Candlemas - Imbolc - Lupercalia February 2 this year is the festival of Candlemas/Imbolc/Lupercalia and marks the half way point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Solstice - without a doubt this is a date to celebrate. Any reason for a drink and a good meal is worth making note of. Appropriately, [...]
18 January, and after a weekend of heavy snowfall we went out to enjoy the countryside on the West Island. Considering this in Montreal, it's very pleasing to have such places within a very short distance from home. Lovely deep snow with a thin and crisp topping to wade through - thank [...]
Do you know just how varied is the wildlife on the West Island in Winter? West Island Wildlife is an occasional webzine. It is FREE and fully illustrated, and has the intention of introducing readers to the surprisingly varied wildlife and native plants to be found on the West Island of Montreal. Following the [...]
This winter, instead of sorting through the CDs deciding what seasonal music to listen to while putting up the winter tree I opted to spend a happy afternoon creating a seasonally specific Spotify playlist - and sharing it. We do Christmas, of course we do, but we really enjoy the Winter Solstice [...]
I was leading a field trip (ie: guided morning birding walk) in the arboretum earlier today. A gloriously sunny, but cool, morning. Birding was hard but we managed to find a satisfying dozen-plus-one species altogether which is par for the course at this time of the year unless you are very lucky. [...]
Ten Years Ago If you are a birder or a photographer, please don't get excited - this bird was found ten years ago and the photographs were serendipitously resurfaced whilst I was cleaning out unrequired pictures from my too large digital archives. The Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula) is a very rare [...]
Walking in the Snow with Birds There was some gentle snow overnight on Wednesday and so we had to go out and make the most of it Thursday morning. The temperatures were not too cold (they will be exceptionally cold by the weekend) and we had a good tramp. This wooded and [...]
Bluebirds in Mid-Winter !!! It's the 17 January, the sun is shining from a clear blue sky, temperatures are -16C (with windchill -27C) and there we are, sitting in the warm reading the papers when a small bird lands in the viburnum bush just outside. A quick glance, not expecting anything other [...]
Sparrows are perhaps my/our favourite birds. From the point of view of nostalgia I would say especially the House Sparrows that I grew up with but otherwise one of the great things about living in Canada is the number of other sparrow species (most of them more strictly Buntings, but we won't go [...]
Bruce Spanwing Moth A couple of days ago we saw a pale moth flying across the garden - late November, snow on the ground, temperatures around zero or below - and shrugged as it flew away. This morning we got a closer look at it, or a relative. I am reasonably confident that [...]