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 seem to have slipped into the habit of writing a round-up of recent activities in the garden around the middle of each month. This one is being composed as we swelter under a “heat dome” sent to us from south of the border - far too hot to do anything physical at [...]
Eastern Chipmunk - Tamias striatus Although every other creature in Quebec other than Coyotes has visited our garden in the 21 years we have been here we have never seen a Chipmunk before, so we were really happy to see this young fellow scurry across the deck after a major wind and rain [...]
Yesterday we were invited to join a small supporters outing and information session hosted by the Nature Conservancy Canada at the wonderful Kenauk Wildlife Reserve between Montreal and Ottawa. This is our favourite place on earth bar none so naturally we jumped at the chance. Apart from simply "being there" once again being enough [...]
Iris reticulata Emphatically not a native flower -actually it is native to Russia, the Caucasus, and northern Iran, but cultivated widely in temperate regions. Earns its keep here as one of the first flowers to emerge when the snows leave. Very hard to photograph - in reality it is really a deep purple but auto [...]
Spring arrived with the vernal equinox just a few days ago and the Spring Bunny has been in evidence ... practicing for his annual obligatory Easter appearance no doubt. This year, thank goodness, he does not appear to ring-barked any of our choicer trees like he did last winter. [...]
Things have slowed down a little in the garden this week on the plant front. No especially new appearances but lots of things growing rapidly and strongly with the first of the berry fruits ripening - much to the joy of the juvenile birds we are hosting. It’s amusing watching young birds learning to [...]
STOP PRESS First Garden Warbler of 2017 Just half an hour before going to blog auto-distribution ... the Warbler Magnet garden waterfall has brought in its first warbler of the year. A beautiful Yellow-rumped Warbler. ***************** Phew, got that in here by the skin of our teeth White-throated Sparrow [...]
This week started off almost 20C warmer than just a week ago - the seasonal changes are so fast in North America, almost like throwing a switch to turn the lights on. Many crocuses around this week ... splendid splashes of colour and very welcome, but on the other hand: You might think that [...]
It’s still not spring … Friday saw yet another dump of snow, not a huge one like last week’s but enough to be a nuisance. A month ago, 23 February to be exact, a tiny patch of snow at the base of a tree cleared away and a couple of snowdrops put their heads [...]