Raptor Day

Posted December 20, 2013

At the end of the day yesterday, I went down to fill the bird feeder at the far end of the property.  With the approaching weather conditions, I thought I would keep it full for them.  I had seen some  Wild Turkeys feeding beneath it over the last few days (30+ at a time), so […]

I saw it too!

Posted December 16, 2013

Sean told me about his Brown Thrasher sighting so I have been on the lookout for it.  I thought I saw it this morning, but only its back as it flew away, not enough to be sure.  Right after the class left, I was working downstairs and saw a bird at the feeder. I grabbed […]

Christmas Bird Count

Posted December 16, 2013

On Saturday, I participated in the Christmas bird count with part-time outdoor-ed-guy, Adam Rooke, and long-time outdoor-ed-guy-wanna-be, Ralph Beaumont. We started our day of bird-counting at Laurel Creek at 6:30 am. We called for owls, and got one screech owl and one great-horned owl to make appearances. Then things turned a little snowy and windy […]

What a difference 15 degrees makes!!

Posted December 6, 2013

According to my trusty weather station here at Blair, the temperature reached +13 degrees celcius at about noon yesterday (Thursday), then began to fall steadily to a low of minus 2 degrees early (4 a.m.!!) this morning. Yesterday our feeder and forest bird count totalled only 11 species.  I had surpassed that before 8 a.m. […]

Why Chickadee’s take turns

Posted December 2, 2013

[wpvideo dw4A8hYw] If you have a bird feeder at home you likely have Chickadees visiting regularly.  At Wrigley Corners we also feed these birds by hand!  Though Chickadee’s do occasionally have little squabbles I find them to be relatively tame visitors, certainly compared to the various finches they are down-right polite. Chickadees form non-breeding flocks […]

That Chickadee Feeding (Repost)

Posted November 29, 2013

So, you’ve read That Chickadee Feeling by Frank Glew.  In this book, a child gets a wonderful feeling from a chickadee eating sunflower seeds out of her hand.  You really want a chickadee to eat sunflower seeds out of your hand.  What do you do?  How do you start? It’s not that hard.  You just need […]

Even more tracks!

Posted November 20, 2013

This morning when I was out filling up our bird feeders at Laurel Creek I found some more tracks on the swamp bridge.  These were really neat looking because they were left in the frost.  These are raccoon tracks as it walked along the bridge railing.  They walk with alternating gait so the back foot […]

Tracks

Posted November 18, 2013

Last week there were some mornings with a light brushing of snow.  These mornings are the best for checking out which residents of Laurel Creek were out and about.  Here are the pictures of the tracks I saw.  Try to figure out which animal made them before looking at the answers. Top Left-Rabbit     […]

Cats and Dogs?? No… Poop!!

Posted November 13, 2013

While with grade 9 students in mid-October, we arrived at the pond under a beautiful, bright, blue sky. As we were about to begin our analysis of the ecosystem I noticed what appeared to be a tiny rain storm within a small, leafless Balsam Poplar. We were all quite amazed by the volume of liquid […]

Potters trap! How to catch a Chickadee.

Posted November 12, 2013

At Wrigley corners I band Black-capped Chickadees so that the students here can study the birds behaviour. Of course, you have to catch them first! I use a Potters trap in the Winter. Check out the video to see it in action. [wpvideo 0Z3EzcNU]   Check out my new blog. Chickadees of the F.W.R Dickson […]

1 … 14 15 16 … 38