-
Right-of-Way Science
It’s a hot, dry day in late June when my 12-year-old granddaughter Elanor and I, along with 25 other folks, visit the First Energy/Penelec Right-of-Way on SGL#33. Our friend, Dr. Carolyn Mahan, Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Penn State Altoona, has organized one of four scheduled bee-collection dates for this well-studied right-of-way. Research…
-
June Surprises
June is often the most exciting month of the year. Then I can count on close encounters with black bears on our trails. Not only are last year’s cubs on their own, but their mothers are being hotly pursued by eager males. We also add new species to Bioplum, a natural inventory of our property.…
-
Louisiana Waterthrush
Sometime in early April, I hear the ringing song of a Louisiana waterthrush near our Plummer’s Hollow stream. One of the first neotropical migrant birds to return, he comes winging in from as far south as northern South America and southern Cuba. This handsome brown warbler, his whitish breast streaked with brown, looks more like…
-
Return of the Bald Eagles
Eight inches of fresh snow covered Sinking Valley. It was early in February 2011 and our son, Steve, and I were conducting our annual Winter Raptor Survey while my husband, Bruce, drove the car. I had been participating in the survey every winter since Greg Grove first started this statewide count back in 2001. When…
-
A Wild Resource Festival
Thunder rumbled ominously as my husband Bruce and I rushed to join Dr. Jim Bissell on a Dune Walk at Presque Isle State Park. Under a lowering sky spitting rain, we waited anxiously at Beach 10 Parking Area. Cars pulled in and out, but no one arrived for the 10:00 a.m. field trip. Then, Bissell…
-
Nature’s Garbage Collectors
Like residents of Hinckley, Ohio, who always welcome the first turkey vultures back on March 15, I too await the return of them in March and regard them as one of the first signs of spring. Usually the day they appear here is windy, and they rock back and forth above First Field, their wings…
-
Golden Eagle Redux
In case you’ve been wondering about the photo of me in the sidebar, here’s the story, from my November column in Pennsylvania Game News. The phone rang just as we were in the midst of eating dinner. “I’ll bet that’s Trish and she’s got an eagle,” I said. Bruce answered the phone. “You’ve got an…
-
In Search of Nature
“It’s too darned hot,” I said on our 45th wedding anniversary. The temperature was heading into the high, humid nineties so we shelved our plan to take a hike. Instead, we followed Plan B and on a late August morning, my husband Bruce and I drove to the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Follow
Following
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
Marcia Bonta 