If you only aim to photograph one woodpecker this winter, make it the pileated woodpecker. Like its relatives (the hairy and the downy woodpeckers), it has no separate breeding or winter range, and stays put year-round. If you lure it out into the open—try suet feeders—the shy pileated woodpecker is easy to ID. It has a knife-sharp bill that’s longer than an eagle’s, and a bright red crest that sticks straight up in the air. Males have a red forehead and “moustache”; on females, these markings are black.
Where do pileated woodpeckers live?
These cavity-nesting birds usually stick to the same territory from one season to the next, sometimes re-using a nest hole they’d carved out (Mom and Dad working as a team) earlier that year. For winter, a pileated woodpecker will chisel out a separate roosting hole. If this woodpecker is easy to identify, it’s almost as easy to spot a tree that it’s been feasting on. Thanks to that dagger-like beak, it can carve holes as large as a foot long and four inches wide. The excavation damage leaves piles of wood splinters the size of crayons at the base of the tree. A pileated woodpecker targets a tree infested with insects, mostly carpenter ants. Woody’s hearing is so sharp that it can detect the ant colony rustling inside the heart of the tree.
Why does that pileated woodpecker keep drumming!?
Although Woody will drum, in loud, resonating “rolls” year-round, you’ll most likely notice the sound in late winter and early spring. This is when males drum twice per minute, hoping to attract females. They also produce a high, chirping call.
A persistent pileated woodpecker can turn into a cottage pest if it won’t stop pounding on the knots in cedar siding, or if it keeps hammering away on a metal chimney. (So! Loud!) But if a male is banging away on your stove pipe to establish territory and call to the ladies, take heart that this noise should taper off in the summer, when it’s no longer breeding season. And if he’s going after your cottage’s exterior wood? Well, at least he’s alerted you to a possible ant infestation.
Puppies are beyond adorable. So, giving one as a present is sure to make an impact, right? As much as gifting a puppy will make the holidays unforgettable, it’s often at the expense of the dog. Plus, as fulfilling as dog ownership can be, it’s not a decision you should take lightly or make for somebody else. Here’s why you shouldn’t gift a puppy for Christmas and what you can do instead.
Dogs require a serious commitment of time and money
Puppies are a huge responsibility. A dog means a significant commitment of time and energy—from the basics like house training and obedience to meeting exercise needs with daily walks. Before you get a puppy for your family or gift one to somebody else, it’s critical that you guarantee they will meet the responsibility of dog ownership for the pet’s lifetime.
Dogs are also expensive. According to the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, the average cost of a puppy is over $4,500 a year. And the annual cost of an adult dog is around $3,700. So even though you are absorbing the purchase or adoption price of the puppy, is your gift recipient ready to take on all those other expenses? Your generous gift might not be so generous after all.
Choose a dog that fits your lifestyle
Whether you intend for the dog to join your household or somebody else’s, you must match the breed and personality to the new owner’s lifestyle. A busy herding breed might be perfect for an outdoor enthusiast, whereas a laid-back lap dog might be someone else’s ideal pet. Or maybe an older dog who is already house trained is a better match than a rambunctious pup. Because it’s so important to match the dog to the owner, you should never choose somebody else’s dog for them. And if you’re gifting the puppy for Christmas to a member of your immediate family, everybody in the family should be part of the selection process.
The holidays can be too much for dogs
The holidays are a busy and sometimes stressful time of year, and a new pet requires attention and routine while they adapt to their new home. Many people can’t provide that kind of stability amid holiday cheer. Plus, all the festive sights, sounds, smells, and visitors can overwhelm a new pet. And we can’t forget to mention the extra holiday dangers such as toxic foods, candles, and ornaments. Consider waiting for a quieter time of year when your family or the gift recipient can focus on their new furry family member.
A better way to gift a dog
So, with all this in mind, how can you surprise somebody with a more suitable gift? Consider dog-themed items such as a stuffed animal in the likeness of a child’s favourite breed, paw print earrings, or a graphic t-shirt with dog images. What about a subscription to a dog magazine? Or you can donate to an animal shelter or rescue organization in the person’s name.
If the recipient has agreed to dog ownership and you’ve chosen a more appropriate time to pick the puppy, you can still give a holiday present. Wrap a few books about how to choose a puppy or train a dog. Put a bow on a collar and leash. Or you could even pre-pay the adoption fee at the shelter or rescue, then help the gift recipient choose their dog later on.
