Dark-eyed Juncos As the temperatures start to fall towards zero (a few days yet) and the cold rain falls we are beginning to see the first arrivals of birds form the north that usually spend the winter with us. Today there was a flock of over a dozen Dark-eyed Juncos busily working [...]
A Carolina Wren Although we see them every year now, the Carolina Wrens are still uncommon, not to say rare, around here. Last winter we had two (at least?) on our feeders almost daily and in the spring a pair nested in a flower pot on our front porch and fledged a [...]
One year ago we had planned to spend a weekend away to celebrate our 50th anniversary but covid meant it all had to be cancelled at the last minute - quite a disappointment. A couple of golden oldies Good things come to he/she who waits however and we have just celebrated [...]
Since the start of the Covid restrictions far away in early 2020, Bird Protection Quebec have had to replace the regular weekly, guided field trips at weekends with a series of innovative and interesting “virtual” field trips. This weekend past participant birders were invited to do a Big Sit. In a Big [...]
Warbler Soup! The waterfall earned its keep today with six species of migrating warblers plus a warbling vireo. Shortly after luncheon there was a terrific commotion on the header pool of the waterfall with between 15 and 20 small birds frantically competing for the chance to splash in the water. They splashed around [...]
The local teenage Robin gang met at the swimming pool after lunch but being teenagers couldn't help squabbling :)
Sometimes a parent never gets a break. Two juvenile American Goldfinch were looking confused sitting on the stem of sunflower wondering where seeds were. Still in the "learning to be a bird" stage of life they had yet to work out that they needed to be on the face of the flower. [...]
Looking about you and learning about what you see About a week ago we wrote about our participation in the Nature Conservancy Canada “Bioblitz” during which we recorded all the species we saw in a five day period in our garden and the nearby roads and parks. The total came to 217. We [...]
I am not a person who appreciates, or usually understands, poetry beyond Ogden Nash and the Horatio on the Bridge sort of thing. But there are exceptions. Many friends and readers of this journal will have noted that I enjoy wildlifing on my "patch", which is to say I like to go [...]
IS THIS THE ‘MOST BIODIVERSE” COMMUNITY IN CANADA For a five day period that took in last weekend we took part in a Canada-wide “Bioblitz” organized by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Canadian Wildlife Federation. We (and our little town of Baie-D’Urfé) came within a whisker of being the top [...]