Thump! Don’t you hate hearing that sound? You know a bird has hit your window. Now you run outside to see if you can find the little thing. Hopefully it’s still alive and you can help revive it. Or you see a very strange thing. A bird (usually a cardinal or robin) is flying up … Read more
Pollinators, pollinator gardens, bee houses, bee friendly gardens. These are the BUZZ words these days. But they shouldn’t just be a passing fancy. Bees are very important for our environment. Without their pollinating abilities our grocery store shelves would be almost empty! So how does this relate to bird food? If your bird food is … Read more
Drew Monkman is a retired teacher, author and local naturalist. Drew has written the book “Nature’s Year in the Kawartha’s”, an updated version renamed “Nature’s Year” and co-written another “Big Book of Nature” with Jacob Rodenburg of the Kawartha Environment Centre. On this episode of The Garden Gate we talk about the Great Backyard … Read more
Have you ever wondered how birds stay warm during cold winters? We have had some very cold days and nights this year! Birds need coniferous trees and shrubs to hide in at night and when winds pick up. Trees like Cedar, Spruce, Pine and Yews. Even just a few of these added to your landscape … Read more
Bird watching in the summer is fairly easy. If you go for a walk in the park or hike in the woods you’re pretty much certain to see and hear a few birds! They are plentiful. You’ll find them eating berries, flitting around shrubs and trees and bathing or drinking in a nearby water way. … Read more
Not everyone realizes that birds love peanuts! Especially Blue Jays, Woodpeckers, Nuthatches and Chickadees. Feeding peanuts and suet is especially important in the winter and the birds get lots of energy from these foods! The fat helps them to stay warm and survive long winter nights. Suet, peanuts both hulled and shelled are favourites. When … Read more
CHEX TV airdate: Friday Nov. 10th, 2017 Garden Gate airs bi-weekly on CHEX TV. Fridays at 8am and 5pm, and the following Monday at 12:30pm Local photographer and filmmaker Rodney Fuentes joins me on this episode with a few tips on photographing birds. You need a good SLR camera but nothing extremely complicated or expensive … Read more
CHEX TV airdate: Nov. 2, 2017 Click link to watch this episode online We carry a lot of beautiful Canadian made wall and garden art in the shop. So much, that it can often be difficult to decide what would look best! Maybe you have high cathedral ceilings and a large empty wall going up … Read more
CHEX TV airdate: Oct. 13th, 2017 Click link to watch this episode online. On this episode my guest is Simon Tapper a student at Trent University. Simon is studying many different birds in the swallow family. Swallows prefer nesting boxes located in open fields on tall posts. They mainly eat flying insects. We’ve noticed fewer … Read more
CHEX TV airdate: Friday Sept. 29th, 2017 Click link to watch this episode online My guest on this episode of The Garden Gate is Trent University student, Simon Tapper, and we’re talking about the American Goldfinch. The goldfinch loves the seeds of Echinacea (Purple coneflower), grasses such as Big Blue stem, Rudbeckia (Black eyed susan). … Read more