It's that time of the year again when the young birds leave the nest and the berries on the trees begin to ripen. This morning a recently fledged American Robin (note spotty breast) was flopping about in an Amelanchier canadensis tree in the garden and learning to take fruit without falling out [...]
At last - it can be shared (** Warning - what follows was only observed and recorded because it was possible to do so without the birds being aware that they were being watched. We are only sharing it now that the birds have fledged and departed and there is no risk to [...]
This is a reworking of a post of mine from a couple of years ago. You will see, when you reach the closing section, that it’s very much a plea for enthusing novices of all ages, though especially the younger age groups, in the importance and joys of wildlifing. In particular via the [...]
Showdown at the OK Bathhouse … Although many people equate birds with calm and peaceful lifestyles spent twittering about amongst the rose and blossoms, in reality birds are feisty creatures. None more so than Wrens who have serious dominance issues. This afternoon at the “bird magnet” pool atop our waterfall the male and [...]
I don’t think that we have been to the arboretum much since back in the autumn. Our cold-weather winter wandering is usually around the nearby bird banding station where we do a couple of shifts a week counting birds and filling feeders, and then this spring we have been busy getting our own [...]
15 years later This is quite exciting - it looks as if a pair of Carolina Wrens are building a nest in an accessible (to us) site after an interval of some 15 years. We were taking our morning constitutional when we happened to observe the pair buzzing back and forth with nesting [...]
Opened up the waterfall (cascade) in the garden this morning and within five minutes a pair of Robins had already found it, took a splash and then proceeded to haul out wet leaves and chunks of moss which they flew off with to a neighbouring garden where, I guess, they are building [...]
How time does fly — just over a year ago I was inspired by a fine naturalist from England (thanks Tom) who had set himself the challenge of identifying 1000 UK species — birds, grasses, spiders, whatever. I had a couple of exchanges with him was assured that the concept was not trademarked, [...]
Even the woodpecker owes its success to the fact that he used his head. —Author Unknown Continuing with the theme of occasional “Naturally Speaking” accounts of species you can encounter on the West Island of Montreal I am going to introduce a another bird. Botanists and entomologist friends of mine need [...]
If you are not a keen birder this will perhaps not be of great interest - unless you have decided to really take up birding with the start of a new year and wan a target to aim for. Anyway, assuming you plan to read on ... here is what we saw [...]