Puppies are beyond adorable. So, giving one as a present is sure to make an impact, right? As much as gifting a puppy will make the holidays unforgettable, it’s often at the expense of the dog. Plus, as fulfilling as dog ownership can be, it’s not a decision you should take lightly or make for somebody else. Here’s why you shouldn’t gift a puppy for Christmas and what you can do instead.
Dogs require a serious commitment of time and money
Puppies are a huge responsibility. A dog means a significant commitment of time and energy—from the basics like house training and obedience to meeting exercise needs with daily walks. Before you get a puppy for your family or gift one to somebody else, it’s critical that you guarantee they will meet the responsibility of dog ownership for the pet’s lifetime.
Dogs are also expensive. According to the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association, the average cost of a puppy is over $4,500 a year. And the annual cost of an adult dog is around $3,700. So even though you are absorbing the purchase or adoption price of the puppy, is your gift recipient ready to take on all those other expenses? Your generous gift might not be so generous after all.
Choose a dog that fits your lifestyle
Whether you intend for the dog to join your household or somebody else’s, you must match the breed and personality to the new owner’s lifestyle. A busy herding breed might be perfect for an outdoor enthusiast, whereas a laid-back lap dog might be someone else’s ideal pet. Or maybe an older dog who is already house trained is a better match than a rambunctious pup. Because it’s so important to match the dog to the owner, you should never choose somebody else’s dog for them. And if you’re gifting the puppy for Christmas to a member of your immediate family, everybody in the family should be part of the selection process.
The holidays can be too much for dogs
The holidays are a busy and sometimes stressful time of year, and a new pet requires attention and routine while they adapt to their new home. Many people can’t provide that kind of stability amid holiday cheer. Plus, all the festive sights, sounds, smells, and visitors can overwhelm a new pet. And we can’t forget to mention the extra holiday dangers such as toxic foods, candles, and ornaments. Consider waiting for a quieter time of year when your family or the gift recipient can focus on their new furry family member.
A better way to gift a dog
So, with all this in mind, how can you surprise somebody with a more suitable gift? Consider dog-themed items such as a stuffed animal in the likeness of a child’s favourite breed, paw print earrings, or a graphic t-shirt with dog images. What about a subscription to a dog magazine? Or you can donate to an animal shelter or rescue organization in the person’s name.
If the recipient has agreed to dog ownership and you’ve chosen a more appropriate time to pick the puppy, you can still give a holiday present. Wrap a few books about how to choose a puppy or train a dog. Put a bow on a collar and leash. Or you could even pre-pay the adoption fee at the shelter or rescue, then help the gift recipient choose their dog later on.
I’m outside at my rural Saskatchewan farm, chatting with my neighbours who I’ve invited over to appreciate the night sky through my telescope. After exclamations and open-mouthed wonder over Saturn’s rings, and light that has been travelling through space for more than two million years to reach our eyes from the Andromeda Galaxy, our conversation inevitably turns to the pandemic, our work-from-home arrangements and complaints about rural internet. My neighbour casually mentions they’ve just switched to using Starlink for their internet provider.
I glance up and notice a bright satellite moving across the sky, almost certainly a Starlink, since they now make up almost half of the nearly 4,000 operational satellites and they’re extremely bright. I take a deep breath and carefully consider how to discuss the substantial cost that we’re all going to have to pay for Starlink internet.
I don’t blame my neighbours for switching. Here, as in many rural parts of North America, there aren’t great internet options, and with many people working and taking classes from home during the pandemic, anything that makes life easier is immediately accepted.
With no regulation, I know that in the near future, one out of every 15 points you can see in the sky will actually be relentlessly crawling satellites, not stars. This will be devastating to research astronomy, and will completely change the night sky worldwide.
A simulation of the brightness and number of satellites during a full night for 50 degrees north on the summer solstice.
Our model uses 65,000 satellites on the orbits filed by four megaconstellation companies: SpaceX Starlink and Amazon Kuiper (United States), OneWeb (United Kingdom) and StarNet/GW (China). We calibrated our simulation to match telescope measurements of Starlink satellites, since they are by far the most numerous.
Starlink has so far made some strides toward dimming their satellites since their first launch, but most are still visible to the naked eye.
Our simulations show that from everywhere in the world, in every season, there will be dozens to hundreds of satellites visible for at least an hour before sunrise and after sunset. Right now, it’s relatively easy to escape urban light pollution for dark skies while camping or visiting your cabin, but our simulations show that you can’t escape this new satellite light pollution anywhere on Earth, even at the North Pole.
