Author’s Note For 2020, Trudy Nicholson and I are going to add a new dimension to the Local Nature column by sticking with a single theme that will run through each of the year’s articles. This year we will focus on species that are considered by biologists as invasive and, in a few cases, a …
Local Nature: 2020 Theme – A Year of Invasives; A Murmuration of Starlings Read More »
What was that blur of red streaking across the backyard? Could that be a fox standing in the fading light at the end of the street? I remember the joy I felt when I recognized a fox sprinted across the backyard about a decade ago. Even in wild Cabin John, I mostly saw foxes on …
Naturalists at the edge of a forest are like Labrador Retrievers on a riverbank: nothing can stop us from plunging in. For the naturalist, each entry is bound to turn up something new and exciting, and the rewards greatly outweigh any possible risk. For those scared of the great woods, however, there is always something …
Local Nature: Tick Anxiety and a Local Preventive Read More »
Starting on the first of September, I keep a watchful eye on the swollen fruits hanging from the two prized pawpaw trees growing in my backyard forest. The largest and most delicious fruit native to North America is almost ripe, and this year, I should harvest a pawpaw crop exceeding 20 fruits. Out back the …
Local Nature: Our Backyard Birds Are Made From Bugs (Insect Armageddon-Part II) Read More »
Images of melting polar ice caps, rampaging forest fires in Siberia, and sweltering Europeans coping with a recent record heat wave crowd the TV news and social media feeds over this scorching July and early August. Another set of victims, millions of them, are suffering without any video footage. But we know from emerging scientific …
Local Nature: Insect Armageddon-Part I (Ground Beetle) Read More »
The first days of summer herald the flowering of one of the most exotic-looking plants in the world. It is a thin, fragile vine with quarter-sized chartreuse blossoms popping out along its stems that uses curlycue tendrils to climb over other plants. A novice botanist might mistake it as an escapee from a Panamanian or …
Looking down, the crow spied a skink. It swooped from its branch in a blink. The bird grabbed the skink’s tail Forcing the lizard to bail And leave the crow a wriggling link. There is much to be admired about a fellow vertebrate as elegant as the blue-tailed skink. Or as crafty. In the Looks …
The signs of spring are everywhere for avid naturalists: the opening of mysterious purple and yellow pawpaw flowers; the voluptuous leaves of skunk cabbage emerging from the damp soil; the lusty singing of spring peepers from the vernal pools and ponds; wood ducks on the canal, male and female pairing up for nesting season. But …
Local Nature: Spring Comes Wrapped in a Mourning Cloak…or a White Petticoat Read More »
At first glance, the diminutive Winter Wren is nothing to write home about. A plump lump of a bird covered in dull dark brown, barred plumage, this winter visitor is one of our smallest North American bird species. And then there is that rather silly-looking short tail, often held in the upright position, as if …
When the weather forecast warns of a looming polar vortex, my first concern as a naturalist is: How will our overwintering songbirds survive this extreme event? We, like our neighbors, heed the public service advisories to keep our two dogs inside. But there is no precautionary measure for the birds that live outdoors 24/7. And …