Five Fast Facts for Friday: Weird Grizzly Grub
Grizzly bears are omnivores, and a very small percentage of their diet is actually meat. An adult grizzly needs to consume about 30,000 calories a day (compared to 2,500 calories for an average man) and...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Waterton-Glacier Peace Park
At the moment, tensions between Canada and the United States are a bit high, but in 1932 the Waterton – Glacier International Peace Park was created to celebrate the peace and friendship between the...
Searching…..in Waterton
When I visited Waterton in September, something was missing. Actually, a few somethings were missing, the most obvious of which were the mountains. Berries were nowhere to...
Victoria students go Batty!
My mom is waiting for me to write the next ‘great Canadian novel’, which is weird because I’m sure she knows I write for kids. But I’m also pretty sure she doesn’t know why. If...
Enter to Win a Copy of Bats in Trouble!
Today is the last day of International Bat Week 2017 and to celebrate, I am offering 10 free copies of Bats in Trouble in a Goodreads giveaway! This story is great for young readers, aged...
Five (More) Fast Facts for Friday: Bats
Bats exist on every continent except Antarctica (just like ospreys!), and there are many amazing different species. One quarter – yes, 25% – of all known mammal species are bats. There are 1293 species...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Bats
My enthusiasm for bats always seems to raise a few eyebrows. Most people don’t see them as the misunderstood, hardworking heroes of the ecosystem, like I do. Are you a skeptic, too? Here are...
A Canadian Safari
A few weeks ago I went on a safari. Not a giraffe, lion, elephant safari – a grizzly bear safari in the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Sanctuary, one of the few places in the world where...
Have you met Taco-Charlie?
If you go to Lethbridge, you must visit Taco-Charlie at the Helen Schuler Nature Centre. During my book tour this month, my time in Lethbridge was limited and I had to make a choice:...
Amphibian or Reptile: Can you tell the difference?
Here’s a pop quiz – just like in school, when your teacher tests you before the lesson, just to see how much you already know (or don’t know). This is just like that. Take...
Wild ID – more than a mug shot
Long-toed salamanders are pretty distinctive. The vivid yellow stripe is a sure giveaway, as is the long toe on each back foot. But how did researchers in Waterton distinguish one long-toed salamander from the...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Landslides
Often, the deadliest landslides happen with little warning. I have driven through the Frank Slide in the Crowsnest Pass many times and always find it quite eerie to consider that some of the town’s...
Today is Bear Day
“Why is Dad standing outside with the pole for the umbrella?” “What?” I turned the water off and shook my hands dry. There were no paper towels in the campground washrooms. As I turned...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Manta Rays
When I’m swimming in the ocean, it’s always in the back of my mind that a ray could be underfoot. They’re flat, well-camouflaged and downright scary. Remember how Steve Irwin died? As I researched...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Flight
If you could become an animal, what would you choose? I would like to be a bird, able to soar over mountains and deserts. When I was researching facts for this book, I discovered many...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Gorillas
I could watch the gorillas at the zoo for hours. Did you know they are the largest of the apes and live only in the forests of Africa? Here are a few more facts about gorillas:...
Looking for Winter in Waterton
Resolution #1 : Embrace Winter What better place to strengthen my resolve than Waterton Lakes National Park? Six-foot drifts and a weekend on snowshoes should do the trick. I had never visited Waterton in...
Five Fast Facts for Friday: Hibernation
It’s winter, and I would dearly love to curl up with a blanket and hibernate. But…in true hibernation, an animal is close to death. Its heart and breathing almost stop. Here are five fast...
DDT and the Osprey
DDT has a nasty reputation. Probably the most commonly-known fact about DDT is that it caused prey bird populations to plummet in the 1960s and 70s. Birds that ingested DDT produced eggs that were...
Saving Salamanders
Last month, I swung a pulaski for the first time. Okay, not so much swung it, as hacked and chopped and dug with it as I helped repair the salamander fences and tunnels in...
Keeping Ospreys Safe
Birds nest in the strangest places – like the robin that built its nest in our canoe once, and the dove that decided to nest on my parents’ front door. Yup, right on the...
Airborne Predators
Ospreys are hunters, or, more accurately, fishers. They are birds of prey, after all. Other birds of prey, like eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls, hunt a variety of other critters, which helps keep an...
What inspires you?
Last month, I found myself in need of a little inspiration. I sat at my desk, fingers poised above the keyboard, blinking cursor ready to march across the page – and I couldn’t get...
