New year, new beginnings – even if it’s not in an ideal spot
Can you spot the killdeer? (Photo by Sarah Wallace/Dispatches from the Field)
Often when biologist go out to the field for their first time, they are super excited and usually think they have it all under control. Thoughts, such as, “Oh I can carry all of those heavy totes myself,” or “I will map out the...
What's flapping around in two Christmas Bird Count circles? (Part Two)
Bob and Mike checking out a flock of sparrows and finches (Photo by Kristyn Ferguson)
A ways up Highway 400 and across the top of Lake Simcoe from the Richmond Hill count circle (read about it in Part One), the Carden Alvar Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday, January 2. It was a cold and dark morning when I left my house...
What’s flapping around in two Christmas Bird Count circles? (Part One)
Dark-eyed junco (Photo by Bill Hubick)
This is Part One of a two-part series on Christmas Bird Counts that took place this winter. The Christmas Bird Count is North America’s longest running citizen science project since 1900. Counts are carried out within a 24-kilometre-diameter...
2015 - A natural reflection and year list
Belted kingfisher at Lake Ontario (Photo by Tianna Burke)
Blogging for me has always been as much about sharing nature with others as it has been about personal reflection. I have never written a year-end post before, however after learning about the Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC's) Creative...
Winter isn’t just for the birds
Snow bunting (Photo by Wikimedia Commons, John Haslam)
While many bird watchers and nature enthusiasts in Canada might look forward to the spring – a time when millions of migratory birds return to fill Canada's forests and grasslands with a chorus of songs each summer – I experience a...
An osprey family affair
An osprey soars around its nest (Photo by Lorne)
This journey of an osprey family, between early May 2015 and mid-August of the same year, is almost as much my journey as theirs. It begins as a young boy some six decades ago, when my maternal grandfather would pick me up to spend some quality...
To everything there is a season. Tern! Tern! Tern!
Common tern in flight at Tern Island, Tabusintac (Photo by Claire Elliott/NCC)
On a June day last year, I found myself on a small sandy island surrounded by thousands of screaming terns overhead. With the smell of guano filling my nose, I carefully picked my footing around nests containing eggs and thought — it's good...
Birds of a feather
Ruffed grouse (Photo by Yaremchuk)
This winter I am taking the second half of a two-part ornithology course. The coursework is focused on taxonomy and identification, and as such I spend a lot of time in a lab handling specimens, both mounted and study skins. The average birder...
You too can be a citizen scientist! Join a Christmas Bird Count this year
Volunteers with binoculars at Codroy Valley Fall waterfowl Survey, NL (photo by NCC)
Citizen science monitoring is an unspeakably important part of conservation, and I would encourage anyone who hasn’t tried it out yet to get involved. Christmas Bird Counts in particular are a great excuse to catch some sunshine and exercise...
A natural take on Black Friday
Crow (Photo by Linda Tanner, Wikimedia Commons)
Learn more about a few of our Canadian species and share these tweets to show others how natural #BlackFriday can be! ...
