Mid-summer is prime time for our meadows and prairies. Butterflies are prominent among the insects visiting the yellow, pink, and purple flowers, drinking their nectar and distributing their pollen. But look carefully and you may spot the occasional moth among…
The common hoptree, Ptelea trifoliata, is the northernmost New World representative of the citrus, or rue, family of plants. It’s a relatively small tree, less than 20’ (6 m) tall and less than 10” (25 cm) trunk diameter, found in…
The sprayground will open for the season on Friday, May 26! The sprayground is open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. It will remain open through Labor Day weekend. An all-access playground is adjacent to the…
Nothing says May like mayapples! Mayapples (technically, Podophyllum peltatum) have no relation to apples, and they first poke up through the leaf litter around the end of March. It takes a few weeks, though, for the large, umbrella-like leaves to…
With the return of songbird nesting season, it’s time for cowbirds to get busy! But not everybody will be happy about that. Cowbirds are a native species, but their reputation is as invaders who displace other more “desirable” birds. The…
Ohio is home to something like 100 species of dragonflies, and to a large extent, they are creatures of summer. Both the abundance and the diversity of dragonflies peak in June and July. But a few species stretch those seasonal…
For most of us, the word “marsupial” brings to mind kangaroos and koalas—animals we might describe as cute, or even charismatic. But those adjectives probably are applied less often to our one local marsupial, the Virginia opossum, Dildelphis virginiana. With…
Sycamore trees are easy to spot on the landscape. Sycamores thrive in well-drained riparian (streamside) soils, and from the air they are conspicuous as large white sentinels marking the paths of creeks and rivers. On the ground, even in summer…
Southwest Ohio is home to seven species of woodpeckers. Six of those species—downy and hairy, red-bellied and red-headed, pileated and flicker—are year-round residents, and most of them are common in woods and neighborhoods and at feeders. But the seventh species,…
Honeybees and Bumblebees Prepare for Winter Honeybees (introduced from Europe to North America in the early 17th century) and bumblebees (several species native to southwest Ohio, including common eastern bumblebees, golden northern bumblebees, two-spotted bumblebees, and others) have a lot…