My daughter, who doesn't have social media, is writing an article on the expansion of Neotropic Cormorants in Ontario, Canada & hybrids between Double-crested & Neotropic Cormorants. She's struggling w/ resources on the distribution of pure birds or hybrids. Can anyone help? #Ornithology #Seabirds

Leni holds a tiny toad.

Lemon poppyseed muffins on 4 May to celebrate the 554th anniversary of the Battle of Tewkesbury, Ares' favourite battle. For this, he made a banner and muffin toppers of knights in his favourite 15th century armour, his favourite helmet (the sallet), and a sword (all historically accurate)

A person cries during a speech about the horror and helplessness of watching children being burnt in their tents, during a demonstration in Toronto on 19 April 2025. It's unfathomable and unconscionable that it keeps happening and no one with any power is doing anything about it.

Portraits of protest, Toronto, 2025.

Leni works out numbers on a Japanese Soroban abacus, which we inherited from a friend, her oatmeal breakfast temporarily abandoned in favour of abacusing. The first day she got it, we didn't know how it worked so she spent a long time fingering the plastic beads... www.instagram.com/p/DJB_byaOixA/

Raspberry holds an indigo bunting that had hit a window. She'll prepare it to be a study skin for FLAP (Fatal Light Awareness Program).

I'm so grateful for the adults in my kids' lives who love them, care for them, and hang out with them playing board games, giving them unorthodox fist bumps, or plying them with Asian snacks. They're the proverbial village everyone talks about, and I'm grateful... www.instagram.com/p/DIv46hMO267/

Detail from a camera photo, taken at this weekend's protest during a speech about the horror and helplessness of watching children being burnt in their tents.

The horror, and the silence, and it keeps going.

Portraits of protest.

7-year-old Leni, August 2023. It's incredible how quickly the kids' faces change. Even in profile, I can tell Leni doesn't look like this anymore — her face seems older, and doesn't have the same baby-like quality that it had here. It makes me grieve the... www.instagram.com/p/DH-9LsBOlGJ/

My 17-year-old was just accepted to an ornithology workshop at Cornell University in New York state this summer. It's such an incredible opportunity and well-deserved, but we've been struggling with whether she ought to and can go. Any other year, it'd have been easy, but alas.

On laundry day, Leni hangs the underwear in the bathroom to dry. She and Ares often bicker about who gets to hang them. The other person has to hang the socks, which is, for some reason, the more dreaded task. At one point, Leni made a sheet about whose turn it... www.instagram.com/p/DHTOs_ru2zq/

A few weeks ago, I felt broken, and I was terrified and confused as to why I felt that way. After a bitter winter, the weather was finally starting to warm up and as a person who dislikes the cold, it'd ordinarily be a point of elation for me. However, I found... www.instagram.com/p/DHLizXBOPFO/

A knackered teen, after a day of birding and hiking in the snow (and also, the emotional and mental load that comes with slipping on ice and breaking your phone).

Temporarily abandoned toast, two days before Christmas.

'Tis a sparrow.

I'm a little belated with this, but I'm very honoured to have two of my photographs are currently on display at Pamenar Cafe in Kensington Market, as part of an exhibition featuring the work of photographers documenting the resistance. Check it out if you're in Toronto, as it closes soon.

Leni peers at postcards and drawings on the wall through the red lens of 3D glasses. I don't think she's encountered 3D glasses before, so she had a grand time looking at all kinds of pictures and objects through the tinted plastic and urging all of us to do the... www.instagram.com/p/DF7vi2MOY3c/

Two summers ago, we took a little wander over to a neighbouring neighbourhood to gawk and gape at this house, famed for its front yard which had been lovingly (and at some parts, creepily) adorned with all manner of dolls. Many of the dolls are from bygone eras... www.instagram.com/p/DFIW3DpORVf

Throwback to early December, when we walked along an abandoned railway track on a warmish day. Ares found a long branch that he thought would make a good sword. He'd broken it to reduce its length, but needed to shorten it further. Leni had found a loose rail... www.instagram.com/p/DFDSzzCOYCQ/

Just a pile of bird skulls on the kitchen island, waiting to be cleaned.

A little bit stuck.

