Gilligallou's Blog

While we certainly love the winter months and the birding opportunities it presents (hello, finches!), at Gilligallou, we are always instituting forward thinking (our new website, for one!). As such, as we roll into the month of March, we thought there is no better time than now to give our flock a spring primer into some of the more popular bird calls and songs winter makes us miss so dearly.

Over the past few years, we have been increasingly made aware of the threats that invasive species of plants, animals and other wildlife have on our natural environment. As part of this awareness, one plant in particular has grabbed the spotlight, perhaps more than any other of late; wild parsnip.

Officially the smallest woodpecker in North America, these pint-sized birds are easy to attract and wonderful to have around the yard during all seasons of the year. In fact, they are the most likely of the woodpecker species to visit your feeder given their strong population numbers across the country.

  If you’ve spent any time at all paying attention to hollowed-out tree trunks, seemingly unstoppable hammering or the activity happening around a winter suet cake, you have undoubtedly noticed the beauty of our native woodpeckers. Here in our area we are treated to regular sightings of pileated woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers and our northern flickers. While these are traditionally strong in numbers here in the Ottawa area, there are a few other species that make appearances at times. Spotting them might be the trickiest part about them and knowing how to properly identify them guarantees to the make...