Wildlife ‘Intel’ Gathering
People sometimes ask how it is that I have so many wildlife encounters. There is a degree of luck, for sure, but, besides wandering around with my camera I also spend a lot of time …
Blue Herons Are Great
Great blue herons are a ubiquitous presence along rivers and ponds near my home in Cambridge, Ontario. In fact some of the signs welcoming visitors to the city are engraved with images of these large …
Great Egrets Return
Great egrets are strikingly beautiful birds which frequent rivers and ponds across southern Ontario during the warm months. It’s no surprise that the National Audubon Society has been using this bird as its symbol since …
A Bald Eagle Fishing Success
After visiting the Nith River bald eagles a few times and not seeing the eagles at all I must agree with locals who say the pair have moved on following last month’s severe storm. This prompted me to turn …
Wildlife is Abundant This Spring
As the days get longer I have been able to get in my bike rides along the Grand River rail trail on alternate days AND still get out for some wildlife photography in the evenings. There is …
An Evening Kestrel Hunt
Cruising the country roads outside Paris, Ontario I have had some remarkable experiences with birds of prey. There is a pair of Northern Harriers I see often and frequent readers will recall my encounter with a …
Nesting Sandhill Cranes
Sandhill cranes – named for a region of sand dunes in Nebraska where they gather by the hundreds of thousands – are high up on my favourite local wildlife species. Once the snowy owls have left southern …
Snowy Owls Are Still in Southern Ontario
March has brought some turbulent weather to southern Ontario but I have been regularly visiting the snowy owls while wondering how much more time I will have with them. A year ago I found just …
An Unexpected Peregrine Encounter
Writing projects have kept me occupied these past few weeks, not to mention looking after Chango, my eldest son’s dog. So my time with the snowy owls has been greatly reduced. Still, I have slipped …
Snowy Owls Are Aggressive!
Scott Weidensaul, co-founder of Project Snowstorm (a world renowned snowy owl research organization), tells me he considers 2021-2022 a normal ‘irruption year’ a time when larger numbers of juvenile owls migrate south of the Arctic circle …