Birding with Young Kids

Birding with Young Kids

The arrival of a baby entails many lifestyle changes for new parents. Sleepless nights are in; early morning bird trips are out. The sight of endless flocks of shorebirds has now replaced the sight of endless diapers. But fear not, there is definitely birding after...
Quick Tips for More Enjoyable Birding Trips

Quick Tips for More Enjoyable Birding Trips

There are a number of things you can do to make your birdwatching trip more enjoyable. Or at least, less annoying when the weather turns foul or you are just having one of those days. Here are a few tips that seem perfectly logical when we are out in the field but we...
What is an Owl Pellet?

What is an Owl Pellet?

If you start hanging out with birdwatchers, it is inevitable the day will come when one of them bends down to poke around in the grass, comes up with a grey, lumpy thing and declares it to be “a rather nice owl pellet”. The first reaction of most people is...
The 10 Most Common Winter Birds in North America

The 10 Most Common Winter Birds in North America

What are the most common bird species in North America during the winter? Well, there are a lot of people working to figure that out. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a program run jointly by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology (CLO, which is part of Cornell...
Where Can You go Birdwatching? Everywhere.

Where Can You go Birdwatching? Everywhere.

Some beginning birders seem to think that real birdwatching occurs only in state parks or national parks or at well known birding hotspots. But the truth is, birdwatching can done wherever you are. If you live in a city and are glancing out your front window, you may...
How Bird Classification Works

How Bird Classification Works

All living organisms on Earth are organized into a hierarchical classification system which permits scientists to keep track of which animals are which and to give them each an official name. The methods used to accomplish this immense classification task are known as...
Quick Facts About Bird Feathers

Quick Facts About Bird Feathers

Birds are an incredibly diverse animal group. This is reflected in the large differences between some of the species with regards to their plumage, as you can see in this short list of facts about bird feathers. Greatest number of feathers: Whistling Swan, at 25,216....
Body Sizes of North American Owls

Body Sizes of North American Owls

The 20 owl species in North America exhibit a great range in body sizes. While size itself is not the best diagnostic trait for identification, it is a useful characteristic to help dwindle the number of possible choices. This is especially useful considering that...
Tips for Novice Birders – Part 2

Tips for Novice Birders – Part 2

A few more tips which come in handy when you are just starting out in the world of birdwatching. Birds don’t always look like they do in the guidebooks! The image in the field guide was painted (or sometimes photographed) in perfect lighting conditions, using a...
Quick Facts About Bird Anatomy

Quick Facts About Bird Anatomy

Birds are an incredibly diverse animal group. This is reflected in every aspect of their anatomy, as you can see in this short list of facts about the bodies of birds. Size Tallest bird – Ostrich at 9 ft (2.7 m) Smallest bird – Bee Hummingbird at 2.24...
The Robins in my Yard Have all Disappeared

The Robins in my Yard Have all Disappeared

Question: The robins in my yard have all disappeared. Where did they go? The short answer is that they likely migrated south for the winter. During spring and early summer, robins establish and protect nesting territories, an activity which requires them to be both...

Me and the Ovenbird

A few years ago my wife and I visited Florida for a couple of weeks during the winter and spent a wonderful day birding at the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. My wife is not a birder but is generally pretty patient about birding with me. We were at the...

Dead Mice and Other Light Snacks

You shouldn’t go into our freezer without explicit instructions as to which containers are safe to open and which are not. That’s because there are dead bodies in our freezer. Short dead bodies, only a few inches in length, with long tails. Mice bodies....

Drama on Ice

Loons return to the lake where we live in eastern Ontario soon after the ice goes out in April, yet they do not always nest nearby. This year (1990) was to be different; for the first time in over twelve years a pair of loons built a bulky nest on a low rocky islet...

Waiting for the Fruit to Fall

In August one year, I looked out the kitchen window to see a small flock of Evening Grosbeaks fly across my yard and land in a tall saskatoon bush. As it was late summer, the bush was heavily laden with ripe berries. The grosbeaks began to pluck the fruit off the...

White Birds

Long ago when we first came to this farm, I remember the flocks of birds all about the place. They were always there; they went with the landscape but we were always too busy to be serious birdwatchers. Very few people in those days were birdwatchers and I don’t...

The Hawk and the Crow

I was walking across our 20 acre property near Armstrong, British Columbia, in September a few years ago when I heard, then saw, a typical confrontation between a Crow and a Red-tailed Hawk. In my experience, this kind of confrontation generally happens between a...

Listening for Owls

One spring a few years back, we were out looking for owls in the Columbia Valley, in southeast  British  Columbia. We had pulled off to the side of the road and had the windows down, listening to a Pygmy Owl. Well, a car was approaching us and, just to keep my eyes...

An Unforgettable Experience with a Bird

Never shall I forget the sheer delight and exhilaration of this one magical moment, even though it happened way back in 1932. As I trudged home from school, down the dusty road on that sunny, sultry June afternoon, I was longing for a cooling drink of ice-cold...