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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…
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Black Raspberry Time
Video link What a fruitful year this is. Best of all is the resurrection of our black raspberry bushes around our homegrounds. Their plenitude was what persuaded me to buy this place. And then the deer moved in. For decades they have eaten every raspberry cane that has dared to appear. But now that our…
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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,…
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Making Connections
Our plane dropped through the momentary hole in the clouds and made a perfect landing on the St. John’s runway. After a day’s delay, because of fog, we had finally arrived in Newfoundland. Place of my dreams, this island in the sea is halfway to Ireland. And yet here is where our beloved Appalachian Mountains…
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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.…
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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…
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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…
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The Best and Worst of Times
February can be the best and worst of times. Last winter we had more best than worst. Many days were cold, crisp, and bright. Those that weren’t dumped enough snow for my snowshoeing pleasure. Unusual bird sightings and close-ups of several mammals added to my appreciation of this shortest month of the year. In addition,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Marcia Bonta 