We Will Always Have Wasps Coping with biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene The purple martin swallows returned again this year. One of the last populations left in Quebec nests nearby. They occupy only a fraction of the nest boxes they once did, but they cling on. They arrived right on time this year, but the... Continue Reading →
Elegy for the Ash le beagle Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science Marian MacNair hears the trees fall in the forest https://lebeagle.qcbs.ca/post/184065654352/elegy-for-the-ash
Tales from a butterflying summer “You count butterflies? They pay you? How do you get that job?” This was a common refrain whenever I explained what I did for a living. And they are right: standing on a rise on a sunny day, overlooking a tangle of greenery with jewelled wings flitting in every direction,... Continue Reading →
Elegy for the Ash Marian MacNair hears the trees fall in the forest All over the island of Montreal this winter, municipalities have quietly been cutting down their ash trees. The walk to my children’s school passes stump after stump. A hike through the park looks like it was logged, and far from all the... Continue Reading →
Phenology is the timing of events in nature. Click Morgan Arboretum Phenology Calendar 2022 to see what is happening this week in nature on and around the island of Montreal.
They say you can divide the population pretty evenly between those who are afraid of snakes and those of spiders. My best friend and I growing up are typical: Debbe gamely smushed arachnids the size of jawbreakers with her bare hands, while I cowered - embarrassing for a cowgirl. Payback occurred years later, when I... Continue Reading →
I'm cold. It has gone down to a wintry 12C here in Taiwan, and the locals have broken out their down jackets. I've become a hothouse flower. I haven't lost the Canadian habit of consulting the weather at every opportunity, but it is mostly a fruitless exercise: 18-25C with no rain. The main question of the... Continue Reading →
As a Canadian Jewish person, there is no higher honour than reading a Leonard Cohen poem in the middle of a hockey arena -Seth Rogan A Bell Centre’s worth of the faithful gathered on the first anniversary of Leonard Cohen’s death to mourn his passing and celebrate his legacy at the Tower of Song, a... Continue Reading →
A letter home during our sabbatical year abroad 我們都很好 Damn keyboard! Fighting with the Chinese keyboard aptly describes our experience of Taiwan: moments of pure frustration when the keyboard or website or sign or instruction or individual speaks only Chinese. It feels like a lifetime since we left Canada, and the experience here is so immersive,... Continue Reading →
While exiting my car the other day I nearly gashed myself on a World Trade Centre’s worth of rusty metal formerly known as the running board of an ancient and disreputable SUV parked beside me. When I returned to my own car and fired it up, I shared a grin with the SUV’s owner. That’s... Continue Reading →
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