Most of us Nature Geeks, certainly anyone who grew up watching Marlin Perkins (Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom) or Steve Irwin (The Crocodile Hunter) or, more recently, Jeff Corwin, know that the biotic and abiotic factors in any ecosystem are intricately interwoven to strike a fine balance. Species are so interdependent that any change in the numbers… Read more »
Last Saturday, an unusually brisk spring day, an old friend and I quenched our corona-quarantine craving for the outdoors by hiking several miles of the Gunpowder South Trail, between the Masemore Hemlock area and the Prettyboy Reservoir Dam, in Baltimore County. This was a hike that he and I had taken together at least twice… Read more »
As noted in our last blog, an enormous number of wild birds die each year from collisions with glass windows. Researchers currently estimate that between 300 million and a shocking one billion birds suffer this fate annually in North America alone! This means that between 5 and 10% of all North American birds die every… Read more »
Don’t know how many of you have perused cornell’s BirdCast website recently, but they had a very disturbing video on there last week. Seems that a confluence of several unfortunate EVents led to a tragedy that would make any nature lover cringe. Apparently on the night of April 24th a series of slow-moving storms southeast… Read more »
Heads up! Right now we are entering THE BEST week of the entire year to witness the glorious diversity of songbirds that move through the Mid-Atlantic! Spring migration in this part of the country tends to peak within a few days of May 10th, depending on weather patterns. This is no secret to most amateur… Read more »
Well, this one’s in the books. FINIS. it’s a wrap. As of this morning, the 2020 city nature challenge is official, and the results have been fascinating . . . clearly, the covid-19 pandemic changed the landscape somewhat (although not as much as anticipated)–particularly in hard-hit areas. new York saw a 27% decline in… Read more »
May Day! May Day! So, even though the past month has been cooler than usual, cloudier than usual, and really hasn’t felt any different than March, look around and you’ll notice how green and lush everything has suddenly become. We are clearly in the throes of Spring growth and, thankfully, the forecasters are saying that… Read more »
IMPORTANT UPDATE on Tuesday, 4/28: CNC organizers at the National Aquarium have announced that they will be hosting an online Zoom ‘ID Party’ tomorrow (Wednesday, 4/29) between 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm. Anyone who is interested in collaborating with others to try to work through the identification of some of the photo documentations from the… Read more »
Maybe they haven’t been as bright and sunny as usual, but the nature photos are rolling in! All indications are that Baltimore will set new personal records for # of species, participants, & observations in the 2020 CNC! we currently have a little over 6500 observations of 1100 species, already surpassing our totals from… Read more »
You’ve been stuck inside too long! You’re in need of a ‘nature fix.’ You need a solution to this current state of isolation . . . YOU NEED AN ISOLUTION! Well . . . it’s here! In case you’ve missed them in earlier blog posts, here are some very helpful resources to get you started: … Read more »
