Marcia Bonta

  • Little Brown Bats

    Before white-nose syndrome, we could sit out on our unscreened veranda even after dark and rarely see or hear a mosquito. A few male little brown bats roosted in our barn and in openings under our roof and the guesthouse portico roof.

  • Pancake Flats

    On a cool, breezy day in late July, my husband Bruce and I decided to hike on Green Springs Trail in Pennsylvania State Game Lands #108.

  • Giant Silkworm Moths

    On a warm day in late June, our caretaker couple Troy and Paula Scott was painting our barn. Around noon they spotted a female promethea moth clinging to her newly-vacated cocoon, which dangled from a spicebush branch. The Scotts called us to come and take a look at this gorgeous, velvety, giant silkworm moth. A…

  • Vernal Pond Adventures

    Once again I’m sitting beside our mountaintop vernal pond and wondering if this will be the year the wood frogs will make it out of the pond before the water disappears. A wood frog’s life span is about seven years, and for six years the pond has dried up before the wood frogs’ have fully…

  • Black-legged Ticks

    This marks the 20th anniversary of my column for the Pennsylvania Game News. The first appeared in January 1993 and concerned the Carolina wren. Thanks for reading! —Marcia Last January I walked along the Black Gum Trail. Since our son, Dave, constructed the trail halfway up Laurel Ridge, back in the 1990s, I had never…

  • The Migration of Common Green Darners

    After a hot, humid day in early September, a large swarm of common green darner dragonflies hunted for food above the barn bank. Our son, Dave, had alerted me to the phenomenon, and we stood watching as the dragonflies darted about. Dave tried to catch one in my insect net, but every time he zigged,…

  • Beetlemania

    “Congratulations, Mom!” the email from my oldest son, Steve, said. “You finally have an organism named after you. Semiotus is a genus of very large, tropical click beetles [and] S. marciae is a species from Ecuador. Your beetle is large (about one inch) and very colorful, like all Semiotus. You’ll probably end up in quite…

  • Goodbye To All Of That

    Once again the forest is almost empty of birdsong. Only an occasional blue-headed vireo holds forth. Even the waves of migrants are mostly quiet as they flit from tree to tree searching for insects and fruit. Noisy blue jays call as they harvest acorns. Eastern wood-pewees cry “pee-a-wee.” Confused looking immature ovenbirds blunder about on…

  • Lives of Woodland Snails

    Imagine having the time to watch the life of a woodland snail.  That’s what happened to Elizabeth Tova Bailey when she was felled by a mysterious neurological illness that put her flat on her back.  She could not move without pain, and so she was tended by a caregiver in a studio apartment. Then, one…

  • The Beautiful Beech

    Ghostly leaves of American beech trees sway in February storms like tiny spirits alive in a frozen world.  But only small and medium-sized beech trees hold on to their leaves throughout the winter. In the fall, I watch the toothed, leathery, single beech leaves turn from green to gold.  Then the gold leaks from them…

  • In Praise of January

    In early January I listen to dire predictions from the local weather reporter. “Dangerous cold,” he says.  “If you must go out, dress warmly.  But try to stay indoors and keep warm.” No wonder most Americans are afraid to venture outside during the depths of winter.  Yet it’s a glorious time to be abroad.  The…

  • Woolly Bears and Tiger Moths

    What child is not intrigued by woolly bear caterpillars?  Our little granddaughter, Elanor, certainly is.  Last September she gathered up a handful of the bristly creatures as they paraded across our veranda and claimed them as pets.  I tried to discourage her, but she was adamant, and her father, Steve, who is an amateur entomologist…