On January 1 we took part in a bird count in Mahone Bay with Kevin, an experienced birder from the Valley. He recommended a movie called “The Big Year” with Owen Wilson and Steve Martin which we watched that night. The kids weren’t interested in watching with us, but it was so good that I … Continue reading
Tagged with birds …
May Day — slow progress
I felt like an update was needed on the slow progress of spring this year. It is May 1st today and Milo and I took a walk through the woods all the way to school — the first such trip this year. (The girls will walk through the woods to school on Monday for the … Continue reading
Mama Robin is back, but the grass isn’t
It is April 9. I’m pretty sure our mama robin is back from her winter vacation along with many other robins. Unfortunately, their timing is off this year and they have returned to a garden covered in several feet of snow. They can usually be seen snacking on worms all day long in the field … Continue reading
From egg to fully fledged: May 2014 robin chicks
Mama robin did it again! Our resident supermum raised a brood of three chicks over 28 days in May. We watched it all, as usual, from the comfort of our back deck and through the living room window which looks onto the nest site. It makes it easy to spot the comings and goings of the … Continue reading
A second nest site
Evie made an exciting discovery today – we have a second robin’s nest in the back yard! This one is perched on top of the wood pile approximately 25 metres from the other one. I have a hunch that the new nest has been made by one of last year’s babies – for three reasons. … Continue reading
It’s February and the robins are back
Herds of robins arrived back in the garden at the beginning of February this year. It might have felt like an early sign of spring if it didn’t coincide with yet another snowfall. We have had more or less permanent, thick snow cover since Christmas. Very different from the last three years. I’m not complaining … Continue reading
Eagle Watch 2014
Every year in February, an event called Eagle Watch takes place over two weekends in the northeast Annapolis Valley near Canning. This is farming country — mixed arable, market gardens, orchards and, it turns out, poultry farms. It’s also home to one of Nova Scotia’s largest overwintering populations of bald eagles — there were over … Continue reading
American robin on mat leave
This month, we watched an American robin build a mud and grass nest, incubate her eggs, feed her young, then leave them to get on with the rest of their lives. The whole maternity leave took a remarkably short time. We watched her build her nest on a soaking wet day — May 31 — … Continue reading
Slugs and bugs and hummingbirds
We had a wet May this year and I’ve seen more slugs in the garden this month than in the last 2 years combined. Other bugs haven’t been too bad… yet. The first kamikaze June bug hit the windows on May 23 this year after a particularly mild evening. But they haven’t made a concerted … Continue reading
witches whiskers 