Have you ever seen a streak of bright plumage fly by your window and thought, “I would really like to know the name of that bird?”

Those questions inspired life-long learner Yvonne Buys, a retired physician, to start attending to the feathered frenzy on her farm. A catalogue of photographs became the basis of her Times column, Look What Flew Through the County. That collection is the basis of a hard cover book of the same title.

“I retired from a 30-year ophthalmology practice in 2020 and moved from Toronto to Wellington. I had just started to develop an interest in birds, and received a lovely camera from my partners as a retirement gift,” explained Ms. Buys. “Retiring during Covid was a challenge. To keep myself busy I spent a significant amount of time birding and taking pictures.”

As the column grew, Ms. Buys wondered if local readers might appreciate a book based on both the local and migratory birds in the County.

Local birding experts Terry Sprague and David Bree provided local context, including historical vignettes and contributions from over two dozen local nature photographers. But Look What Flew Through The County isn’t a field guide. In some cases, only one sex of a particular bird is presented.

“Rather than arranging the birds by taxonomy, we decided to arrange them by when one might expect to find a given bird species in the County,” Ms. Buys said. “Clearly this book is not a field guide, however, it could help in identifying birds. The goal with this book is to showcase what could and has been seen in the County for both bird and nature lovers to enjoy.”

In addition to full time residents and spring and fall migrations, the book also tells of rarities. For example, a cattle egret made a rare appearance here last fall, setting off a frenzy amongst local birders.

“The last known spotting of a Cattle Egret was in 2003 at the No Frill’s parking lot and that was quite a story at the time,” Ms. Buys recalls.

What the author learned along the way is that she’s landed in the right place. The migratory superhighway that is the Duck Galoo ridge, a Lake Ontario archipelago connecting the South Shore with Henderson, New York, is prime real estate for bird watching. Even the most neophyte bird watchers can become old salt experts in a matter of months.

“It’s totally fantastic, the variety and the numbers of birds we can see here. On a recent Ontario Field Ornithologists tour, we spotted 82 varieties of birds in just over five hours,” she said. “Hopefully, this book is readers’ entry into this wonderful world just out side their door.”

ILook What Flew Through the County is available at Books & Company, Agrarian Market and the County Farm Centre. Proceeds will be donated to the Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory.