Site Discussions

We have a house sparrow, a young female that adopted us. She comes to our porch at night,  jumps in her cage we provided for her and expects to be wined and dined in the house from 8 to 9 p.m until she’s ready to go out and play the following morning.  She’s a joy and quite amusing.

The best thing about wrens is their sing….I love it

I am 68 and saw my first ever one of these two nights ago.  He landed on my arm in my living room and bit my inner arm.  Yes, it hurt a lot, and formed a blister the size of a pencil eraser wthin an hour.  Plus, they are super scary to suddenly look down and see one on your arm in the comfort of your living room.  I took a benedryl, and it was ok the next morning.  But I had a terrible night.  All of my muscles felt like they had restless leg syndrome, and I had shifting pains all over.  I think one of my dogs must have picked him up on their coat and brought him into the house.  I hope to never have another encounter with one.

I came upon a bramble in my yard that was a long, trailing vine that could not support itself. Definitely not a cane; it was climbing up a small oak sapling. It had black raspberries that are cup-shaped and hollow when picked, but are sweeter than regular black raspberries. They are ripening in July. The thorns are particularly prickly and caught on me and my clothing more than my “cultivated” raspberries and the other wild black raspberries I found. Do you know what these are, since they do not meet all the qualifications of any of your descriptions? Or perhaps this a hybrid?

I just saw one big fisher in my pond this spring in south central Virginia. At first I thought it was a beaver or otter but no mistaken identity by its height, distinctive hump and fluffy tail when it emerged from the water and shook its fur dry!  It was huge!! About a foot or more high hump and 30 inches long nose to tail. Loved the Bronx fisher!!

Michael: Green ash sometimes (but not always) has hairs on its new (current-year) twigs; white ash does not. Green ash is also said to favor rich, moist soil and is often found growing near river banks and on lake shores, so the habitat itself is often a good hint.

Hello,

We have observed several Luna Moths here at our home and small hobby farm in Groton /Hebron NH.

We also have a spectacular array of birds.

Such a healthy wildlife conservation area.

Kristen

“Moths can also be attracted to a mixture of sugar and overripe fruit smeared on tree trunks.”  Yipes!  Is there anywhere in New England that you could put this on trees and not attract bears?

While the characteristics of the hornpout or brown bullhead make it a very hardy and interesting species of fish, readers thinking about stocking them in their farm pond should think hard and long before doing so.  As a former fisheries biologist, I know from experience about what is most likely to happen.  Once established they will overpopulate the pond and develop a population of stunted individuals that few people will want to take the time to catch, clean, and eat.  In other words most people just won’t fish or remove enough of them from a farm pond to make a difference in their growth rate and overall size. And putting them in a pond with largemouth bass and bluegills will simply mean fewer bass and bluegills.

I am very familiar with Mockingbirds breeding on my property over the recent years, but for the first time I am observing a Mourning Dove couple.
Sure enough, they built a flimsy nest in a small tree, which I assume contains two eggs now.
I worry, though, about their safety. 
Between the large, terrifying hawk lurking, and all the crows and squirrels, I think I may ultimately be heartbroken.

I have a nest with fledgling on my patio just above the area where we sit
Needless to say they are the new residents to enjoy our sitting area!

thanks Dave for accepting science and nature for what they both are.

Twice this month I’ve gotten out of my car in the parking lot and a crow has walked beside to the building door. At first I thought this was crazy and surely the crow would fly away but it didn’t happen. This week, was even weirder because the crow was walking closer to me and it was as if it was my pet. This time the crow stopped right at the office door and when I started to open the door, the bird flew away. Anyone else have this happen to them?

We have are first flying squirrel I live in a small gold mining town of the name of Wilsonville did not know you had Flying Squirrels here but this squirrel is so comical in the middle of the night it jumps from tree to tree we have put food out for it so that it has plenty to eat I guess we are lucky here in Calaveras County California

Up here between the Adirondacks and Tug Hill Plateau, we call these fish either Bullheads or Catfish. And in the spring the local restaurants always put Bullheads on the menu. Delicious! And at night, you drive by the lakes and see the lanterns all along the shores while fishermen are out there “Bullheading”.

I recently returned from a trip to Scandinavia where I saw extensive stands of Lupins from far northern Norway to southern Sweden. Would these be indigenous or an introduced variety?

How does an observer distinguish between the white and green species of Ash using basic tree identification techniques? I was told to lump them together. It was said that one would need to examine plant parts throughout the growing season, bud, leaf, flower, fruit, to distinguish between the two species. Was that true, is there a less complicated ID tool to distinguish white from green Ash?

Maybe they’ve lost popularity because they are so darn miserable to clean! When I was a little kid in the 1950’s it was not unusual to find our bathtub filled with them… probably procrastinating the difficult job. In later years, I learned not to catch so many.

We have had 2 fawns hanging out on our property for 10 days.  They graze so not sure if they’re still nursing but probably doing both.  They sleep and graze in the yard so as we come and go, mow, get deliveries, etc., they run into the woods sometimes come right back, sometimes not.  Only saw mom pick them up at dusk once.  Today only 1 fawn was here so of course we’re worried something may have happened to the other fawn.  But we’re hoping they’re maturing and maybe the other fawn can now keep up with Mom, or they just did their own thing today.  The fawn in your yard that you gave milk to was born not too far away, deer have a limited range and habitual about their travels, travel times and where they graze.  You should always leave fawns alone unless they’re constantly crying or appear injured.  You should not feed them and cow’s milk isn’t good, they’re lactose intolerant.  So now you know for the next time. I highly doubt anything you did caused a separation with Mom.  Fawns have more than one sleeping station and Mom comes running if she hears them cry, they’re usually within range so don’t worry, the fawn is probably just fine.

We’ve lived in Northern I’d. since 2001, we have cold winters.  I have two large feeders and enjoy watching our morning doves so much. 

We have lived through at least 5 years of summer fires. It is smoky all summer.  I noticed this past few weeks that the morning doves are sadly gone.  Your article was very informative,  I wondered if the smoke harmed these sweet birds.  I miss them and hope some more will find us.  We live on the Pend Oreill River in the country.