Category Archives: The Wood Folk Diaries

Dear Wood Folk, Firstly, I want to make note to my more sensitive readers and happen-upon-ers that the indigo bunting (Passerina cyanea) pictured recovering below was observed throughout the summer, long after his run in with a window. What I didn’t know at the time is often birds who’ve collided with windows should get medical […]

Dear Wood Folk, We had a turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) moment a while back when discussing red oak. Turkey’s favorite food is acorns. The scarlet tanager may be the guardian of the oaks, but let’s call turkey the gobbler of the oaks? These large birds are a common site around Haliburton, beside or crossing the road, […]

Dear Wood Folk, I’m excited to start Volume 2 of the Wood Folk Diaries. We’re going to the birds! Our first guest is perhaps my favorite, red being my favorite color: meet scarlet tanager (piranga olivacea). The ornithologist Edward H. Forbush called Scarlet Tanagers “the appointed guardian of the oaks“. There’s one place to look […]

Dear Wood Folk, A blur of a floof was sprinting through my woods one morning, after a scary stormy night! Mostly yellow and tawny brown. Black webbed feet. Black beak. I’d seen these floofs before because the Canada geese loved to nest beside my parent’s pond. This one was far from a pond. It’s a […]

Dear Wood Folk, One of the pleasures of living in a county with over 600 lakes and rich in wetlands is turtling. Maybe that is not a word but since birding is a word, and herping is too broad, let’s go with turtling. My computer’s dictionary sure isn’t up on nature slang. On a sunny […]

Dear Wood Folk, Before I showed up at the Song of the Woods Studio, a couple foxes and some kits hung around for two years. I myself have seen many fox in these parts, but I’ve never had the pleasure of watching a family at their den. Robin gave me the scoop, and a whole […]