Gradually the snow is melting and daytime temperatures are mostly a touch above freezing point )well below at night) - even the very first snowdrop shoot has popped its head up. The early returning birds have appeared - principally huge clocks of Canada Geese and plenty of male Red-winged Blackbirds strutting their [...]
Species #9 to #15 Dates: 8 -14 March 2020 These were the "Lifeforms of the Day" for the second week ... they originally appeared on this Facebook page. If you would like to follow that page you will get a new species to enjoy and learn about each day until some embuggerment or [...]
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 [...]
The garden bird interest continues - after yesterday's unbeatable visit of a group of Eastern Bluebirds. Dark-eyed Juncoes. hardly uncommon at this time of year, we see them daily. However small, dark birds silhouetted against bright white snow are far from the easiest things to get decent photographs of. Well, no longer. [...]
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 [...]
Feed the Birds Every Thursday in Winter we start a morning's birding by visiting the nearby MBO bird banding station and filling the bid feeders followed by taking a census of the birds to be seen in the cold snow. This is quite a special thing for us - the station is [...]
We no longer keep detailed birding "lists" just for the sake of keeping lists, but we do keep records to track what happens where and when through the seasons and year by year. Today is New Year's Day 2020 - and time to record how many birds were seen in our garden during the [...]
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 [...]
On Saturday morning, Bird Protection Quebec organised a birding field trip in the Arboretum to which Arbo members were invited and which several joined. For my sins, I was delegated to organise and lead the outing. I don't go on many field trips (I have problems with more than six people together at once) [...]