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The Nature Of Wild Houseguests
The Nature Of Wild Houseguests By Sean Beckett, NBNC Program Director (This is an expanded version of the article published in NBNC’s semiannual “Field Marks” newsletter.) As sure a sign of spring as blooming trilliums are phone calls to NBNC by those wondering what to do about the wildlife wandering around outside –and sometimes inside–…
Read MoreMore Than Meets The Eye: A Birder’s Journey
[Photo: Eleanor Ray] By: Richard Littauer (NBNC Board Member) Published in The Bridge, March 8 2022 On the last day of 2021, I drove to Maine to see a bird I’d never seen before. You may have heard about this one — a Steller’s sea eagle, normally a native of northern Japan and Russia’s far…
Read MorePlanting Keystones
By Sean Beckett NBNC Director of Natural History Programs I was in the garden lamenting what a single conservationist could really do amid a planet in crisis, when a Colletes latitarsis bee landed in my tomatillo flower. A local bee biologist gave me two beautiful tomatillo starters this spring, on the condition that I photograph any and…
Read MoreAmphibian Migration Season Update
By Zac Cota Rain patters as the streetlights kick on in the fading grey of daylight. Within the hour, amphibians will be on the move. Volunteer Amphibian Crossing Guards will be on the move too. Throughout the spring, dedicated community scientists visit sites where frogs and salamanders make dangerous road crossings as they move…
Read MoreThe Plainfield Christmas Bird Count: Reflections on 60 Years of Birding
The Christmas Bird Count is a global community science project organized by the National Audubon Society. At 121 years old, it is the longest-running project of its kind. In the weeks surrounding Christmas, groups fan out over established 15-mile-wide count circles with the mission of finding every feathered creature therein. While new circles are added…
Read MoreOwl Season Recap: new friends, old friends, and 312 sharp talons in 2020
By Sean Beckett NBNC Director of Natural History and Community Science Programs The Northern Saw-whet Owl migration season is over, and results are in! Our staff and apprentices banded 78 owls this year, bringing North Branch Nature Center’s grand total to 716. While not our largest year on record (181 in 2018), this season still…
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