I slowly removed the nail that holds the door to the Bluebird house tightly closed. We haven’t had a nesting pair of Bluebirds yet and I was excited at the possibility of one being in there now. I carefully opened the door and there she is, looking right back at me — a gray and […]
“Look, there’s a bird.” It’s usually more like, “Look, there’s a Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker or Bluebird.” Even us “backyard birders” specifically identify the bird being observed, don’t we? It’s like a fisherman saying, “Hey, I caught a fish.” You get my point. I’ve been doing this for years with certain creatures. Wasps, flies and […]
Snapping Turtles aren’t known to lay their eggs alongside other turtles of their kind as Green, Loggerhead and other types of sea turtles do. But, in the past week, three different Snapping Turtles laid their eggs in our patio. As my initial Snapping Turtle blog states, we have had a nest in our yard for […]
Small patches of white, yellow, blue and violet flowers bloom throughout the year. Pickerel Frogs and Spring Peepers hop out of my way as small butterflies and bees float slowly front plant to plant. This is some of the wildlife I see as I’m walking across our lawn. It’s mid-April and still cold here in […]
It’s the second week of March, and the Great Blue Herons are beginning to appear in the wetlands behind our house. The first arrivals have begun landing atop a few dead White Oak and Sugar Maple trees searching for just the right place to build this year’s nest. The Great Blue Herons’ squawk is a […]
Suddenly, my wife points to what she describes as a shadow passing through the yard. We point our flashlight to a large White Pine at the side of my brothers’ house. As we flash the light up into the tree, a Barred Owl’s two large, round eyes are peering directly back at us. We’re calling […]
The more we use our senses, all of them, in our natural environments, the more we’ll discover and enjoy our experiences. The sights, sounds and smells in our yard are both reminders of plant and wildlife life cycles and indicators of seasons coming and going. The visual impact of a sunrise or sunset, whether subtle […]
An unfamiliar bird calls from the top of a Sugar Maple; loudly buzzing Bumble Bees swarm a patch of Ragusa Roses; a Cooper’s Hawk lands and hops under some hollys, looking up, to see if there might be a potential meal hiding within the leaves. We are Backyard Voyagers. Everyday as I look out on […]
We spot it, about an eighth of an inch long, motionless on the narrow green leaf. The white, yellow and black rings make it easy to identify, even at this size. It’s what we’ve anxiously been waiting to see since last fall. A Monarch Butterfly caterpillar is on one of our two Swamp Milkweed plants. […]
I remember the song “Feed The Birds” from the movie Mary Poppins. An old woman, covered with pigeons, is feeding bread to the birds from a park bench. Not as healthy for them as natural seeds and berries, but they eat it voraciously. I’d rather Seed The Birds. We’ve created a backyard that entices all […]