Getting your hands dirty: How to build a contemporary chickadee nest box
Black-capped chickadee (Photo by Bill Hubick)
Ever since I started working for the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC), where I was exposed to the world of conservation science and communications, I grew fond of birds and wanted to share this newfound interest with my family. My dad was an...
Being a Bird in North America: Q&A with Robert Alvo
Robert Alvo, author of Being a Bird in North America (Photo courtesy of Robert Alvo)
From common loons to trumpeter swans, birds have long captivated the fascination of people of all ages. Being a land blessed with a vast and varied landscape, Canada provides habitat to nearly 700 species of birds. Whether you’ve come to...
Beak to beak: The importance of Bird and Biodiversity Areas and Migratory Bird Sanctuaries
Semipalmated plover, Johnson's Mills, NB (Photo by Mike Dembeck)
Protecting land is critical to the survival of Canada’s natural world. With approximately 80,000 known plant and animal species, many of which are in decline, it is no wonder that the protection of wildlife habitat has never been more...
Parenting tricks from the wild
Baby elephants playing (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)
Parents everywhere would agree that raising children is no easy feat. New challenges come with every stage of development, from the newborn stage of learning how to eat and sleep, to the more advanced skill of communication. It wasn’t until...
My 2017 Ontario birding “Big Year”
Violet-green swallow at Thunder Bay Marina, Ontario's third ever record of this species. (Photo by Jeremy Bensette)
Last year was a pretty “big” one for me, birding-wise! I committed to completing a "Big Year," a quest to see as many bird species as possible in one year in my beautiful home province of Ontario, and held onto that goal until dark on...
Ten of nature's weirdest courtship rituals
Greater prairie chicken (Photo by Ron Knight/Wikimedia Commons)
Much like humans, other animals have evolved ways of wooing or courting potential mates, whether it’s singing a love song, doing a sensual dance or giving a thoughtful gift. With love in the air this Valentine’s Day, here are 10...
Counting crows: A winter walk reveals an abundance of birds in the Fraser River Estuary
Conservation Volunteers ready for birding (Photo by Fiona Walsh)
For more than a century, an ongoing citizen science survey has taken place during the holiday season. Known as the Christmas Bird Count, the first survey was initiated by ornithologist Frank M. Chapman on Christmas Day in 1900. One hundred and...
What's so special about Kenauk?
Osprey nest on Lac Papineau in Kenauk, viewed by several participants in the 2016 survey (Photo by Richard Gregson)
Kenauk is big. Really big! In terms of surface area, it’s the largest conservation project ever undertaken by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) in Quebec, and certainly one of the largest in Canada. The site, located about eight...
A mega-rare mistle thrush visited my mountain ash
Mistle thrush (Photo by Peter Gadd)
On Christmas Day 2017.... It is here! It is here in the mountain ash tree at the crack of dawn. It is a brief appearance, as it turns out, but one long enough to perhaps sense it is sending a Christmas greeting. A bird, once known as the ...
In search of my totem
Great blue heron spreading its wings (Photo by Lorne)
I frequently awaken with pre-set routines and their parameters dancing in my head — actions and reactions caused by billions of neurons sending and receiving electrochemical signals to and from my brain. Whether stretching and slowly...
