Backyard Habitats
It’s Noisy Out There!
Sound of insects at night in late summer
Backyard Habitats
SMRA
The Earliest Arrivals
“Nature abhors a vacuum,” is how the famous phrase goes. Whenever I see it, though, I always think it’s missing a follow-up sentence: “And evolution…
SMRA
The World in a Weed
Ever since the first flowering plants emerged about 130–140 million years ago, they and those that eat them have been engaged in a kind of…
Birding
Return of the Martin
In recent years, condo developments have sprung up all over Westchester. Sometimes it seems that practically every former industrial site, rail yard, or other piece…
Sanctuaries
Taking a Closer Look
For an avid birder, springtime is an endless series of surprises, a holiday that goes on for weeks. Midsummer is something different: It has its…
SMRA
Black Birders Week and Beyond
Decades later, I still vividly recall my first experience birdwatching with a group. It was a boat trip to Monomoy Island, a shorebird haven off…
SMRA
Spring Mosaic
For many of us, the past weeks of spring migration have been glorious, a bounty of warblers, tanagers, and dozens of other species passing through…
SMRA
These are not “Murder Hornets”
One summer night in 1975, I ventured into a movie theater to see Jaws. And Steven Spielberg’s witty, entertaining thriller terrified me—along with millions of…
Birding
The Mockingbird’s Meaning
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs. They don’t…
Ring-necked Snake. David Figura.
SMRA
Landscape with Snakes
Many years ago, when my son was about six, he and I went for a quick spring walk around Swan Lake in Rockefeller State Park….