- An Outside Chance

going the distance

PHOTO POST In September many migratory species head south from these shores. Not all of them have feathers. The birds that nest here, but spend winters in warmer climates, cross paths with those which nest further north and only stop here in passing. Autumn is sweet, with many opportunities to see and hear these beautiful … Read More

close encounters

PHOTO POST A severe restriction can sometimes be a blessing in disguise – at least when it comes to noticing beautiful sights. So it was for much of this summer, as eye trouble encouraged me to focus on small things, close at hand. With my better eye out of order (temporarily, I hope), and strict … Read More

in the weeds

PHOTO POST Most of the summer slipped by and I didn’t get out to the marsh … but at least I saw a Bittern. Over the past two weeks I’ve made several excursions, hoping to see a few of the sandpipers that like to run along from lily pad to lily pad. Or a beaver, … Read More

Reckoning with ‘the battering ram of the Anthropocene’

Also posted on Resilience Is the word right on the tip of your tongue? You know, the word that sums up the ecological effects of more, faster and bigger vehicles, driving along more and wider lanes of roadway, throughout your region and all over the world? If the word “traffication” comes readily to mind, then … Read More

ruffled feathers

PHOTO POST Where have the Herons gone? Through the month of May I wondered: isn’t the marsh looking and sounding kind of empty? As I make my local rounds I’m often achingly aware that many bird species are in decline, across the continent and around the world. This year, there has been the added danger … Read More

Building car-dependent neighborhoods

Also published on Resilience Car-dependent neighbourhoods arise in a multi-level framework of planning, subsidies, advertising campaigns and cultural choices. After that, car dependency requires little further encouragement. Residents are mostly “locked-in”, since possible alternatives to car transport are either dangerous, unpleasant, time-consuming, or all three. At the same time, municipal officials have strong incentives to … Read More

Recipes for car dependency

Also published on Resilience A car-dependent society isn’t built overnight. It takes concerted effort by multiple levels of government and industry to make private cars the go-to, all-but-obligatory choice for everyday personal transportation. If you want to see what car dependency looks like on a map, you need to look at a regional or neighbourhood … Read More

How parking ate North American cities

Also published on Resilience Forty-odd years ago when I moved from a small village to a big city, I got a lesson in urbanism from a cat who loved to roam. Navigating the streets late at night, he moved mostly under parked cars or in their shadows, intently watching and listening before quickly crossing an … Read More

bumblebee and scilla

PHOTO POST Which is prettier, a Wood Duck or a Bumblebee? The reddish orange of a Robin’s breast, or the orangey red of Staghorn Sumach fruit? The sunrise or the sunset? This April there’s no need to pick answers to silly questions – there’s a different beauty around every corner. Closest to home, at just … Read More

waves of spring

PHOTO POST Spring comes with a splash, and it comes with a sigh. The first Red-winged Blackbirds and Robins arrived several cold weeks ago. On calm mornings the air rings with the songs and screeches of many recent arrivals, but nest-building is just beginning. Even the cold-weather stalwarts – gulls, the winter ducks, geese and … Read More

What we know, and don’t know, about bees

Also published on Resilience It will be several more weeks before bees start visiting flowers in my part of the world. But while I wait for gardens and meadows to come alive again, it’s been a joy to read Stephen Buchmann’s new book What a Bee Knows. (Island Press, March 2023) Buchmann sets the scene in … Read More

fragile february

PHOTO POST A few days of very early spring, brief periods when it felt like the depths of winter – and now and then, a few days somewhere between those extremes. February, we hardly knew you. Not many of the diving ducks which typically winter here have been hanging around Port Darlington this year. Perhaps … Read More