This was how the last day of the year started, when Teen Kid accidentally broke one of her favourite bowls while washing it for breakfast. She was in tears; I would probably have been in tears too, if I wasn't preoccupied trying to console her (I say "would have"... www.instagram.com/p/DESZUVsuZCh/

Io Saturnalia! Here's a throwback to Ares almost a year ago. I'm certain his face isn't as babylike as it was here now, and I long for his tiny squishiness [*cries*]. On this shortest and coldest day, I've been up with Raspberry since 6am, as she's leading a... www.instagram.com/p/DD114T6uc5H/

Earlier this week, whilst Leni was spending her BFF's birthday with her, Ares and I had the afternoon to ourselves. It's not often that it's just Ares and I; usually it's Ares and Leni with me, or Ares going off with Lucas for hockey, or Leni and I because she... www.instagram.com/p/DDj6bLLOSMK/

Yesterday was our 12th UKversary (I just made that up) — ie. we moved to the UK on 10 December 2012. It was our biggest adventure to date, when we were disenfranchised with life in Canada, longed for something different, and decided to shake things up. I still... www.instagram.com/p/DDcQT7tunsO/

Throwback to June 7, 2023 — Ares reads in the glow of the morning sun, turned further red by smoke from wildfires. Toronto was being enveloped in the smoke from wildfires further north. We'd seen and heard about the wildfire smoke at other places in the news but... www.instagram.com/p/DDZkwxXucvm/

Leni in the June light. On this positively dreich morning, I'm missing the warmth and the sunshine.

A woodcock foot, and the sawdust used to soak up the wet bits during dissection. For a while, Teen Kid was dissecting quite a few birds for the museum's collection, and there was almost always feathers and sawdust everywhere.

Britney, Taylor, and a swamp sparrow.

Jump!

Snotty tears resulting from the sad bit in "My Friend the Octopus" (by Lindsay Galvin). I've learnt that Leni gets deeply affected by the stories. If something terrifying or tragic or sad happens, we have to warn her so she can brace herself for it. Sometimes... www.instagram.com/p/DC_tQUguWx0/

1. The little balls on the notebook are eyeballs, to be stored in vials with the eyeballs from other birds she has worked on. 2. She was sipping tea as she worked on the birds. 3. There's a sparkly crown tucked behind the mug. Life with a teenage taxidermist (these are destined for the museum).

This sums up my life. I hardly have pictures of myself, let alone pictures like this, so I completely appreciate my friend for capturing my duality as photographer and parent.

I was so chuffed to find this book at a used bookshop today. I saw it at the @wellcomecollection.bsky.social shop years ago and coveted it. The kids are also really excited about it, and we're spending our pre-dinner time marvelling over lesions and pus.

The day Leni truly got tired of egg muffin sandwiches. Backstory: Leni is a highly selective eater. Often, she'll enjoy a particular food for a bit and then go off it forevermore after (we've experienced this with her and barley risotto, and tomato soup and ... www.instagram.com/p/DCy_7UduRcp/

Spine.

Just a pile of freshly-bought new potatoes with eyes. Leni was helping me put them away when she discovered the eyes, and learnt that she dislikes the sensation of dipping her hand into a bag of eyed potatoes. I did the rest.

Leni in the almost-summer morning light, June 2023.

Then 15-year-old Raspberry and her 3-year-old friend, September 2023. When she was younger, Raspberry had her BFFs who were about the same age as her. They would play on the beach together, climb trees, exchange coded letters, and chat about Greek mythology... www.instagram.com/p/DCotidJuNMW/

Quintessential Leni — Mary-Jane shoes, and being barefoot at the playground (much to my chagrin).

The tiniest barn swallow nestling, found beneath nests in 2022.

A little nest found blowing in the wind, barely attached to a branch of staghorn sumac. Raspberry thinks it might've once belonged to a goldfinch but she isn't quite sure. I think it's utterly brilliant how the bird used stiffer twigs to create the rim of the... www.instagram.com/p/DB6Pc7duHx-/

It's so wild that England has snow in mid-November. Meanwhile, I'm still in my thin coat in Toronto. As someone who doesn't enjoy the winter, I used to long for the English winters, when I could easily wear dresses and subsist in a not terribly thick coat. Climate change is real.

I'm drawn to photographing creatures and creature carcasses. Most recently, it's been salmon, since last month was the salmon run. It's obviously not everyone's cup of tea, but I find them fascinating. There are more images here: www.instagram.com/p/DB1DAl7uqgM

When the kids were little and we used to gather with our friends, they'd all generally play together, regardless of age or sex. They'd all climb the massive fallen tree in the woods, or onto the shed at the allotment, or set up a wild raspberry meal for... www.instagram.com/p/DCbtlb7ub5g/

Thank you to whoever put a bag of British coins in a Toronto Little Free Library we frequent. They made my British-born kid terribly excited. She tried to create the shield from the coins, but we were lacking the correct 2p and 50p coins.