The most severely affected locations on Earth will be 50 degrees north and south, near cities like London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Kiev, Vancouver, Calgary and my own home. On the summer solstice, from these latitudes, there will be close to 200 satellites visible to the naked eye all night long.
The telescope observations that are key to learning about our universe are about to get much, much harder because of unregulated development of space.
Astronomers are creating some mitigation strategies, but they will require time and effort that should be paid for by megaconstellation companies.
Unknown environmental costs
Starlink internet might appear cheaper than other rural options, but this is because many costs are offloaded. One immediate cost is atmospheric pollution from the hundreds of rocket launches required to build and maintain this system.
Every satellite deployment dumps spent rocket bodies and other debris into already-crowded low Earth orbit, increasing collision risks. Some of this space junk will eventually fall back to Earth, and those parts of the globe with the highest overhead satellite densities will also be the most likely to be literally impacted.
Starlink plans to replace each of the 42,000 satellites after five years of operation, which will require de-orbiting an average 25 satellites per day, about six tons of material. The mass of these satellites won’t go away — it will be deposited in the upper atmosphere. Because satellites comprise mostly aluminium alloys, they may form alumina particles as they vaporize in the upper atmosphere, potentially destroying ozone and causing global temperature changes.
This has not yet been studied in-depth because low Earth orbit is not currently subject to any environmental regulations.
Regulating the sky
Currently, low Earth orbit, where all of these satellites are planned to operate, is almost completely unregulated. There are no rules about light pollution, atmospheric pollution from launches, atmospheric pollution from re-entry, or collisions between satellites.
But companies are launching satellites right now at a frenetic pace, and the damage they do to the night sky, the atmosphere and the safety of low Earth orbit will not be undone even if the operators go bankrupt.
There’s no doubt that rural and remote internet users in many places have been left behind by internet infrastructure development. But there are many other options for internet delivery that will not result in such extreme costs.
With co-operation instead of competition between satellite companies, we could have many fewer in orbit. By changing the design of satellites, they could be made much fainter, having less of an impact on the night sky. We shouldn’t have to make a choice between astronomy and the internet.
But without regulations requiring these changes, or strong pressure from consumers indicating the importance of the night sky, our view of the stars will soon be changed forever.
Year two of the pandemic didn’t slow people down from adding a furry family member. No matter if you were trying to adopt or buy this year, you were likely hard-pressed to find Fido at all. Of course, all of these new pets needed names, and owners turned to celebrities, trees, COVID, Olympic athletes, and Pokemon among other topics for inspiration. Here are the results from Rover’s annual report on the most popular pet names in Canada.
Top Female Dog Names
Luna
Bella
Daisy
Lucy
Lola
Molly
Zoe
Stella
Lily
Coco
Top Male Dog Names
Charlie
Milo
Max
Leo
Rocky
Winston
Teddy
Duke
Buddy
Ollie
Things got interesting when it came to the top trending dog names of the year. Covi and Rona topped the list for the most popular COVID-inspired dog names, however, Fauci, named for Anthony Fauci—chief medical advisor to the President of United States, is not far behind.
Canadian’s were also enamoured with Olympic gold medalists Andre De Grasse, Penny Oleksiak, and Maggie Mac Neil, naming their pets after them.
When Rover searched their database for the annual report, they discovered Canadians really love their trees. Willow, Maple, Cedar, and Timber popped up as popular names for dogs.
Mark’s cyber deals on women’s and men’s apparel end today! Don’t miss out on getting those Christmas gifts at a steal. Get an additional $15 off, if you sign up for their mailing list. You can also get free shipping until Dec. 1.
Masks may soon be required around more than just other people.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that COVID-19 antibodies appeared in 40 per cent of the 152 blood samples taken from white-tailed deer in Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania in 2021.
A second study tested 151 wild deer and 132 captive deer in Iowa between April and December 2020. Of the 283 deer samples, 94 tested positive.
Canadian experts are watching the findings closely. In an email from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF), the government confirmed that no deer or other wildlife in Ontario have tested positive for COVID-19. But officials are still advising people to be cautious.
Both studies suggest that the deer populations contracted the virus through human interactions, with the virus then transmitting among the animals. This theory, however, has no concrete evidence beyond the abundance of deer in urban centres and their social behaviour among one another.
