Nature / Writing

 ... eBird streaking that is. Along with being Earth Month, April is also Citizen Science Month . Citizen science is an umbrella term that covers a wide array of activities, but what they all have in common is that they provide ways for non-professionals to contribute in some way to scientific research and discovery. There are two ongoing data collection projects I try to contribute to regularly; iNaturalist and eBird.  iNaturalist is focused on observations of individual wild organisms (you can explore mine through my iNaturalist profile ), while eBird is a survey-style project based on observing all of the birds in a given area at a given time. Although I signed up with eBird about a year and a half before I joined iNaturalist, in recent years I've been using iNat (as the cool kids call it) far more often. But in honour of Citizen Science Month I'm currently trying to make up for that with a little bit of healthy self-competition: eBird keeps track of the most days in a row ...

Sometimes I find an activity I really enjoy; one that makes my day or week or month measurably better. Sometimes I get distracted or fall into old routines and drift away from that activity for no particular reason. And so it was with the #SundayFishSketch, which I was really loving about a year ago , and then three months later I just... stopped. But this morning I ate some cinnamon buns and drew a Lake Sturgeon, as one should:  I hope you are also enjoying life's simple pleasures, fish-based or otherwise.

This morning I got up, ate some pancakes, and drew a fish. Because y'know, Sunday. Meet the Iowa darter—or at least my best approximation of one. My weekends haven't always been this way. Back in February I went to the Royal Ontario Museum for a one-day workshop called "Ontario Underwater: Freshwater Fishes of the Great Lakes". This was—and I cannot stress this enough—for fun.  I've had a good handle on Ontario mammals since I was a kid. I started casually birding in my twenties (although I still have a lot  to learn) and more recently, my knowledge of local reptiles and amphibians has progressed nicely. But fish, fish! For the most part, fish remained a mystery. As I hoped, the workshop was a great introduction, but it was also a lot to take in in just a few hours. Luckily we were all sent home with a copy of the Freshwater Fishes of Ontario guide book, but what to do with it? With birding, you take your book and your binoculars and head...

Today would have been Jean Craighead George's 100th birthday. She passed away in 2012 at the age of 92, but even if she didn't make it into the triple digits, her booklist did. George was a prolific author, writing over a hundred books - mostly for kids and mostly about nature and animals.  As a child, animal books were all I ever wanted to read. E.B. White's stories were an early favourite and still sit on my shelf, alongside titles like The Wilds of Whip-Poor-Will Farm, Misty of Chincoteague, The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, Beautiful Joe, and Where the Red Fern Grows. When most girls my age were reading The Babysitter's Club series - well, I was reading those too, but I was also devoted to The Saddle Club . I went through a Jim Kjelgaard phase and a James Herriot phase, accidentally learning a lot about the American wilderness of the 40s and 50s and life in rural England in the process.  

(Cross-posted from my iNaturalist journal ) Last week a former co-worker dropped by the Arboretum and, just before he was about to leave, mentioned that one of his plans for 2019 was to do a personal “Big Year”, trying to see as many different bird species as he can in the province of Ontario in a single year. “I was thinking you should do it, too.”

So if you follow me on any social media, you probably already know that Volume 5 of the Toronto Comics Anthology Osgoode as Gold  is currently on Kickstarter. The campaign video even includes a shout-out from co-editor Megan Purdy for the story I wrote, "The Goosefighter", which has art by Austen Payne: "The Goosefighter" is a Western-inspired tale about a young woman whose day is ruined by a territorial Canada goose on the York University campus. It is one of 27 new Toronto-set short comics that fill the 220 full colour pages of this collection. Cover by Irma Kniivila As I write this, the Kickstarter is at just under $6000 raised out of an original $15,000 goal, with the rest of the month to go. I've been rather casually posting about it as a great way to support the T oronto Comix Press and the creators by pre-ordering your physical or PDF copy of the book. But today - TODAY - they announced the stretch goals. (If you're not familiar with c...

So, this is what I've been up to lately. Working at the Humber Arboretum as a Communications Assistant, which includes such onerous tasks are running around the woods learning about maple syrup harvesting while making this video:  My favourite part of this was that I smelled like wood smoke for the rest of the day. I think it's an important thing, to smell like wood smoke every so often.

Friday July 4, 2014 I must have been around nine years old when I grabbed a coffee can and my friend from next door and, clutching a newspaper article about efforts to save the Peregrine falcon, went door-to-door seeking donations. I have no idea how much money we raised that day, but I do remember being intimidated by a barking dog and discouraged by some ill-tempered neighbours. It's natural for kids to want to get involved in causes they care about, but sometimes it's rough going it alone. That's why I'm always excited to see ads for Bring Back the Wild , an ongoing campaign from the GTA-based organization Earth Rangers . By signing up with Bring Back the Wild online, kids can safely raise money and awareness to support animals who are threatened by habitat loss. Every year, Earth Rangers identifies four species that are in danger, providing information on the challenges the animal faces and how fundraising* can help. Kids can choose the animal they'd lik...

Sunday May 25, 2014 For the most part, I was glad there were children between us and the snakes. They weren't there in a human-shield kind of way - the snakes weren't dangerous and the kids weren't that coordinated anyway. When Steve and I first approached the Sciensational Sssnakes!!  display at Saturday's Spring Bird Festival in Sam Smith Park, we were both pleased and disappointed by the size of the crowd. Pleased, because it was wonderful to see so many children interested in learning about the frog, turtles, and snakes that nature educator Jenny Pearce had on hand, but disappointed because it didn't seem like we were going to get a chance to personally reconnect with Ross, the Everglades rat snake Steve had so enjoyed hanging out with  last year . Children take turns gently handling a hog-nosed snake. We watched the kids for a few minutes and I was impressed by how careful they were not to hurt the snakes, as per Pearce's instructions. Then Steve...

Monday April 21, 2014 I really enjoyed going to the TIFF Kids International Film Festival, but after more than a week straight spent inside dark theaters watching movies or inside bright theaters watching panel discussions, it was time to spend some time outside. One of the first things I saw on today's nature jaunt was a red squirrel. I've seen them before in the park, but not very often and not for a long time, so this made for a great start. Then there were many of the usual suspects for this time of year. A grackle took time to pose on a rock for me, I pestered a robin while he/she was in the bath, and the red-winged black birds were out in force: I also saw Northern flickers, a night heron, plenty of tree swallows, a brown creeper, lots of ducks and geese and sparrows, and heard a woodpecker. It had been a very nice walk and I was ready to go home when a passing young couple noticed my camera and I heard the woman say "Tell her about the owl...

Wednesday March 12, 2014 Warning: This post contains images of dead birds, which may be disturbing to some readers. On the other hand, that's kind of the point. On Sunday night, I told Steve I was planning to go to the Royal Ontario Museum in the morning while he was at work. He asked if there was something special going on I wanted to see. "I don't really want to see it," I said, "but it seems like a thing that should be seen." Every year, volunteers from Toronto's Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP) patrol the streets near tall buildings during the spring and fall migration seasons, looking for the hundreds of birds who will accidentally crash into the confusing walls of glass that reflect sky and trees in the daylight and shine with attractive electric lights in the night. I say accidentally, but that's not really true. Accidents are unpreventable. Bird collisions can be greatly reduced with  bird-safe building design , both at the...