If there was an award for the most-reviled bird here in my home province of Ontario, Canada – or maybe throughout the Great Lakes region – choosing a winner would be an easy task. Perhaps the Canada Goose springs forward in your mind. These loud, abrasive, gregarious birds are hated by many for their aggressive…Continue readingThe Scourge of the Birding Facebook Group: the Comorant
Welcome back to another episode of TTALBbAB, the show where there are no birds and we’re all a little sad about it. You join us in the middle of our search for suitable birding substitutes to carry us through the long, hot summer and into the sweet oasis of fall migration. In Part 1 we looked at…Continue readingThings That Are Like Birds but Aren’t Birds – Part 3
Welcome back friends. In Part 1 we looked at how wayward birders can survive the avian desolation of July by training their binoculars on some colourful insects known as “butterflies”. Did you try it? Was it good for you? Well maybe you’re the sort of person who’s too cool for butterflies. Or maybe you’ve breezed through butterfly…Continue readingThings That Are Like Birds but Aren’t Birds – Part 2
If you – like me – live in the temperate part of the northern hemisphere, there may be no more boring month for birding than July. After an adrenaline-packed May fueled by spring migration and a pleasant June kicking off the breeding season, July hits like the midsummer heatwaves it brings, stopping everything dead in…Continue readingThings That Are Like Birds but Aren’t Birds – Part 1
As you might surmise, this post follows a Part 1 and a Part 2. It might be worth popping back and giving those a quick skim if you want to place the rest of this nonsense in context. Way back in Part 2 I discussed some of the proposed bird name changes in Wildlife Observer…Continue readingThe Names of Birds Named After People – Part 3
This post references two recent blog posts that are well worth reading, and they are: In The Names of Birds Named After People – Part 1 we took a look at some of the problems with honorofic bird names, or birds named after people. The two posts linked above also provide a good look at…Continue readingThe Names of Birds Named After People – Part 2
This post references two recent blog posts that are well worth reading, and they are: As long as there have been English names for birds (presumably), there have been ongoing debates regarding them. Birders really (really) care about what we call birds, and where there is passion there is bound to be disagreement. Historically these…Continue readingThe Names of Birds Named After People – Part 1
Well friends… It goes without saying that 2020 has been an interesting year, with a perhaps unprecedented abundance of both time to think and things to think about in perfect tandem. It’s been odd to watch the things I usually stress about fade into the background, replaced at least equally by new and fascinating concerns. …Continue readingAn Introduction…Obviously