Last month, I told you about the fun game of geocaching. Now it’s time to learn a little more… First things first! If you haven’t already, set up a free account on geocaching.com. Then, make sure you have a GPS device or download a geocaching app for your smart phone. I use a Garmin GPS […]

I had first come to admire gulls when I was younger during a short visit to Cedar Point, just off the coast of Lake Erie. The gulls were everywhere! They would follow you for food, and my brother and I soon discovered that they were especially adept at snapping our tossed up snack crackers out […]

As spring approaches, the return of the great blue herons begins. For the last few years, we have had the pleasure at Winton Woods of watching many great blue herons grow up. That’s because we have a unique thing here called a heron rookery, or heronry, where a large number of herons make their nests. […]

While walking along the Oakleaf Trail at Miami Whitewater Forest, you may notice the handiwork of nature’s most skilled architect: the North American beaver. This rascally rodent leaves behind a lot of evidence for visitors to observe. From gnawed-off bark to completely felled trees, there is no doubt as to just how true the old […]

Have you ever wondered how our local birds survive this winter’s bitter cold temperatures? Birds are warm-blooded (like humans), so they can produce their own body heat. They take it a step further, though. Birds have a higher metabolic rate than us, allowing them to stay at a higher temperature (around 105 degrees on average) […]

With our current winter weather conditions, it seems only natural to take a look into the Ice Age. It all started a very long time ago, about 1.5 million years ago to be exact. The earth was experiencing a great climatic change with periods of extreme cold separated by periods of very warm weather. During […]

Really? The great horned owl is feeling amorous in the frosty, freezing winter?? Yes, indeed this large, year-round resident owl is busy hustling and hooting up a storm, carrying out the earliest wild courtship in the region. If you are up at night, listen carefully and you might hear the “who, who, whoo” of great […]

One afternoon I booted a partially frozen frog high into the air—it was more like two or three of them, actually. I didn’t mean to. I just happened to be shuffling along my backyard, enjoying the winter landscape when it happened. In the span of maybe three seconds, my foot made contact with something, and […]