Wetlands update from the Cowichan Garry Oak Preserve
First light on the Garry oaks. (Photo by Ren Ferguson)
The morning was a beauty, with mist rising from Quamichan Lake illuminated in the rich sunrise. I was in for a treat. As I walked through the fields past huge Garry oak trees, I saw a fine black-tailed deer buck with shiny antlers and muscles...
The Hunger Games' new Tributes (of nature)
Grizzly bear (Painting by David Arrigo) represents one of the several Canadian animals you can sponsor this holiday season.
Welcome to the Nature Conservancy of Canada's (NCC’s) Hunger Games! This year there are six tributes battling it out for Canada’s pledges. In honour of the underground District, here are 13 tweetable facts about NCC’s annual...
Close encounters with a pileated woodpecker
Pileated woodpecker female foraging on a dead stand. (Photo by Claire Elliott)
When I’m feeling unmotivated to go for a hike, I usually try to suppress those feelings and go anyway. I never regret the time I spend outdoors, and again that was the case this past weekend. I was sitting restlessly at my desk, which was...
Birds of the Happy Valley Forest (Part Five)
Evening grosbeak (Photo by Anna Tchoulik)
Our forest cover in the Happy Valley begins a few miles above the lakeshore of Lake Ontario. Birds stop here each year to feed and rest while on their migration north in the spring, and as a last stop in the fall as they move south. In the fall...
Strength in numbers: Captive breeding and release program for shrikes in Ontario
All of the young shrikes are banded with a uniquely-numbered metal band before they are released; most will also get a combination of colour bands so they can be easily identified from a distance in the wild. (Photo by Lydia Dotto, ImageInnovation Photography)
There are only a few places left in Ontario where you can reliably find the endangered loggerhead shrike; one of those places is a property owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC). NCC’s Scheck Nature Reserve, located northeast of...
Tweeting on the Toronto Blue Jays (and their bird counterpart)
Blue jay (Photo by NCC)
Let's go Blue Jays, let's go! To help you cheer on the Toronto Blue Jays, here are some handy tweetable facts about the bird from which they get their name. Just like the base-stealing...
Birds of the Happy Valley Forest (Part Four)
This hawk lives in closed canopies such as those found in Happy Valley and thrives on small mammals and birds. (Photo by Dr. Henry Barnett)
During our five-year participation in Ontario in the Breeding Bird Census, daughter Ann Love and I found 109 breeding species in the Happy Valley Forest area or species seen regularly overhead in breeding season. The Happy Valley Forest has no...
Birds of the Happy Valley Forest (Part Three)
Pileated woodpecker, the size of a small crow, is the glamour boy of the Happy Valley Forest. His shouting call is heard throughout the year. (Photo by Dr. Henry Barnett)
Without a doubt the pileated woodpecker is close to the top of dramatic inhabitants of the Happy Valley Forest. Its demanding call is befitting of the crow-like size and overall rugged appearance — wild! One cannot walk in the forest in the...
Birds of the Happy Valley Forest (Part Two)
Two species commonly sharing the feeder: rose-breasted grosbeak and male indigo bunting. These and the oriole represent the greatest beauties in the forest. (Photo by Dr. Henry Barnett)
Summer birds There is plenty of sound in the Happy Valley Forest, from the summering birds throughout the day and the woods only quiet down from September to late March. Some usually mid-southern birds have reached the Moraine to live. I can...
Birds of the Happy Valley Forest (Part One)
Strikingly beautiful male rose-breasted grosbeak at the feeder eating suet. (Photo by Dr. Henry Barnett)
About 240 species of birds have been recorded over the past 60 years by my observation and that of my family occurring either within or over the Happy Valley Forest. In the first centuries of European occupation of forested Canada there was a...
