It is that time of year once again. With warmer temperatures come the beautiful blooms of our region’s spring wildflowers. Whether you are in your favorite park, nature preserve or even your own backyard, there are blooms to discover all around us. Great Parks is fortunate to have healthy populations of native wildflowers in many […]

Honey bees are awesome. Not only do they pollinate our plants and create honey, but how they communicate with each other to create working a hive of 60,000 bees is fascinating. (If you haven’t seen bees doing their “waggle dance” to tell other bees where the best food is, I highly recommend you Google it.) […]

Many studies have shown that spending time outdoors can be linked to less stress, improved creativity and better health. With that in mind, I feel no guilt about leaving the dishes in the sink after dinner to explore all that nature has to offer this time of year. And if your family is anything like […]

Recently, a call came into the naturalist desk at Winton Woods inquiring about the identification of an injured bird. I took the call and had the woman on the phone describe the bird as best she could. She told me that it was small and brown with a long beak and a white stripe. I […]

Can you smell it? Spring is in the air. I don’t mean the aroma of flowers or rain or anything most people find remotely pleasant. It’s actually the first trace of skunk that makes me happy. Their stirring from winter dens is proof the ground is warming, creeping toward the next season. This boldly marked […]

Become an active participant in nature and even an amateur scientist by conducting your very own in-house experiments with the rain.

As the old saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” If there is one animal that truly puts this saying into action, it’s worms. These little creatures are nature’s version of the Greek myth of King Midas, who was said to be able to turn objects into gold just by touching them. Now, […]

As I bundled up for the cold blast of air descending upon us this week, my thoughts wandered to a most remarkable feathered friend, the golden-crowned kinglet. Only slightly larger than a hummingbird, it weighs in at one-fifth of an ounce (or two pennies), and it is a common winter visitor to Ohio. Some overwinter as […]