As the early settlers of the U.S. forged westward, their main priority was finding a place to call home. However, as they began to inhabit our country, not only did they affect the animals who lived here first, they affected where these creatures lived. The natural predators that called Ohio’s landscape home – the black […]

There are 11 species of turtle that can be found in the state of Ohio, and only four of them cannot be found in Hamilton County. Turtles are in the order Testudines and can relate back to the Triassic period from 200 million years ago. These creatures worldwide are one of the most endangered species. […]

The raccoon is a very unique animal. Its behavior and look are so interesting, that people took raccoons from their native home in North America and released them in Europe where they can now be quite a nuisance. Because of its immigrant status, each of the raccoon’s new-found countries gives it a local name. Almost […]

Tom Jones once sang, “Love is in the air everywhere I look around. Love is in the air every sight and every sound.” I’m convinced he was thinking of springtime and all the animals. Everywhere you look in nature, from the smallest of insects to the largest of mammals, there are babies. We’ve all been […]

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 […]

For many people, with cooler weather come thoughts of the holidays, snowball fights and sitting by a crackling fire. These are all things that I love, but my personal favorite winter activity is watching the birds visit the feeders outside of my window. For years, my family has enjoyed observing our feeders, and we always […]

When I tell people that I report to work at 6 a.m., I get a range of reactions from wild disbelief to groans of “I could never…” Admittedly, it takes a little adjusting to get up before 5 a.m. And like most modern human beings, I do my adjusting with coffee. In Great Parks’ Operations […]