The Naturalist Notebook

For nearly 50 years, the bluebird populations across North America saw a major decline. Once as common as a robin, the bluebird became so rare that many people assumed its extinction was inevitable. Male and female bluebirds The drastic decreases in population were due to a number of factors. The first cause was the reduction…

27 teams comprising 127 birders made for a record-breaking 27th year of the Birding Cup! This year, donations to Shaver’s Creek’s only annual fundraiser will go toward the cutting and milling of local woods for use in Shaver’s Creek’s upcoming building project. (Much of the wood was already removed to support American Woodcock habitat, and…

In the 27th year of Birding Cup, 27 teams (a record number!) will set out to find the most species of birds in 24 hours as possible. The teams will visit a variety of habitats: early successional forest, meadows, creeks, and marshes, to name a few. They’ll train their binoculars and scopes on birds both…

It is that time of the year again! Birds are singing, flower buds are starting to form, the days are getting longer and warmer, and amphibians are on the move. Each spring, as the snow melts and the temperatures begin to rise, frogs, toads, newts, and salamanders awake from their hibernation state and migrate to…

I was looking for a story. Really anything that spoke to me. I was looking for inspiration. I took a walk. I meditated on it. I even went through my home library of the “classics” that I’ll frequent on an odd day or whim. I was looking for a name. Well, something to take on…

You find yourself on the outskirts of town. Turn onto Huffmanville Road, just across the street from the Rutter’s gas station, and follow it for a couple miles. Along the tree line and over the farmland, houses and cars become more and more sporadic. Eventually, you’ll come to a small bridge. Out this far there…

If you visited Shaver’s Creek in the past few weeks, you may have noticed loud screeching coming from the Raptor Center. This is the vocalization of our bald eagles, and although they are often some of the more noisy birds in the Raptor Center, they have taken it to a new level lately. When the…

Late during the third week of January, the spring interns here at Shaver’s Creek ventured down the hill from the Center to Lake Perez, frozen over with eight thick inches of ice. Standing on the floating dock about an hour before sunset, we each extended a nevertheless hesitant toe onto the ice sheet, followed by a testing step, and finally…

As a native Southern Californian I have not experienced many harsh winters. The closest I have gotten to a real winter was during college in Oregon, but the snow only lasted about a week. I decided I was ready for a change and headed to Pennsylvania for the fall environmental education internship. I have enjoyed…

For the past five years I have practiced curmudgeonry – the very proud act of being a curmudgeon – during the end-of-year holidays. I was 17 when I discovered minimalism, developed an obsession to get rid of most of my belongings, and then began to boycott (with much teenage angst) the “celebration” of December 25th.…