Following the late March appearance of the first Crested Caracara ever sighted in Nova Scotia, another rare avian visitor has turned up in Metro: The Little Egret is an Old World bird similar to North America's Snowy Egret (which itself rarely ventures farther up the Atlantic coastline than Massachusetts). Its European counterpart is a "very rare" visitor to North America, with occasional scattered reports from Newfoundland to Virginia. First sighted on April 21 in a pond along the Shore Road Eastern Passage, the Little Egret was feeding actively but to some observers appeared not "all that healthy." JBD took the photo above...

01 May, 2013

A Grey Seal surveys the shoreline at Whale Cove, Inverness Co., Saturday. (Click photo for larger image.) Photo: Joshua Barss Donham....

28 August, 2012

Last Friday, Rosa's school had an in-service day, so Rosa went birding at Point Pleasant Park. She brought the cardboard binoculars she got for Christmas. She spotted a Common Loon trying to swallow a whole crab: Way off the tip of the park, she spied a Common Eider Drake: A Northern Pintal was hanging around First Beach. Notice his blue bill? Here he is again, standing on one leg: A Pintail-Mallard hybrid was resting on the sand: A Red-Breasted Merganser was drying his feathers in the sun...

25 February, 2012

Contrarian readers just can't get enough of those starlings: H/T: Joshua...

10 November, 2011

A burrow of puffins surveys Sydney Bight from Hertford Island off Cape Dauphin in Cape Breton Friday afternoon. From late May through early August, Hertford and nearby Ciboux — the Bird Islands — host vast flocks of razor-billed auks, black guillemots, Atlantic puffins, and black-legged kittiwakes, seabirds that spend the rest of their lives on the open ocean. The province designated the islands a protected wildlife management area last year. Regulations bar the the public from landing, but Bird Island Boat Tours offers close up views from twice-daily, two-and-a-half hour boat tours. (Joshua Barss Donham photo)...

17 July, 2010

Alexis Madrigal, Atlantic's new tech blogger, poses the question this way: You hop onto a parent's computer to check your email or do a little work. But, to your dismay, the only browser available is Internet Explorer and (for whatever reason) you don't like Internet Explorer. You download Firefox (or Chrome), then install and launch it. Firefox (or Chrome) then asks whether you want to make it your (Mom's) default browser. Of course you do! But should you really make this decision for Mom? Yes, says Madrigal, quoting a mashup of Tweeted responses: "It's our responsibility to help our parents figure out technology"...

15 July, 2010

A father and his daughter were strolling along the shore of Sir Sandford Fleming Park Tuesday when the father  spotted a seabird on the opposite shore. Father (age 39):  Look, Rosa, over on the far side. I think it's a loon. Rosa (age 3-1/2):  It's a black guillemot. Father:  Maybe it's a red-breasted merganser. Rosa:  It's a black guillemot. Later, at home, the photo was enlarged. Verdict:  Black guillemot, winter plumage....

16 March, 2010