As we headed south from our VA mountain farm to our eventual destination in SW FL, we visited family in the Piedmont of NC (Chapel Hill). Early October in the piedmont has some cool nights and warm days so that […]
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If you become jaded with the natural wonders of your home turf, a trip is just the thing to add spice to your enjoyment of nature. On an annual family visit to Utah we find the desert and mountain worlds […]
Although signs of the fall season are usually evident enough from changes in the weather, there are many clues from nature that a seismic shift in the seasons is occurring. Even if you did not have a calendar, you should […]
Although there are wide variations in flower color at all seasons, I tend to think as summer as being the time of many yellow flowers of the aster family. Hence the derivation of the term for the many often unidentified […]
If you manage a field, you face a conundrum in deciding your specific goals and if, when, and how often to mow. If you want to retain the field, you must eventually mow it, but preferably no more than once […]
When you think about ways to attract butterflies, this generally involves planting flowers that supply nectar for the adults or leaves for the caterpillars. However an alternative technique is to offer salts, especially sodium, which butterflies crave because their vegetarian […]
Nothing expresses summer time more than the whirl of life around a pond. There is an intensity of competition and predation, but also great beauty among the intricate web of life that revolves around a small body of water. The […]
Although the typical means of enjoying nature would be by walking, I have found that biking can be a great way to find natural wonders in any area which has biking trails. The rails to trails paths are ideal since […]
Too often we focus in our nature studies on one particular group of animals or plants (birds or mushrooms for example). I am not sure what the origin of this “species-chauvinism” is, but it denies the naturalist in all of […]
Our beautiful sourwood trees (named for the sour oxalic acid in the leaves) are in bloom and they have a myriad of tiny white bell-shaped flowers that hang down. If these flowers remind you of blueberries, you are correct since […]
In late June and early July, wildflowers produce a myriad of blooms and butterflies take full advantage of the availability of nectar. We have planted a series of polllinator fields and the most recently planted, in 2012, is now a […]
How often do we stop and think about how amazing the bird egg is? It is such a familiar object via the breakfast meal that we do not consider how remarkable it is that a complex organism can develop within […]
My son David and grandson Peter were walking along the New River Trail that borders Chestnut Creek in Galax, VA, when they spotted a huge and interesting bug. This was a real whopper and very scary looking since it seemed […]
Humans delight in trying to improve the lives of our beloved birds, but sometimes this can go horribly wrong. A case in point is the nest box which is erected for hole nesting species such as bluebirds and tree […]
Along with the warming temperatures, the greening of the landscape, and the blooming wildflowers, the songs and colors of birds are one of the intense delights of the spring and summer. As I write this on June 7, some birds […]
I am always awe struck this time of year by the antics of dragonflies around our ponds. The aerial dogfights of the mainly male groups are mesmerizing as are their striking colors and patterns. Yet the females are […]
For me wetlands have always been very special places. I am not quite sure why that is although we all have our favorite habitats. I spent a lot of time while young roaming along a creek in GA and these […]
As springtime temperatures wax and wane, insect life begins to increase and we are treated to the gradual re-awakening of an insect horde. Two of my favorite groups of insects, the dragonflies (odonates or “odes” for short) and the butterflies […]
Although flowers do of course bloom throughout the growing season, the most famous displays of wildflowers occur in early spring before the deciduous tree leaves emerge. This enables forest flowers to photosynthesize, grow and reproduce before most of the sunlight […]
One of the remarkable things you can do to encourage bird life in your yard is to put up a screech owl box. This often results in a female taking over the box and a male will usually roost nearby […]