Site Discussions

I love having the weekly nature look outs available on line.  I don’t often carry the magazine around with me but I love having access to the info.!
Thank you!

You lucky ducky! I love the description of the nose cleaning. These guys top my life list too!

Thank you, Sylvia! We have fun putting it together.

I have to say this is an awesome series! Thank you:)

This has got to be one of the cutest pictures out there.

to Rose I think you are so kind for raising all those monarcs!!!

A few years ago I was walking through woods at night and noticed a tiny round reflection in the leaves.  Wondering what it could possibly be - water? covered trash?  I looked closer and when my headlamp lit up the area, saw it was a small spider. 

*Clearly* watching the giant walking by.  Eye shine!  On a spider.  Once I started looking, there were one or two in each square yard. 

The things happening in nature all around us and we have no idea!

Hello Isabelle & Peter.  We live in Colorado east of Boulder & north of Denver and the vast majority of our ash trees have not a single leaf yet.  Last year, they leafed out in late March and we got that bomb cyclone and the leaves got frozen and fell off.  More leaves emerged, another hard freeze came the next month, and they turned black & fell off again.  However, third time was a charm and the tree was fully leafed and beautiful by Mother’s Day.  Not so this year.  We didn’t have a particularly cold or harsh winter but it has been a dreadfully dry spring and temps are already around 90.  So I am keeping my fingers crossed that these are all just late-leafers this year and that they haven’t all succumbed to the ash borer as that has been a big problem here as well.  Not really an answer as to why yours are early, more just an observation that ours are very late this year.

Great article!
I absolutely love all the creatures in our environment. I would like to encounter one of these awesome mammals. The closest I’ve ever come to it was a Northern Short tailed Shrew which is also quite an interesting creature!

These are such a nice sign of spring!

Thanks for the article.

So excited to find the yellow bloom when I started to weed an area next to house and saw the yellow round bloom! My woods are wet but though I have seen Jack in Pulpit I had not seen this. Had to come in and look it up. It says rare so I’m not sure what to or nor to plant near it.

The wood thrush I heard for the first time last year at this time I heard again this week along with the cat birds, song sparrows and yellow warblers. Keep up the good work, Elise Tillinghast with your “fourth week of the month.” articles. I like the simplicity and predictability of your magazine monthly features. There is much more in NGO’s and media but I prefer the older proven format of magazines and books still as I can catch up at “my learning rate and style ” better when I subscribe to your great magazine. Nature is as much of my life as gardening, cooking, and socializing with my friends and significant others. Your magazine and E-newsletter help even more recently with the closure of our county based library system because of Covid-19. Thank you Northern Woodlands for being in my life. Sincerely, Dick Crafts, Middleport NY.

A fawn has been in my backyard all day. A few days ago spotted it a couple blocks away. No sign of mom. Now nestled among my peonies out of sight. Very still. Worried. Your article is encouraging, I will continue to watch from a distance. Thank you.

Question about maple seeds - this year they’re very small! I’ve been waiting for the big translucent tan colored helicopters so I can then clean out rain gutters. Instead I have a blanket of tiny red double-samara seeds. Stress??

Thanks for the information! During isolation, we have seen such fascinating behavior and sounds from the crows in our area.

We agree that ‘murder’ is an unsuitable name. Maybe you can get ‘traction’ with this name suggestion -‘crew’?

I was so saddened to return home after a birding walk to find my just-hatched doves without the mother returning for the night. They’re set low in a box planter so I covered the box with a heating pad set on low They actually settled down as soon as I did so: prior to that they were squirming as if to find warmth from the other’s body. I’ll set my alarm for 4 am to be prepared to remove the pad before—hopefully—the father returns.

Great article and comments!!!

We have a few groups coming around every day. A group of 3 young males and 2 females that come with the big Tom. Sometimes they all come together. At night they roost behind our house in the big pines. Twice over the past 2 weeks we have found random eggs on the ground in the open. Wondering why a hen would lay outside a nest?

Thanks so much for this article. I could not tell what bird was nesting on my back porch, over the lamp. The porch is under a deck, and close to the woods and water so ideal for the Phoebe to nest there. She did make a mess of mud spatters over the door, which we will clean in the fall. She is back for a second season. There was a next there last year that we took down and washed down the door and surroundings. I did not know that she would rebuild in the exact same spot.

I have a den of grey foxes under my back porch. They’ve been back every year for at least 10 years, but this year the female is alone. She has 6 kits, and I fear she can’t take care of all of them and I wander if I should discretely help a little, any ideas?