Monthly Archives: September 2014
Signs of Fall #4: Leaf Changes
During most summers we hit a dry spell and several types of trees respond to the lack of water with leaf loss. The two, tall, skinny black locusts out on the back edge of my field lose half of their … Continue reading
Signs of Fall #3: Feral Cats
A couple of weeks ago I received an email from my friend and fellow environmental enthusiast Patrick Kopnicky asking me for my opinion about feral cats and their impacts on their environments. Patrick and his wife Mardelle, as I have … Continue reading
Signs of Fall #2 American Chestnut Trees
The American chestnut was once one of the most abundant trees of the eastern United States. It is estimated that up until the early part of the Twentieth Century thirty percent of the trees in our eastern forests were American … Continue reading
Signs of Fall #1: Dog Day Cicadas
We have just passed though the period of the year that the ancient Romans called the “dog days” in honor of the rising of the dog star, Sirius, with the morning sun. They thought that the heat and often unbearable … Continue reading
Signs of Summer 14: Red and Grey Squirrels
My family has a long history of providing food for birds and, often unintentionally, other types of wildlife, too. My father had a dozen bird feeders around his house in Arkansas and spent many enjoyable years of his retirement feeding … Continue reading