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Wildflowers of a June Forest
Now that the flush of forest spring wildflowers has passed, it’s easy to overlook most of the late bloomers. Yet our June woods produce some lovely native wildflowers, beginning with the pink lady’s-slipper. Although it starts to bloom in mid-May, it holds its single crimson-pink slipper for three weeks. The pink lady’s-slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule)…
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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…
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Early Spring
Instead of April showers last year, we had unprecedented heat. On April 2, it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Flowers and trees bloomed days and even weeks ahead of records I’ve been keeping since 1971. By the middle of the month, we had a May woods. Even the mayapples bloomed in April. During the first half…
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Talus Slope Life
Late in March, I ease my way down to the talus slope in an attempt to escape female ticks eager for blood to nourish their eggs. I’ve never been surefooted, so, clutching my walking stick, I only go far enough out on the rocks to escape the bloodsuckers. Luckily, the March wind is blowing, which…
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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…
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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…
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Snowy Christmas Bird Count
All over Pennsylvania, Christmas Bird Counts were being postponed or cancelled because of the weather. But the date, I thought, was set in stone. We had to go ahead despite the snow. After all, participants in Alaska and northern Canada usually counted birds when the weather was challenging. That’s what I told my son, Steve,…
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Allegheny Front Hawk Watch
“It’s the Cadillac of hawk watches,” my husband Bruce said as we were leaving the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch. Not only does it have a wide, grassy field flat enough for lawn chairs, a picnic table, and a portable restroom back near the parking area, but also a pair of platform benches, fondly called “the…
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October snow
“Nanna, it’s snowing!” My first thought was, no, it can’t be. It’s only the fifteenth of October. We’ve never had snow this early. Why, last year our first frost was October 19. Surely it won’t last, this spring onion snow in October. Big, fat flakes fell and Elanor, our four-year-old granddaughter, and her Uncle Dave…
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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…
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“Her Management is Beauty”: In Defense of Unmowed Lawns
It’s mid-August, and I’m driving across the valley through walls of corn. Occasional fields are mowed clean for the second time. The only habitat left was along the roads, and the township mowers have cut that as well. I wonder what happened to the eastern meadowlarks I heard singing in the spring, or why the…
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The Mushroom Man
“I was trained by the gypsies,” Bill Russell told me. “They would come to set up camps near my home in Turtle Creek, southeast of Pittsburgh, for six weeks every summer.” The gypsies may have added to his growing knowledge, but Russell caught mushroom fever while hunting field mushrooms with his parents when he was…
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Marcia Bonta 