Maria



Beauty on the Wing

While birds are quite active right now with nest building, incubating eggs, feeding nestlings and then guiding fledglings, there are also other beautiful flyers to see when we’re out walking and sitting in natural surroundings. Butterflies like those above are especially popular.








Advocating for Trees and Leaves

This week, the town of Chapel Hill is celebrating Arbor Week, culminating in a Nov. 19 ceremony where Mayor Pam Hemminger will read an Arbor Day Proclamation and accept the Tree City USA Award from the N.C. Forest Service.


Raptors are Roaming

North Carolina is known among birders as a destination for “hawk watches,” i.e., gatherings of people to see groups of hawks that are migrating south (for winter) or north (for summer).


A Surprise at the Pond

A combination of abundant vegetation and some kind of water — a creek, river, wetland, pond or lake — is one of my favorite types of natural area to visit for wildlife watching…


A New Celebrity Bird

When an unusual avian visitor turns up locally, birders tend to get excited. Many birders keep “life lists,” records of all the different bird species that they have seen worldwide…



Insects Can Be Exciting!

This past May, I had the opportunity to experience both wonder and awe when observing two interesting insects busy with life events. While not many people aside from entomologists….









Twitching in the Triangle?

Among birders, people who are extremely focused on identifying as many species of birds as possible in their lives — and who will travel great distances to do so — sometimes are known as twitchers. The term is used more often in Europe than in the USA, but the behavior is known here, too. Twitching has a bit of a bad reputation…




Helping Monarchs Thrive

If you follow news about nature, you may have come across warnings that the monarch butterfly has been in dire straits for many years now. These lovely orange and black butterflies migrate in a multi-generational process between Canada and central Mexico in the spring and fall. The last generation to emerge in late summer can live up to eight months…




Planting for Hummers

If you’ve been spending time walking in natural areas or visiting parks like the NC Botanical Garden, have you noticed an increase in the number of hummingbirds that are around? The female birds have raised their young and they, the adult males with beautiful red gorgets (throats) and young…