Birds & People
The Owl and the Tanager
Despite all we know about birds, there remains as much yet to be understood. Both amateur and professional ornithologists can help add to the collective knowledge about birds
A Pelican in the Backseat
The call came as my son Travis and I were halfway around our trap line. We often care for injured owls from the Strathcona Raptor Shelter, and to feed the owls as natural a food as possible, we have...
A Memorable Visit
One year the students in our school had developed a great interest in birds. All through the winter we worked at a mural depicting a winter scene in which were shown all the birds any of us had...
A Bush of Woodpeckers
In September of one year, while looking out the window of our house, which is located on an acreage near Armstrong, British Columbia, I noted a Pileated Woodpecker eating chokecherries. We see...
The Hawk and The Train
You've heard of racing pigeons; how about racing hawks? While the Goderich-Exeter Railway Company's freight train was passing through a valley near Mitchell, a hawk decided to follow along. The...
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.
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.
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.
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.
White Birds
Long ago when we first came to this farm, I remember the flocks of birds all about the place.
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.
Listening for Owls
One spring a few years back, we were out looking for owls in the Columbia Valley, in southeast British Columbia.
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.
A Rainbow of Blackbirds
I scanned the cloud with my binoculars thinking that it was some sort of strange, disorganized dust devil.
A Long Way to Not See a Warbler
The moment I signed on as a participant in the Alberta Bird Atlas Project, I was no longer just a birdwatcher, content to wait for new species to appear on our acreage. I had become a bird hunter.
A Great Blue Heron Comes to Visit
One day in late summer a Great Blue Heron came stalking along the edge of the Rideau River
The Names of Bird Groups
Have you ever tried to describe a group of birds but couldn’t find a more original term that simply “a flock”? Yup, it’s the same tired, old vocabulary used by everyone else. Well, there’s hope for those of you who want to stand out from the crowd; here’s a list of specific names (known as nouns of assemblage) for groups of different birds.
Hollywood Goes to the Birds
Hollywood is the place where accuracy goes to die. And this is certainly evident with anything related to science or bird biology; neither field gets much respect from the movie-making bigwigs in Tinseltown.
The Official State Birds in the U.S.A.
These are the official State Birds in the USA
Some Trivia About Birds
Here are some miscellaneous tidbits of trivia about birds.
Our Kingfisher
Some years ago, our family, along with my brother's family, were building a new cottage on a small lake south of Parry Sound, Ontario. We had the pier foundation put in by a contractor and were busy...
The Sparrow and the Waxwings
A pair of Cedar Waxwings built a nest about 5 feet above the ground in a spruce tree adjacent to my workshop at our cottage at Kendleston Beach. It's located about 50 miles north of Regina,...
One Odd Bird
My older daughter, Marie, and I were hiking along the Hurricane Ridge area of Olympic National Park in Washington state one day in early August. We had been enjoying the wildflowers, and assorted...
A Strange Friendship
My husband has always had a great love and respect for wildlife and has a great knowledge of their ways and habits. But a little Ruffed Grouse had him scratching his head. One day as my husband was...
The Laws of Birding
These are the simple Laws of Birding, which every birder will experience at some point.
Yet More Ways to Tell if You Are a Birder
Seriously, if you read the other two articles about how to determine if you’re a birder, then you already know you are. Now you’re just here to see how many other people you can fit into the bird watcher category. Because we are everywhere.
More Ways to Tell if You Are a Birder
If you’ve read the article (“How to Tell if You Are a Birder”) and are still not quite sure if you, or someone you know, is a true birder, here are a few more criteria to consider.
How to Tell if You Are a Birder
There is no way to identify a birdwatcher based on their economic status, ethnic background, social status, age, gender or even their clothes. This is because the community of birdwatchers includes people from every conceivable group in human society. However, there are some telltale signs which will identify a person as a birdwatcher.