Who goes there? I love to unravel mysteries and footprints in the snow are a challenge. My walk in the snow before it all melted revealed lots of animal activity. Aside from a domestic cat, there were fox, squirrel and deer footprints as well a new set of prints found in multiple places. It was of... Read More
What animal made these tracks? The January sun shone across the new snow, highlighting numerous animal visits earlier today. The day before the wind drifted the snow wiping out most tracks, but today the wind was still. However, fluffy snow does not create sharp images so I paused to scrutinize tracks to determine the animal... Read More
Years ago I had to commute along the Juniata River. There were a few ramshackle cottages between road and river. One of them sported a sign saying ‘bittersweet for sale’. I thought bittersweet was pretty with its bright orange berries in the winter, but I never stopped to buy some. Since then bittersweet began growing... Read More
I had considered blogging about urban wildlife like raccoons, skunks, opossums, squirrels, rabbits and other rodents in addition to a large assortment of insects and some amphibians that can be found in urban habitats. Occasionally deer, ground hogs, and even turkeys have been seen in Easton. A few years ago, a turkey hen explored the... Read More
Yesterday I wandered down the road to visit my neighbor. Her persimmon trees were loaded with fruits begging to be picked. She has both native and Japanese or Oriental persimmons. I plucked a soft, mauve-rose native fruit, about one-inch in diameter, and popped it in my mouth. Delicious! While I had to spit out the... Read More
What is that light yellow ball on my lawn, I wondered. Is it another black walnut in its green – yellow husk? But a closer look revealed a puffball. Mushrooms seem to be popping up everywhere this week. Perhaps you have some in your own yard. Mushrooms, the fruiting body of fungi, wait until the... Read More
“Those are bird berries. Only birds eat them. They’re no good for people to eat.” That was my warning when my children were young, and we had a lot of red-berried bittersweet nightshade growing along sidewalks in the neighborhood. Actually, while poisonous for cattle and other animals as well as children to eat, I wasn’t... Read More
I have a love-hate relationship with black walnut trees. As a child we had a swing in one of two very tall black walnut trees along the lane. We could swing out a great distance. It was like flying, I thought. But in the fall, walnuts rained down and we girls were expected to don... Read More
Ah, a late summer evening. The air is still warm even though the sun set hours ago, crickets are playing their nightly symphony as lightning bugs send messages of love to one another, and you’re looking up at a cloudless sky with a bit of humid haze. As you gaze into the darkness you see... Read More
My late father-in-law used to say “A weed is any plant in a place where you don’t want it.” Yes, I have a wineberry weed in a stone wall in the middle of a flower garden. Later this year I will have to take apart a section of stone wall and try to dig out the roots of... Read More
