Discover Nature Notes

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.

For many of us, the flashy, bold blue jay was the first bird we learned to identify. Jays are conspicuous because of their size and striking color.

An organism’s habitat is where it lives; its home. Good habitats provide everything its inhabitants need to survive.

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.

Beavers are impressive mammals, and are suited for life in the water as well as on land.

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.