Monthly Archives: July 2015

Signs of Summer 11: Monarchs and Milkweed

Over the past few years I have written three or four essays about monarch butterflies and emphasized their dependence upon milkweed plants. The various species of milkweed that grow across North America are the only plants on which the monarch … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 10: Neighborhood Walk (part 2), Trees and Animals

(continuing last week’s discussion of our nature walk in the suburbs): Around many of the houses up and down these suburban streets are a variety of primarily solitary trees. Houses of styles that were built in the 1950’s or 1960’s … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 9: Neighborhood Walk (part 1), Lawns

Nature walks can be taken in the woods, across open meadows, or along river or lake or ocean shorelines. You can also take nature walks along suburban streets. Deborah and I took a stroll around a nearby suburban neighborhood to … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 8: Ticks and Tick Imposters

I got an email a couple of weeks ago from Karen Harlan at Penn State New Kensington asking me about a deer tick “imposter.” She had heard about a small, soft bodied (“squishable,” was the way she phrased it, stressing … Continue reading

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Signs of Summer 7: Bird Sounds

It is a cool, breezy day today, and I am very happy to have been able to turn the air conditioning off (with an acknowledgment that I REALLY appreciated it during all of the recent days of high humidity and … Continue reading

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