Every fall the veery travels more than 14,000 kilometres — from its summer home in the Pemberton valley to the jungles of the Amazon rainforest. Reading Joel Barde's recent Pique piece reminded me of learning about this project from our birding correspondent John Tschopp. One summer, university researchers caught three veeries from Tschopp’s property and … Continue reading Next stop, the Amazon. How local songbirds remind us that the world is much smaller than it seems
Pretty as a picture. So goes the saying. And when an app can render a photograph of the Pemberton Valley as a painting, you kind of see where the saying comes from. Thanks to Dave Steers for sharing his work. Flashback to earlier posts for other renderings of local scenery: Nairn Falls splintering into a … Continue reading Prettiest valley in the world? It just might be. Dave Steers offers exhibit A to make the case.
I sat down with John Tschopp earlier this year - he and his neighbour had had a close encounter with a hawk that got entangled in the wire of a chicken coop on New Year's Day, and we figured that my column needed a bit more bloodshed and drama. I've been gleefully receiving John's birding … Continue reading Chicken Coops are the avian version of the Tiny House movement – trending in a big way, according to John Tschopp’s latest update
Folks in the Pemberton Meadows compare notes about what’s blooming and what birds are migrating through and what creatures they might have seen. Regularly last fall, we would talk about the latest elk sighting and whose field it was in. Then I saw a porcupine -a first for me in this valley - and … Continue reading Seasonal Observations: The Lupins
When we first moved to our property, we named one of the outbuildings, Chateau Bearshack, in recognition of the bear viewing opportunities it provided from its foundation next to a field of dandelions. We did not name the garden, Jardin de Blacktail Deer, though we certainly should have when we realized how frequently everything would … Continue reading The Squirrel and Other Visitors
For the last three months, a group of volunteers has been going out at sunset to search for Western Screech Owls. Our task was to play a recording of a Screech Owl for about a minute, then listen intently for four minutes, then repeat the sequence three times. If we heard an owl, any owl, … Continue reading Night Music
The latest from John Tschopp, a first time sighting of the rare red-necked grebe: Finally I can report a bird, that took a rest in Pemberton, feeding in a pond on private property. It is on the Pemberton list, but it is the first time I have seen it. The Red-necked Grebe is a rather … Continue reading BirdWatch: the Red-Necked Grebe
I am not a columnist. I prefer asking questions to offering opinions (unless I'm at a dinner party and a little sauced.) And my skin isn't thick enough to put my unfootnoted thinking all naked out into the world on a regular basis. And I'm not funny (like my favourite columnists are - to wit: … Continue reading The Wellness Almanac In Print: This Week in the Question
The Wellness Almanac 