Take a second look …
The yellow eyes of the Saw-whet Owl are so startling, their gaze so steady, that we tend to ignore everything else. It’s easy to miss the trace of blood just below the owl’s bill, a smear of something that changes the way we look at the bird, that deepens our understanding of it. What discoveries might we make if we took that second look more often, if we trained ourselves to see?
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The Smell of Skunk: My Madeleine
Unlike most people I know, I love the smell of skunk. This unforgiving mixture of sulphur and alcohol that scientists call butyl mercaptan operates for me like the madeleine did for Proust. It prods to life memories that might otherwise have stayed buried in the past, and by doing so, it illustrates the complex associations between time and place, youth and age, and me, the individual person I am, and the society in which I live. An odor so strong and piercing that every time I smell it I’m transported. It returns me to myself—I feel young again and rooted … Read more
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Winter Birding: A photo essay from Algonquin Park
Algonquin Provincial Park is one of the finest places in North America to see winter birds, those boreal species that rarely come down to more southerly locations. Situated in central Ontario, the park is a three-hour drive north of Toronto and about the same distance west from Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. I spent two days in Algonquin near the end of January to photograph birds that, most winters, I can’t find in Toronto, my home town. These included different types of finches, crossbills, and grosbeaks, as well as certain species of grouse and jays. Our main target bird was the … Read more
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Cold-weather Camouflage: How do birds conceal themselves in winter?
To put it as simply as possible: birds display two types of camouflage: color and shape. Both of these techniques help them to perform the magical act of disappearing, of blending into their surroundings, sometimes to the point of invisibility. In the spring, birds put themselves on display in hopes of finding a mate. During the summer, the thick foliage of the trees where they nest hides them from view while they hatch and raise their young. But once the leaves have fallen, small and medium-sized birds are vulnerable to raptors of every kind, and camouflage is one strategy they’ve … Read more
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