woodpeckers. There are five or six woodpecker species in this part of the world, the largest being the bit-bigger-than-a-Crow Pileated Woodpecker that [...]
This is the time of year, with spring approaching, that I get asked questions about what to do in the garden to attract birds and other wildlife. It happened earlier this morning. So I have put together a short page with some of the fundamental things you want to be doing. Happy to [...]
Audio Recording 4 March 2019 You have probably had enough photographs of the Carolina Wrens in our garden to keep you happy for some time now ... but here is a 20 second audio clip of one of them singing lustily from the trees on the south side of our garden. A) Original [...]
Frankly, this week has not been replete with photo opportunities so I looking forward slightly and sharing this picture of sour cherry buds swelling up at about this date a couple of years ago. It's been a rather unpleasant winter - not so much the cold which is normal fore Montreal, but the variation [...]
"Just the place for a Snark!" the Birders cried, As they entered the forest with care; Stepping, each man, with gait broad and wide While they searched for the Snark in his lair. What the 21 intrepid BPQ and Arboretum birders were seeking this morning was perhaps not the Snark, which anyway turned [...]