No, it’s not the most dramatic or exciting bird. It’s not endangered, it doesn’t have an exciting life history, and climate change may make it a more frequent visitor for those of us on the northern boundaries of its wintering range. But it is adorable and it does have a lovely song, which you canContinue reading “Song Sparrows”
Category Archives: Non-human Neighbours
Process Not Perfection
Summer hit with a vengeance this past week. Apparently, it believes it has making up to do after failing to show up last year. So here it is: heat, humidity, blazing sun, the works–all in time for the Victoria Day long weekend, in which one half of Canadians vanish into the woods to drink beerContinue reading “Process Not Perfection”
Green Neighbours: Beech trees
I have often done plants and wildlife but not, I think, trees. Today a tree, a very important tree ecologically for the Greater Toronto Bioregion, and one of my favourites, but as I am impossible at picking favourites in anything that’s not saying much. Beech trees. They are, first of all, easy to identify inContinue reading “Green Neighbours: Beech trees”
Nature Deficit Disorder
So the first thing you need to learn about Nature Deficit Disorder is that it’s not real, but, like Ann Douglas‘s Maternal Distraction Disorder, it should be. The effects are real. The cause is real. But the diagnosis and all of the potentially expensive pharmaceutical treatments are not real. What is Nature Deficit Disorder? ItContinue reading “Nature Deficit Disorder”
Trilliums
The trilliums have been out and are mostly gone, petals fading pink. If you want to see them this year, don’t wait. I know it’s cold and wet but by next weekend there might be nothing to see. I feel like I say this every year–probably because I do say this every year–but: it isContinue reading “Trilliums”
Look Small: Buds to Leaves
Have you ever noticed the way buds open, almost erupting as if in force of a slow-motion explosion? They don’t just open. They spill. Like milk spreading across a kitchen floor, or water boiling over a pot. Like a snake shedding a too-small skin. Most of the leaves around here are open, but a fewContinue reading “Look Small: Buds to Leaves”
Bloodroot II
I can’t help it. I love bloodroot. Hence this sequel to last year’s more scientific bloodroot post. This year, just prettiness. I love the way they grow wrapped up in a blanket of their own leaves, as if protected from April’s chill. I love how the flower eventually peaks out the top as if stretchingContinue reading “Bloodroot II”
Disproportionate memories
I seem to be making a habit of ignorance. Should I see how long I can keep it up for? What I remember about my childhood home: it was split-level. We had an above-ground pool. My Mom didn’t like it. (I lived there for nine years.) What I remember about my adolescent home: my bedroomContinue reading “Disproportionate memories”
Kneeling at Easter to the Season’s First Bloodroot
It’s Easter … and I saw the season’s first bloodroot … and I did kneel, as a matter of fact. And why not? Why shouldn’t I? I found myself thinking, even–without remembering the poem I posted last year, linked above–that if there is a god, it is a wild thing that lives in the woods.Continue reading “Kneeling at Easter to the Season’s First Bloodroot”
Ignorance
I know nothing about nature. An odd thing for an eco-geek and professional environmentalist to confess, I grant you, but it’s true. I know nothing about nature. Oh sure, I have an undergrad degree in Environmental Studies complete with courses on ecology, biology, complex systems, remediation, and the history of environmental thought. And yes, IContinue reading “Ignorance”
Zoopolis 