Today I saw a robin mom in my backyard busy caring for a brown headed cowbird youngster. I know it's just the way of things but it's sad. I guess though, the robin doesn't know so what's the difference? We have a robin's nest in the tree out front but I didn't see any eggs on the ground so I'm not sure that's where they came from.

In related notes ( Read more... )

So, today was Canada Day-holiday-day (since C-Day was on S-Day), and we went for a day trip up to the Nonquon River, which was good. I'd never been there before, and my book says to shuttle cars but we didn't want to do that so we were hoping it was ok for out and back, which it was - pretty wide and not much current. Enough that we'd start to ( Read more... )

I always wonder what they make the sheath out of, what the hard bits really are, why I eat something that makes grease squish audibly between my teeth, how long exactly preservatives will make a meat product last, and how so many ingredients can fit in such a small product. I always wonder, and yet I continue to eat HotRods.

It's gone now though, ( Read more... )

My life list is currently at 174 species. I've added 11 species this year alone!

Snow Bunting, White Winged Scoter, American Widgeon, Northern Pintail, Horned Lark, Ruddy Duck, Horned Grebe, Lesser Yellowlegs (sandpiper), Solitary Sandpiper, Northern Rough-Winged Swallow, Orchard Oriole.That's really surprising. Thanks to the scope for about a ( Read more... )

I keep forgetting to mention that I saw a Horned Grebe last month, on Lake Ontario at Port Credit. It was amazing. They don't live in this area so I was lucky to see it while it was passing through on migration. It was pretty far out but I even saw the sun shine through its yellow tufts. I wish we'd had the scope with us but we only had binoculars ( Read more... )

The house wrens are back! They are so cute. Today I went out to clean out the nest box they used last year... because last spring I saw the little male empty another nest box one twig at a time (not my nest box, or I would have helped him out), and then decide against using it and move into ours. I guess ours was a little too big (it is about 6"x5" ( Read more... )

C bought us a spotting scope and tripod for our anniversary so of course we had to go try it out. Our anniversary coincides nicely with the spring waterfoul migration too which is perfect. We went to Presqu'ile Provincial Park yesterday. There is a bay there which always attracts thousands of ducks and swans and geese, so much so that they have an ( Read more... )

You too can join The Canadian Marketing Association's Do Not Call Registry. Add your name and details, and marketers must remove your name and address / phone numbers from their lists. Apparently it takes about 6 weeks for a noticeable drop to take place, and after that we'll see.  Saves me throwing all that junk mail in the blue box and having to ( Read more... )

Today we went birding, and were hopeful considering we drove the 40km on the off chance we would see something in the bay of the Power Plant. There were ( Read more... )

C and I saw a Snow Goose in with a flock of Canadian Geese last week. It was a good catch on her part. I was driving, I would have missed it ( Read more... )