You remember what Lepidoptera are, right? They’re the butterflies and moths that engage us in their beauty and feed most of the baby songbirds of the world with their caterpillars. A few months ago we talked about Spicebushes, Pawpaw trees and Bladder nut trees all...
A little black bear disappeared quickly into the forest next to the trail where I was walking to my garden. Goldilocks would have been distressed, as he wasn’t away from home long enough to visit the bears’ and taste his porridge. Besides, I think he was checking out...
One cold rainy morning recently in northern Wisconsin I was walking along a familiar road and found 2 wet butterflies on the ground. When I returned and identified them, I realized that they were both migrating-type butterflies. One of them, the Monarch, is easily...
When my dog, Poppy, and I started our walk this morning, there were 3 or 4 ravens squawking across the road. We went over to see what the commotion was about, and they flew away. Like a lot of birds, wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) lay their eggs on the ground....
We’re back to Paw paws and spicebushes. Since both trees are considered ”understory trees,” I think it is important to think about how important these plants are to our ecology. They are often overlooked. No one would select a 25 foot tree as the major shade tree in...
Along the creek where we often walk is a cluster of pawpaw trees (Asimina triloba) and spicebush trees (Lindera benzoin). They are not native in the far north, but do well here in West Virginia. These understory trees are about 7 feet tall and take most of the...
