Something's Fishy: A feast for fish
Illustration by Frits Ahledfedt
My favourite holiday memory is learning to make mashed potatoes in my grandma’s kitchen, her hand gently clasping mine as I firmly squished down into a large yellow bowl using an old wooden-handled masher. I recall the way she recited the...
A plea for conservation
Iceberg off of Maddox Cove, NL (Photo by Ronald Stone/Stone Island Photography)
Sir David Attenborough is a name that has become synonymous with conservation. Reuniting with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Natural History Unit, Attenborough and the BBC have come together once again to follow up their widely...
An ode to whale (Part One)
Sperm whales (Illustration by Elena O'Neill)
royalty’s fish / radiating into the night / to fathoms and float / (Inspired by Moby Dick) Facts: I’ve been reading Herman Melville’s Moby Dick during my lunches. Needless to say, this book is markedly different from my...
Celebrating Canadian species: Grizzly bear
Grizzly bear (Photo by Peter Sulzle)
When I put my boots on in the morning, I never really expect or seek to see a grizzly bear. Despite the fact that my Rocky Mountains backyard is home to many brown bears, any encounter always feels like a surprise. Meeting a bear in the wild...
Something's Fishy: The freshwater slasher
Westslope cutthroat trout (Photo by Wikimedia Commons)
When you think about Halloween, spooky species such as spiders with venomous fangs and blood-sucking bats usually come to mind. Of course, Hollywood is often to blame for these misrepresentations of species, with accounts of bats turning into...
What makes burrowing owl volunteers hoot?
Burrowing Owls gaze at volunteers at Burrowing Owl Conservation Society Breeding Facility near Oliver, BC (Photo by Dianne Bersea)
It’s a cold, early March day when my friend and regular Burrowing Owl Conservation Society volunteer, Doreen Olson, asks me, “Why don’t you join me next time I’m feeding the burrowing owls?”The following Tuesday...
Something's Fishy: A year underwater
Eastern sand darter, Grand River, ON (Photo by Alan Dextrase/Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry) © Queen's Printer for Ontario, 2016
For someone who writes about fish, it is no surprise that when I tell people what I do, it is always prompted by an inquiry about which finned species is my favourite. That’s like asking a mother which of her children she likes...
Garlic: The forbidden fruit? (Part Two)
Garlic (Photo by cyclonebill/Wikimedia Commons)
Part One of this blog was an overview of garlic, and the native variety growing in the Eastern Townships and Outaouais regions in Quebec. In Part Two I present you with a little garlic 101! The minimum threshold for a wild garlic population to...
More endangered than pandas: 40 Canadian species at risk of global extinction
Earlier this month, a conservation success story resonated around the world. The giant panda, perhaps the preeminent poster species of nature conservation, was down-listed from a global status of endangered to vulnerable on the International Union...
Something's Fishy: Here comes the sun(fish)
Warmouth up-close (Photo by Clinton & Charles Robertson/Wikimedia Commons)
“We rise when the fish do!” exclaimed my grandfather just as I was settling into the guestroom, known fondly as my room-away-from-home, at my grandparent’s house. “When’s that, grandpa?” I called back in...
