Signs of Summer 7: Bird Sounds
It is a cool, breezy day today, and I am very happy to have been able to turn the air conditioning off (with an acknowledgment that I REALLY appreciated it during all of the recent days of high...
View ArticleSigns of Summer 8: Ticks and Tick Imposters
I got an email a couple of weeks ago from Karen Harlan at Penn State New Kensington asking me about a deer tick “imposter.” She had heard about a small, soft bodied (“squishable,” was the way she...
View ArticleSigns of Summer 9: Neighborhood Walk (part 1), Lawns
Nature walks can be taken in the woods, across open meadows, or along river or lake or ocean shorelines. You can also take nature walks along suburban streets. Deborah and I took a stroll around a...
View ArticleSigns of Summer 10: Neighborhood Walk (part 2), Trees and Animals
(continuing last week’s discussion of our nature walk in the suburbs): Around many of the houses up and down these suburban streets are a variety of primarily solitary trees. Houses of styles that were...
View ArticleSigns of Summer 11: Monarchs and Milkweed
Over the past few years I have written three or four essays about monarch butterflies and emphasized their dependence upon milkweed plants. The various species of milkweed that grow across North...
View Article