With their tiny size, fearless personalities, and amazing agility, Hummingbirds capture our imaginations in a way few other birds can. PEI has only one species – the Ruby-throated Hummingbird – and their time with us is as short as an Island summer: from roughly Mother’s Day to Labour Day. Hummingbirds are creatures of extremes. They’re our smallest birds by far, weighing just a few grams (or about as much as a Canadian nickel); it would take more than 1,000 Ruby-throats to

It’s that time of year when many people are anticipating the first flowers of spring, without realizing that some are already here! We’ve looked at two of my favorite precocious plants – Willow and Beaked Hazelnut – but I also have a soft spot for Red Maple ( Acer rubrum ), flowering now. When we think of flowering trees, it’s often Apples, Cherries, and Serviceberries that come to mind. These showy species follow the usual order of things: leaf out first, then flower. But

One of PEI’s first botanical signs of spring are Pussy Willows ( Salix spp.). We have more than a dozen different Willows on the Island, but only one – Salix discolor – officially has the common name ‘Pussy Willow’. Willows are notoriously difficult to tell apart, but don’t worry: all our species are commonly called Pussy Willows this time of year so, right now, you can’t go wrong! Those soft, fuzzy balls are the male flower buds, called catkins. (Female catkins are sim