Marcia Bonta

  • Charismatic Invertebrates

    “Dear Daddy-Long-Legs, Isn’t it funny?  I started to write to you yesterday afternoon, but as far as I got was the heading, ‘Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,’ and then I remembered I’d promised to pick some blackberries for supper, so I went off and left the sheet lying on the table, and when I came back, what do…

  • What About Bears?

    Next to poisonous snakes, people fear encountering bears in the outdoors.  Even some of our hunter friends are bear-shy. But ever since black bears returned to our mountain, back in the 1980s, I’ve relished every experience I’ve had with them.  So far, they’ve been exciting but harmless. Last spring and summer, I saw more bears…

  • White Easter

    Easter — March 23, 2008. It is a cold 17 degrees on this earliest Easter Sunday most of us will ever celebrate. And only the oldest folks now alive have seen it this early before, those who were around in 1913. The next time Easter will fall on this date, according to The Christian Century…

  • Narnia Interlude

    In winter, it’s all about the weather, especially in February when we are liable to experience a confusing mixture of balmy, spring like days, sleet, freezing rain, and snow.  Last February 1 the predictions were so dire that all the public schools and colleges were closed. The “tick-tick” of sleet against our windows began at…

  • Sunday, Sweet Sunday

    Sunday is my favorite day of the week.  That’s because traffic is light on Interstate 99 at the base of our mountain on the Logan Valley side and the industrial-sized limestone quarry on the Sinking Valley side is closed for the day.  Other businesses are also quiet, and I revel in the peace of “Sunday,…

  • Unexpected Encounters

    To encounter the unexpected is why I go out day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, walking the same mountain trails. But I rarely have a Discovery Channel moment. At most, I might find a new wildflower, an unusual butterfly, or a rare bird. Still, I’ve had my moments.…

  • Sparrow April

    Last April was the coldest on record. Birds that should have left stayed, and those that had returned during the warmer March days endured. At our bird feeding area, we hosted nine New World sparrow species. Migrants, winter visitors, and permanent residents by the dozen mingled on the ground, the back steps, and porch, eating…

  • Polecat

    This is the time of year when essence of skunk sometimes reaches my nostrils as I wander over our mountain. That’s because March is prime mating season, and male striped skunks are abroad looking for receptive females. The females are still holed up in their communal winter dens six feet underground, and sometimes one lucky…

  • American Robin

    Eat and Be Merry 2, by Today is a good day (Creative Commons) Note: Though most of the other posts on this site are reprints of my columns in the Pennsylvania Game News, I wrote this one for Birdwatcher’s Digest, where it was the cover story for the January-February 2008 issue. American robins remind me…

  • Flying Monkeys

    Crows acting up, by Greg7 “Why don’t you just shoot them?” That’s the reaction of most homeowners when Grant Stokke asks permission to live trap American crows in their backyards. But he hastens to add that they do give him permission. Stokke is a graduate student who is working with Dr. Margaret Brittingham, professor of…

  • Golden Eagle Days (Part 2)

    Continued from November. photo by Todd Katzner Then came the great change. After a mild, misty start on December first, the thermometer hit 65 degrees and then began to plummet as the wind picked up. The northwest winds had finally arrived a month late and with it, the following morning, came the eagle researchers. They…

  • Golden Eagle Days (Part 1)

    “I think that the Bald Eagle Ridge is the single best place in Pennsylvania to observe golden eagles,” Mike Lanzone told us. He was talking about our mountain, which is the westernmost ridge in Pennsylvania’s ridge and valley province. Lanzone is the Assistant Field Ornithology Projects Coordinator for the Powdermill Avian Research Center. He, along…