The pileated woodpecker is our largest woodpecker. The crow-sized bird uses its powerful beak to tear into decayed wood in search of beetle grubs and carpenter ants.
Body shape: We’re always trying to change it, even rearrange it! But our friends can easily identify us by that unique individual silhouette–the one the mirror always tells us the truth about!
Even in the dead of winter, things can get pretty lively around a bird feeder. It’s a meeting place for cardinals, blue jays, nuthatches and those “little brown birds”… the sparrow.
An early American holiday tradition was the annual Christmas bird hunt. Participants competed to count the most wild birds. Today, the Christmas Bird Count is a popular tradition around in the United States.
Everyone enjoys a crackling fire on a cold winter night. Besides providing warmth and cheer, fire is part of an essential chemical cycle, the carbon cycle.
When discussing snakes, it’s important to separate fact from fiction. There are many myths about snakes. Immigrants brought myths from Europe and started new myths as they became acquainted with North American snakes.
An airplane pilot sits behind a panel of instruments that help get the plane safely to its destination. Migrating birds, it seems, use some of the same tools.
“Birds of a feather, flock together.” Whoever coined that phrase noticed that when birds group together, they are usually of the same kind. But, what benefit do birds get from flocking?
Autumn sights are unmistakable. The landscape is awash with the colors of changing leaves. Sunsets are coppery. Fall smells are evocative: cider, smoke from burning leaves, and the singed pumpkin of a jack-o-lantern plug.
The bobcat’s habitat has played a vital role in the history of the animal’s survival. Despite the profound change from wilderness to developed land, bobcats have managed to remain Midwest residents.
Watch for flying bull-bats, a nickname for the common nighthawk in the September sky. Nighthawks are not “hawks” and also fly during daylight hours. Their loud calls will jar the night.
Next time you see a fish swimming around erratically, it might not be because they are hungry or because they are being chased by another fish. They might simply be living up to their name.