As pollinators of both crop species and wildflowers, bees are critical elements of Ohio’s economy and natural landscape. Our most familiar bees surely are honeybees, which were imported from Europe in the 1600s. However, Ohio also is home to more…
For a Million Bucks: Is That Your Final Antler?
Picture a white-tailed deer and chances are you will envision an animal bearing antlers. After all, a deer sighting may be charming, but if that deer is a buck with a large rack of antlers, the encounter becomes a “wow”…
May is National Bike Month!
We are lucky to live in the Miami Valley, a region that touts the largest paved trail network in the country! CWPD is proud to be part of this trail network with over 10 miles of multi-use paved trails for…
Spring Warblers: a radiation of color and song
For Ohio’s bird enthusiasts, May is prime time, as the arrival of northbound migrants adds color and song to the landscape. No group of birds exemplifies migration season more than the wood warblers. That family of birds, the Parulidae, includes…
Cracking the Shell Game
All around us, birds are back in the business of producing the next generation, their eggs hidden away in nest cups and tree holes. Bird eggs are marvels of biological engineering. All of the materials needed to build a new…
Beauty and the Bees
Spring beauties, Claytonia virginica, are among the earliest blooming of our so-called “spring ephemerals,” the woodland wildflowers that bloom in succession between March and May. Spring beauties survive the winter as a mini-potato-like tuberous root that provides the plant with…
Groundhog Day and Skunk Cabbage: Coupled by Uncoupling
It’s February, often Dayton’s coldest month. Groundhogs, aka woodchucks, which amuse us with their antics during the warmer seasons, have long since hidden away in their underground hibernation retreats. At the same time, the broad green leaves of skunk cabbages,…
Birds of Winter: Turning up the Fire of Life
Through the cold months of winter, the animals that remain active in our woods, meadows, and neighborhoods are those with high rates of metabolism that sustain warm body temperatures—the endothermic (“warm-blooded”) birds and mammals. While some small mammals, like mice…
Mighty Ecosystems From Little Acorns Grow
As fall turns to winter, and green leaves and insects have substantially disappeared until next spring, fruits and nuts become increasingly important in the diets of animals that remain active in the cold. Among those, the hard nuts produced by…
It’s Turkey Time!
It’s November, and across the country, turkeys are arriving in grocery stores and home freezers. The great majority of those, of course, are domestic turkeys, raised on farms and bred for meat production. But wild turkeys are on the rise,…