“There is some opportunity for human-to-wildlife transmission because there are some susceptible mammal species,” the MNRF said. “This type of transmission is a concern because the establishment of a reservoir in a wildlife population could lead to reverse zoonoses (i.e. wildlife-to-human transmission).”
After reservoirs are established in multiple wildlife populations, researchers in the PNAS study argued that it becomes almost impossible to eradicate COVID-19. Once the virus is in a new host, it can adapt and evolve into different strains, ones that the researchers said could be transmissible to humans and effective against our vaccines.
But before jumping to any drastic conclusions, Keith Munro, a wildlife biologist for the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters (OFAH), said that further studies need to be completed.
“The studies are really valuable for highlighting the ability for this virus to get into white-tailed deer,” he said, “but we definitely need more research to figure out how it spreads, what are the factors that cause it to move into deer, and how widespread it is in different environments.”
Munro also pointed out that neither study looked at contraction of the virus among deer based on age or sex. And without more information on the circumstances and environment in which the virus was contracted, you can’t extrapolate these results to Ontario’s deer population, he said.
The MNRF in cooperation with the Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative and the Public Health Agency of Canada are currently testing wildlife for COVID-19, including deer.
Human-to-human transmission is still the most common conduit for COVID-19 spread, but the MNRF said that humans who have a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 should avoid close contact with animals, including pets, to protect them from the virus.
Vice versa, the chances of contracting COVID-19 from wildlife is low. Even preparing and eating hunted, wild game has shown no evidence of COVID-19 transmission. But to be cautious, the MNRF has advised a few simple actions to reduce risk:
Avoid contact with live, wild mammals. Feeding wildlife is discouraged because it can spread disease.
Follow normal health and safety steps when working with dead animals, such as wearing a mask and gloves—especially if you’re field-dressing wildlife.
Don’t work with animals if you have a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19.
Get vaccinated.
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Do you know the difference between the bobcat and the Canada lynx? Well, you will soon—read on. The lynx and the bobcat are cousins, and close enough genetically that they can successfully interbreed (though it’s rare). But bobcats are smaller, with shorter ears tufts, smaller paws, and a slightly longer—but still “bobbed”—tail. The most easy-to-see difference between the two, though, may be their colour. The bobcat has spotted orangey-brown fur; the lynx is typically lighter, often closer to uniformly grey.
The bobcat’s smallish size—it’s about twice as big as a house cat—doesn’t stop it from being a ferocious hunter, as long as the prey isn’t too big. Along with birds, rabbits, foxes, and the occasional lizard, they’ll take down young deer and skunks (brave!). Bobcats and lynx overlap in habitat, and can compete for food. But unlike the Canada lynx’s range, which is shrinking, its cousin’s has been expanding. Good thing it isn’t too picky about food; these little carnivores will feed on carrion—or even their own cubs—if they have to.
Are bobcats dangerous?
The bobcat is “crepuscular”—that is, most active during twilight. Even though the cats’ territory can range close to human populations, attacks (or even encounters) are rare. Like cougars, these kitties are reclusive and would rather avoid people. They’re more likely to be a danger to outdoor cats or dogs which owners leave unattended. (So don’t do that if you’ve seen one near your cottage. The same goes for cougars and Canada lynx, for that matter.)
Bobcat pairs hook up in winter, with Mamas giving birth roughly two months later, to up to six kittens. By one month, the babies are old enough to wander (briefly) outside the den. By two months, they’re ready to start eating meat. And when fall rolls around? The kittens are ready to hunt. Mommy taught them well!
Waterfront property has long been something of an industry in P.E.I., and the whole province is smaller than the Greater Toronto Area, so we’re talking about a limited commodity. The first wave of construction was from the 1940s to the 1960s, and some of these rustic places may be available. A place one or two lots back from the water, with easy access to the beach, will be more affordable, while true oceanfront will definitely cost more.
The north shore (the Gulf shore) is more commercialized, especially near Cavendish, a tourist draw as the childhood home of author Lucy Maud Montgomery. The beaches here are protected Parks Canada land. Properties in the vicinity, especially near the Crowbush golf course, come at a premium for P.E.I.
The south shore is somewhat less built up than the north and offers great swimming in the relatively warm Northumberland Strait. For bargains, check out both tips of the island, especially toward O’Leary at the western end. If the price for waterfront seems too good to be true, there’s one word to consider: erosion.
![Wild Moose Grazing the Mountains of Colorado || Brainard Lake Recreation Area, Ward, CO [Colorado Wildlife]](/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/mighty-moose-02-1200x685.jpg)
