Picture books about wildlife and other themes that I particularly enjoy and recommend.
We call it that because squirrels like to shelter inside. And each spring, at least one new family grows up there. One year, a pregnant raccoon took over the entire tree. But otherwise, for some twenty years, we have watched squirrel mamas, and eventually their pups, scurry in and out of the largely hollow tree.
But last week, I wondered if wood ducks might be moving in.
Continue reading Duck DramaThat’s our weather of late. But sitting in my snug office, just steps from soup, sourdough, coffee, and more… I’ve no reason to complain. The weather may be harsh, but I’m not suffering.
Can the same be said of the wildlife I watch through my window?
Continue reading So Much for SharingImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
It was my husband, Bert.
“Huh?”
“Something’s flying around in here!”
Here was our bedroom. Something was a bat.
Image Credits: ErinAdventure.
Usually, they’re watching another squirrel bury a nut. Then, when the coast is clear, they steal it. But food larceny didn’t explain the behavior of one little sneak I watched out my window.
Continue reading The Not-So-Sneaky SquirrelImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
Image Credits: Carol Doeringer.
It stood upright, balanced not on its legs but on its wingtips. I leaned in for a closer look.
The fly wasn’t standing. It wasn’t even alive.
The poor creature had been stabbed.
Continue reading Call CSI: It’s an Insect Murder MysteryImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
The snoop at my sliding-glass door made no attempt to conceal herself as she stared. I wondered: Was she looking through the glass or at it?
Continue reading A Cowbird Cases the JointImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
The poo’s origin was no mystery. Robins had nested overhead, on our pergola. But still, I wondered why I was seeing so much of the sticky stuff. Robins, like many bird parents, remove their nestlings’ excrement after each feeding. It comes out wrapped in a fecal sac—a convenient package that parents swallow during the first week and then carry away from the nest as fecal quantities grow. In addition to helping keep the young ones healthy, nest sanitation minimizes any scent trail that might lead predators to the nest. And yet, just a few feet directly below the nestlings lay a stinking pile of poop.
Was I looking at the dereliction of parental doo-ty?
Continue reading When the Poo Piles UpImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
Black is a common color morph in eastern gray squirrels, especially in northern areas like Ohio, Michigan, and Ontario.
But this black squirrel had a most uncommon feature: a cinnamon-colored tail.
Continue reading A Squirrely Show of ColorImage Credits: Carol Doeringer.
Warm(ish) weather has reached our lake, melting and fracturing its icy cover. Ice floes of all shapes and sizes meander by. Some floes rival a sculptor’s art. Others carry creatures at rest, floating like innertubes on a lazy river.
They all send a most welcome signal.
Continue reading Winter Goes with the Floe
Image Credits: Carol Doeringer.
