Serviceberry (Amelanchier spp.) trees are ‘super-natives’, in my opinion. They are native, hardy, have beautiful early spring white blossoms followed by colorful fruit loved by wildlife, especially birds, and eatable by humans, and glow in rich fall colors. They even have an interesting backstory. Serviceberry (or Sarvisberry if you prefer Old English) is but one common […]
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Flood scene: Post flood scene: The Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve board is posting all the necessary warnings to keep human visitors safe. If they follow them is a whole different matter. In the meantime wildlife is trying to cope. Long term impact and recovery time will be hard to judge. But likely, to be generational […]
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Nature Is Good Medicine Being outdoors engaged with nature has beneficial, positive influences on our physical and mental health status. Immersion in nature can be an integral part of the healthcare prevention, treatment, and recovery continuum. So says an increasing amount of reputable medical and mental health research. This is, in my opinion, a welcome […]
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There is an Eastern Towhee family in the shrubbery at the foot of a native dogwood (Atlanta’s iconic flowering tree) in our yard. I’ve seen this fledgling out begging her\his parents for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks between meals. Being one of the 96% of the songbird species that need almost exclusively insect protein to […]
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When Barred Owls fledge they are not very good flyers. Their primary flight feathers have not grown in. This doesn’t stop them from getting out and exploring their new world. And as adolescents tend to do, they can take it a little too far. When they do they can end up on the ground after […]
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Today’s (April 22, 2021) media will be full, and rightfully so, of proclamations calling for an urgent global response to the climate crisis. As you might suspect, one of my interests in these proclamations of goals and possible solutions is their impact on the impact of climate change on bird populations. Globally and my yard, […]
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I have watched my fair share of bird documentaries. Almost all include courtship and mate selection rituals. These are often bizarre or weird to our eyes. That is until we think back to our teens and the corollaries come racing back to mind. One of my unfair conclusions early on was that the females (it […]
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The “LoveOwls” were back in our yard. I’m thinking Parent’s Evening Out date.
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I’ve been seeing Brown-headed Cowbirds (BHCO is their four letter code) in our yard. I have mixed thinking about Brown-headed Cowbirds. I’m dismayed on behalf of their victims, but I have to say intrigued by their successful evolutionary survival strategy. BHCOs are brood parasites. They do not build nests. The female lays her eggs, up to […]
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When something is deemed ‘for the birds’ it is being deemed worthless. This post is about how that is not the case for the birds as symbols. It seems that as humans evolved higher-level cognitive capacity, they also evolved a need to explain everything. This wasn’t about vanity I don’t think, but I suppose even […]
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