Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
December 13, 2021
TRIBUTE TO A BARN by Nola Sprague© November 17, 1980 Your weathered walls have stood many storms, And watched the new cattle being born, It seems a disgrace to tear you down, And scatter your hewn logs around. You once were proud and stood…
December 1, 2014
PREDICTING THE BIRDS AT OUR FEEDERS December, 2014/January, 2015 issue Having pursued the study of birds as a hobby for close to 60 years now, it is always fun to reflect on how much we have learned about bird behaviour in that time. A…
October 1, 2014
GETTING READY TO HUNKER DOWN October/November, 2014 issue There was a skin of ice on our car windshield, and frost on the grass around our campsite at Ferris Provincial Park on September 14th. Had fall started already? By noon, we were back to T-shirts…
August 1, 2014
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST August/September, 2014 issue The tropical groove-billed ani is one, and also the couas and coucals of Madagascar. Even that star of cartoons, the famous roadrunner who is relentlessly pursued by Wiley Coyote, is also a member of the…
June 1, 2014
June/July, 2014 issue Last year at this time, my column in The Scoop dealt with how the natural world promotes good health and longevity. How some on our guided hikes have health issues, while others do not. Arthritis comes up frequently during conversations behind…
April 1, 2014
SPRING AWAKENING EVERYWHERE April/May, 2014 issue Expressions like “old fashioned winter” and “winters of my youth” became obsolete terms this past season after enduring the hardest winter in memory. In Prince Edward County, almost daily snow squalls off Lake Ontario kept snowblowers and shovels…
February 1, 2014
THIS RUFFED GROUSE HAS ME ON EDGE February/March, 2014 issue I have never killed a bird intentionally. However, there is one along the road I walk every morning whose days may be numbered. The bird is a ruffed grouse that purposely waits for…
December 1, 2013
WOOD FIRES AND CHRISTMAS December, 2013/January, 2014 issue I had the pleasure one winter of participating in a Twelve Days of Christmas presentation at a museum not far from where I live. I represented the Four Calling Birds. However, there were only three of…
November 1, 2013
GIRL OF LIMBERLOST AND SON OF POSEIDON November/December, 2013 issue The photo of the caterpillar that Scoop editor Angela Saxe sent me, taken by Isadora Spielmann, was a mystery. Covered in tiny white spiracles, the caterpillar’s identity was lost in the carpet of these…
August 1, 2013
ROCK DUNDER IS A CLIMB TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD August/September, 2013 issue When I attended elementary school back in the 1950s, all of us kids always looked forward to visiting “The Big Stone” on Arbour Day. It was located at the back…
June 1, 2013
NATURAL WORLD PROMOTES GOOD HEALTH AND LONGEVITY June/July, 2013 issue I seldom use insect repellent on any guided hikes that I lead as I find the fog of toxins enveloping me more annoying than the insects they are designed to repel. On the rare…
April 1, 2013
WOOD WARBLERS – THE BUTTERFLIES OF THE BIRD WORLD April/May, 2013 issue It is early morning during the second week of May at Prince Edward Point, the southeastern tip of Prince Edward County. The trees along the groomed Point Traverse trails are wet…
February 1, 2013
WILDLIFE NOT WELCOME IN OUR TOWN February/March, 2013 issue There is a village near where I live that boasts a large mill pond. Now, one would think that would be a bonus, especially to anyone wishing to locate along its banks. However, the presence…
December 1, 2012
WATCHING WILDLIFE CAN AND DOES REDUCE STRESS December, 2012/January, 2013 issue Two years ago, with my wife’s blessing, I spent just under a thousand dollars, erecting an aluminium garden shed, complete with wooden foundation and a small deck at its approach. The building wasn’t…
October 1, 2012
FIRST ENCOUNTERS OF THE LASTING KIND October/November, 2012 issue We no longer get to read Barry McCullagh’s great offerings in the Belleville Intelligencer. The man whose columns I always enjoyed, passed away about five years ago. The restaurant north of Brighton where we first…
July 1, 2012
A JURASSIC PARK RIGHT HERE IN OUR BACKYARD August/September, 2012 issue Popular legend says that Satan routinely visited this spot which might account for the name of the rugged terrain just a few minutes south of Tamworth. The sign identifies one cavern as the…
June 1, 2012
RESPONSIBILITY IN THE BACKYARD June/July, 2012 issue Last year, I had the pleasure of speaking to a horticultural conference on backyard naturalization at Peterborough’s Trent University. It is a subject that I have groomed and nurtured over the years and is also one which…
April 1, 2012
HOW TO RECHARGE ONE’S SOUL April/May, 2012 issue We came upon it suddenly along the Salmon River as we rounded a corner in the trail. There was no doubt it was as much startled as we were that morning. It was a fairly large…
February 1, 2012
LEARNING ABOUT BIRDS FROM THE TRACTOR SEAT February/March, 2012 issue I saw my very first pipit about 40 years ago while ploughing down a corn field one fall on our farm in Prince Edward County where I live. I was barely in my 20s…
December 1, 2011
UP BEFORE FIVE – THE FAMILY FARM December 2011/January, 2012 issue My wife has often accused me of taking an interminable length of time to complete projects. Such was the case with a book I just had published two months ago. My mother…
July 1, 2011
HANDLING THE FOUL AND THE LOATHSOME August/September, 2011 issue The bizarre object we were now staring at in the water was a cluster of Bryozoan, and it floated, half submerged, held in place by a sunken branch to which it appeared tethered. It was…
May 1, 2011
IDENTIFYING BY EAR NOT ALWAYS EASY, BUT GETTING BETTER May/June, 2011 issue After almost 40 years of listening to the recorded songs of over 300 species of birds known to occur in this area, I am pleased that I can now identify by…
March 1, 2011
FROGS, TOADS AND OTHER THINGS March/April, 2011 issue Those who watched the classic film “Deliverance” from the early 1970s will not soon forget the disturbing scenes from this epic about four canoeists paddling down the wild Cahulawassee River in Georgia. The movie, however,…
December 1, 2010
LIFE AFTER DEATH IN THE FOREST December, 2010/January, 2011 issue The screech owl peeked out at us when I tapped the hollow tree, then sank back down into the darkness of the cavity. At this time of the year, the bird was likely…
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