Messy Eater Blood on the Snow We’ve noted before that the berries on the native Viburnum triloba are eaten in the fall while those on the similar European species (Guelder rose) are left until well into the New Year. Obviously those of the native species are more palatable while the [...]
What did forests once look like? It has been understood, taken as gospel, that the “Bambi Factor” which prevents hunting and management culls of too large deer populations is leading, in large parts of eastern North America, to a severe loss of forest understory as out of control deer eat pretty well [...]
The 21 January each year is Squirrel Appreciation Day - as we were reminded throughoout the day by numerous emails and FB posts from the various conservation organizations that we support. A couple of days later this rather scruffy black-form gray squirrel visited the garden in order to do some appreciating of [...]
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 [...]