In 1977, the great horned owl was Alberta’s pick following a province-wide children’s vote. This powerful owl is the second heaviest owl in Canada and is a formidable predator of small and medium-size mammals and birds. It will even tackle heavily quilled porcupines, nestling hawks, peregrine falcons, and every other […]
Macaques have a very expressive face. This animal became frightened when a more dominant monkey arrived in the hot pool. This month I want to feature the last of the photos I took on the two trips I led to photograph the winter wildlife of Japan. Typically, people don’t expect […]
The Pacific loon, like all species of loons, has beautiful blood-red eyes. Many authors have erroneously suggested that the reason a loon has red eyes is to restore the red colouration filtered out of the water when the birds dive underwater. This is wrong. More likely, the intensity of the […]
I decided to continue the theme I began last month with “Extreme Birds” and feature extreme examples of reptiles this month. Worldwide, there are roughly 10,000 reptile species, including caiman, alligators, crocodiles, turtles, tortoises, snakes, lizards, and a single species of tuatara. Below are some of my favourite extreme […]
I have been addicted to nature trivia since I was a boy. I always wanted to know which animal has the strongest claws, the lightest bones, the most enormous mouth, the longest lifespan, and the biggest belly. Today, many decades later, whenever I need a trivia fix, I can always […]
When I was a boy, bears were the demons in my nightmares. During the day, they lurked in the dark recesses of my imagination, and at night they skulked from the shadows to stalk and chase me. I stopped having those frightening dreams many decades ago, but I have never stopped thinking about […]
This montage features the feathered finery of six adult male grouse. (clockwise from upper left) Greater sage grouse, spruce grouse, ruffed grouse, dusky grouse, rock ptarmigan, and white-tailed ptarmigan. Canada is home to 9 of the 12 species of grouse that live in North America. These include three species of […]
I officially began my full-time, freelance photography/writing career in September 1979. Young, and blindly optimistic, I reasoned that Jasper National Park, in the wilds of southwestern Alberta, would be the perfect place to scoop the competition, and find fame and fortune. So, on September 4th of that year, Aubrey and […]
One of the great rewards of writing a natural history book is the discoveries you make along the way. My first book, Married to the Wind, was a celebration of the prairie grasslands and while writing it I discovered the fascinating beauty of the Great Sand Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan. […]
Since childhood, I’ve been an enthusiastic bird nerd, and one of the first exotic birds I identified was a boreal owl. Since then, I have seen all 19 species of owls found in Canada and the United States. It’s common, however, to meet people who have never seen an owl […]
