What’s more exciting than songbirds? Owls. What’s more exciting than owls? Owl babies (owlets). What’s more exciting than owlets? Owlets… in my backyard! Many birthdays ago, I received a very thoughtful gift from my husband: a screech owl nest box. While I loved the idea, I knew the odds of an owl successfully nesting in […]
I’m sure I’ve written this before, but one aspect I truly love about nature is that it is always changing. Over the past few years, we’ve had robins consistently nesting on one side of the house or another. In bird houses, we’ve had sparrows, starlings, and even a pair of screech owls. This year, to […]
It finally feels official: spring has sprung. The songbirds are calling before sunrise, the hibernating animals are coming out and looking for food, the swans are honking on the water, and my favorite red-tailed hawks are screaming and soaring through the air. The rain is falling, the flowers are sprouting, and the Maple Leafs are… […]
One of the most common and important wildlife questions I’ve ever been asked: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Not too long ago I spent a day at the beach walking the boardwalk. The wind was whipping the sand across the path and the water was pounding against […]
Here’s a short tale about a neat bird with a rather unfortunate name. I tried to figure out which coot came first: the bird or the slang for a crotchety old man. Dictionary.com tells me that the Dutch may have used the word Koet about 800 years ago when referring to the bird, and I […]
Can you believe it is December already? The past month we had both very warm and very cold weather and humans aren’t the only ones confused by it. Has anyone else noticed the flocks of geese flying south on Monday and then north on Tuesday? I think that’s the bird equivalent of trying to decide […]
Fact: I love foxes. Why? I love their colour, their eyes, the way they move… and of course, that amazingly annoying song: “What does the fox say?” And how about how much fun the word fox is to say? It gives us terms like foxy, outfoxed, sly as a fox, and the foxtrot. So, yes, […]
What is it about spotting a deer that brings out such feelings of wonder and serenity? I’ll laugh at a chipmunk absurdly stuffing its mouth with food, or smile at a strikingly red cardinal on my bird feeder, but if I happen across a wild deer I might actually start to lose track of the […]
Almost every time I write one of these articles I want to begin by saying: “Some of my favourite birds are…” I then have to step back and convince myself that not every bird can be my favourite. Then, I get stuck for a time trying to think of a different way to introduce a […]
According to my son it was Alfred Lord Tennyson who once described nature as “red in tooth and claw,” referring to the savage and merciless conflict of surviving in the wild. Though I admit it may not be as poetic, in my humble opinion, Tennyson should have added that nature was “red in tooth, claw, […]
