Marcia Bonta

  • Squirrel Wars

    Squirrel Wars

    Last autumn, our granddaughter Eva, who was staying with us for several months, started complaining about the noise in the attic above her bedroom. At first, I dismissed it as the usual small animal noises on the roof or even in the attic. My bedroom was next to hers and I wasn’t hearing anything out…

  • Black Squirrels

    Black Squirrels

    “Mom, there’s a black squirrel in the flat area.” It was 5:30 p.m. on a balmy day in early March and my son Dave and I were fixing dinner in the kitchen. I rushed to the window, grabbed my binoculars, and called my husband Bruce to come and see the unusual eastern gray squirrel. In…

  • April Journal Highlights (2)

    Close encounters of the avian kind April 18. The sun warmed the Far Field, and as I walked Pennyroyal Trail, a towhee sang, a flicker called, and a ruby-crowned kinglet sang. I stopped to “pish,” hoping to entice the kinglet into view, and I did. He flew on to a tree branch, erected his ruby-crown,…

  • Nature’s Ultimate Bankers

    It’s late January as I crunch over frosty, fallen leaves on my way to Coyote Bench. Almost immediately I hear the high-pitched whine of a female gray squirrel in a mating chase. Four male squirrels are after her, but one male fends off the others. Once the female turns and faces him at the end…

  • Furry Raiders

    I knew there was going to be trouble last autumn when the acorn, black walnut, beechnut and hickory crops failed. Our mountain then supported the largest population of eastern gray squirrels in the 26 years we have lived here. Every acre of forest contained leafy squirrel nests tucked high in the tallest deciduous trees. And…