During COVID-19 lockdown we’ve spotted more bird nests in the garden than at any time in the previous 10 years. Here they are — in order of discovery (all spotted within a month from mid-April to mid-May, 2020): Cardinal nest on the way into the wood was the first nest of the year. She laid … Continue reading
Tagged with nest …
Spring in Quarantine
March 22, 2020: The world has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic and we’ve been in quarantine for a week since Matt came home from a work trip overseas. Today the premier announced all provincial parks and all beaches are now closed and people will be fined $1000 for violating the social distancing laws. We … Continue reading
Summer loving
This year, 2018, will go down in Hall family history as the summer of broody robins. Back-to-back-to-back-to-back broods. It’s July 1 and we are on the third round of egg-laying already! Another short 5-day break between broods, and we are on batch #3 of the summer. We couldn’t believe it when we saw the new … Continue reading
Spring round-up 2018
Here are a few of my favourite “finds” this spring in Nova Scotia. Here’s a painted turtle laying her eggs on the side of the Dynamite Trail — photographed by a friend, Callen, who spotted her while we were out for an evening bike ride at the end of May near Oakland Commons Pond. They … Continue reading
Eggs of common Nova Scotia birds
The top three birds found in Nova Scotia are red-winged blackbirds, American robins and European starlings. I was curious what the nests and eggs looked like of these and other common garden birds, so I collected some images. Blue is a common theme: check out all these shades of blue! And speckles. But my favourites … Continue reading
Back-to-back robin broods!
The American robins have returned to their favourite nest just outside our back door. Although everything I’ve read says that robins build a new nest for every new brood, this is not the case at Casa Hall. They come back time and again to the same nest, and don’t appear to make any upgrades or … Continue reading
Robin raises a second brood
We came home from a two-week trip to the southwestern USA on July 16 to find mama robin back on her nest incubating a second batch of eggs. Three eggs this time: Two had hatched by July 20 and we haven’t spotted a third baby. Possibly it never hatched: We spotted this huge moth on … Continue reading
June round-up
A few highlights from the month. First, some dates: June 12 – the first chick hatched June 13 – first firefly of the year spotted in the yard around 9:45pm. June 16 – found a little sparrow nest in the clematis June 21 – Milo spotted a snapping turtle on the rocks behind a local … Continue reading
The robin is back!
After two years without a nest in the corner of the eaves, I am really happy to report that we now have a nesting robin again! Although we nearly didn’t… This robin (I like to think she might be one of the babies from this post from 2014 or even this one) had a rocky … Continue reading
Red cardinal nest
I was trying to clear a log out of the stream and spotted a nest in the rhododendron bush. I’ve been hoping to find a cardinal nest because a pair have been hanging around the back garden for a few weeks now (the male is bright red and the female is more muted but has … Continue reading
witches whiskers 