The Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy has been advocating for the establishment of buffers along waterbodies for decades. A “buffer” refers to a vegetated section of land that is set aside along a lake, stream or wetland in order to protect the sensitive habitats that are often found in ...
When you search for “beauty in nature,” you get a lot of results. Most of them are pictures of far off places — mountains, lagoons, rolling hills. Everyone has a different opinion of what is or is not beautiful, but I think what we can all agree on is that beauty is all around us, we ...
About a month ago I described an active nest box in my grandson’s backyard. A pair of tufted titmice had built a nest and incubated and hatched five eggs. I promised an update on the nest’s fate; all five young titmice fledged successfully. That’s the definition of “nest success.” Uncertainty haunts the fate of every nest box. Will the eggs hatch? Will the chicks fledge? Will weather wreak havoc on the nest? Will the parents survive the nesting cycle? Or, will a climbing snake or raccoon help itself to the box’s contents? A nest box landlord’s greatest ...
Millions of people downhill from us drink the waters that are shed from our roofs, parking lots, streets and lawns. As watershed residents, it is the responsibility of each of us to take care of the waters that land on our homes and yards. Rainfall and snow can contain dust, ash and ...
It is an otherworldly sound – it both belongs and doesn’t. At once it instills a fear that renders you motionless, but also attracts you with a deep rooted thrill fueled by adrenaline. Rattlesnake. I remember my first wild Pennsylvania rattlesnake. Black phase female, basking on a ...
Drive slowly by a farm pond, a lake, or a wetland on a warm summer evening, and you’re likely to hear two distinctive voices. A deep, booming, “Jug-o’-rummm!” betrays a male bullfrog. On a lake the sound can travel up to a mile across open water. As darkness falls, dozens of bullfrog voices might punctuate the stillness of the night. A sound weirdly reminiscent of a loose banjo string, on the other hand, is the love song of an amorous male green frog. Though similar in appearance, bullfrogs can reach a length of seven inches; green frogs top out at about four inches (size ...
