Ontario Nature Blog

Valentine’s day is coming up, and you may be panicking over what to get the bird lover in your life. With only two days left, you may be perusing websites, horrified by the cost of purchasing new, superlative optics. Maybe a Tilley hat? Too obvious, and impersonal. I can help. Here is a list of ...

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My hairdresser asked me a question this weekend. “So you see a bird”, he said, “and then what?” And it got me thinking. It may well be that there’s something inherently pointless about birding. Unlike almost everything else in my life, there’s no tangible goal when I go out birding. I see a bird, I ...

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People often ask me about my favorite bird. Though I’ll always be partial to my spark bird,  the red winged blackbird,  it seems that my favorite bird changes every time I go out birding.

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This year, one of my new year’s resolutions was to take the true birding plunge and start keeping a list. Apart from choosing a new notebook, this also entailed a slew of other decisions. What constitutes a list? Will I keep a life list? A year list? A seasonal list? Will I subdivide my list ...

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Last Saturday, I almost missed my birding outing. When my alarm woke me up, it was still dark outside. The weather report promised severe fog east of Toronto and it was drizzling. Hardly ideal weather conditions for spotting a grayish, drab-looking bird called the Townsend’s solitaire.

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