By Brian Morin Spring fills us with emotion as we welcome seasonal changes. The sights, sounds and smells offer a rich bouquet of sensory delights with longer days enabling us to take full advantage of nature’s abundance. We have exchanged the monochrome winter landscape for a bevy of colours that begin on the ground but...
Tag - birds
Brian Morin During the winter, many of our local birds appreciate dining at our backyard buffets where a welcome supply of seeds and suet supplements nature’s meagre offer. Once spring comes, everything changes as new life appears everywhere. In summer, this blossoms into a smorgasbord of delectable delights that tempts the...
By Brian Morin While we enjoy the days of fall, birds are busily working on their exit strategy. Their urge to leave is triggered by a variety of factors, including reduced hours of sunlight, lower sun angle in the sky, decreasing temperatures and genetic predisposition. The cues vary for different families of birds as do their...
Birding By Brian Morin Annual bird count brings together thousands of bird enthusiasts It was an idea whose time had come. On Christmas Day, 1900, 27 people in 23 cities in the U.S. and two in Canada spent time counting birds. Initiated by American ornithologist Frank Chapman, the first Christmas bird count was an attempt to...
By Brian Morin They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder but when it comes to songbirds in spring, Mother Nature makes choosing favourites a challenge. The variety of species and colours is seemingly unending, with many looking like they have just arrived from a tropical paradise. Actually, that’s because they have. Most of...
THE BUSIEST SEASON By Brian Morin To say this is a busy time of year for birds is an understatement. Most find themselves at some stage of the breeding cycle, whether constructing a nest, sitting on eggs or bringing food, from morning until night, to hungry chicks that have insatiable appetites. Incredibly, songbirds like...
Birding By Brian Morin Is not always easy Who hasn’t gazed at a hawk soaring effortlessly in the sky and thought how nice it would be to have that freedom, but in reality, it’s tough being a bird. There is a definite pecking order, with predatory species like hawks, eagles and owls at the top and small songbirds at the bottom...
Birding By Brian Morin Tales in leaving the nest Have you ever watched a Robin build a nest and go through the breeding cycle? Mother looks around for a suitable location, perhaps in an evergreen, underneath the eaves of a roof or even on a light above your front door, anything that provides support for a nest of grasses and...
Birding By Brian Morin Nature’s colour parade Mother Nature was the original creator of the spring fashion show, but she did things a little different. Rather than focusing on female attire, her emphasis was on how good the males look in their effort to attract a partner. For the most part, songbirds have the most colourful...
