Birding is a fun activity with many different ways you can do it. You can bird by ear and identify birds by their songs. You can look at the birds and identify them that way. You can watch the birds out your window or as you spend time in your […]
Citizen science
29 posts
Do you enjoy having birds nest on your property? Would you like to learn more about what to look for in a nest box to make it the best it can be for your birds? Are you interested in finding out how you can safely monitor your nesting birds and […]
The Christmas Bird Count, also known as the CBC, began in 1900. For the past 122 years, volunteer birders of all ages and abilities have gathered together to conduct surveys of the birds found in their areas. The Christmas Bird Count is the longest running, community science or citizen science […]
Monarch butterflies have become an increasingly hot topic in recent decades, and especially in the last couple of years. Conversations about monarchs often revolve around topics like their migrations, the importance of milkweeds, or other flowers we can plant for monarchs. Rarely do the topics of monarch health or monarch […]
I often get asked what people can plant for bees. I can give good general answers to those questions, because we have a good idea of what types of flowers tend to be attractive to bees in general. We can then use that information along with personal observations made by […]
We always think of hummingbirds as being summer birds. But, did you know that we also have winter hummingbirds? They aren’t common, and they become less common the further you are from the southern coastal plains; however, they aren’t unique either. In the winter of 2011-2012, I was lucky enough […]
In the spring of 2021, reports started coming in of birds dying with weird eye and/or neurological symptoms. At first, it seemed like the bird mortality event was only in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia, but before long reports began to also come in from West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, […]
For many of us, the rhythmic chatter of annual cicadas is a natural part of every summer. But then… every once in a while… the trees explode in a deafening chorus of periodical cicadas. Periodical cicadas will spend over a decade as nymphs underground before emerging and maturing into adults. […]
Flower flies, a.k.a. hover flies, are common garden visitors, but they are often overlooked. The reason they are so often overlooked is because they are extraordinary mimics, usually of bees or wasps. Their mimicry is so good, that flower flies are often mistakenly identified as bees in social media posts, […]
This week’s episode of the Backyard Ecology podcast is the conclusion of our conversation with Lynn Faust. Lynn is the author of Fireflies, Glow-worms, and Lightning Bugs: Identification and Natural History of the Fireflies of the Eastern and Central United States and Canada. In this episode, we continue to just […]
For many of us in the eastern U.S., warm spring and summer nights are characterized by the methodical flashing of fireflies and lightning bugs. Fireflies and lightning bugs are exactly the same thing. I grew up calling them “lightning bugs,” but somewhere along the line picked up the term “firefly.” […]
The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual citizen science / community science project hosted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Audubon, and Birds Canada. This international project takes place all over the world for four days every February. In 2021, it will happen February 12-15. In today’s episode of […]
We’re lucky in the eastern U.S. because bodies of water are pretty common. For most of us, if we don’t have access to a creek, stream, river, pond, etc. in our immediate backyards, then we likely have access somewhere nearby in the surrounding community. This means it can be relatively […]
Land snails???? Come on, how do they fit with Backyard Ecology? True, land snails aren’t the most charismatic organism in our yards and communities, so it would be easy to just write them off and ignore them. Most of us probably do that on a regular basis. But, land snails […]
Many of us grew up hearing about the decline of the old growth forests and their impacts on neotropical songbirds and other wildlife. I think this was especially true for those of us who grew up here in the eastern U.S. However, the story that hasn’t been told as well […]
Hi, Everyone! In today’s episode of the Backyard Ecology podcast we are talking with Shelby Fulton who is a terrestrial biologist with the Kentucky Nature Preserves. Our conversation focuses on moths and how they survive the winter. We also talk about how diverse moths are and ways to observe them […]
For tens of thousands of people, the hustle and bustle of holiday activities also includes participating in an event that has been happening for well over a century – the Christmas Bird Count. This tradition started in North America in 1900. Since then, it has grown tremendously and has resulted […]
Hi Everyone! On today’s episode of Backyard Ecology, we talk with Maddy Heredia who is the outreach specialist and a biologist with the Kentucky Nature Preserves. Maddy and I first met when she was in college and volunteered on a citizen science / community science program that I was leading. […]
Over the last few months, I’ve been researching and working on a new project. Today I’m super excited to announce that I am launching a Backyard Ecology podcast! For those who might be wondering, a podcast is kind of like an audio version of a blog. I started listening to […]
Many people believe that nature is only “out there” – in national parks, other large chunks of pristine land, or some far-off exotic place. For a long time, I did too. But the truth is that nature is everywhere and there are still plenty of discoveries to be made about […]
There are approximately 250 species of bumble bees worldwide with approximately 50 of those being native to North America. According to Bumble Bees of the Eastern United States, 21 species occur from the east coast to the western boundaries of Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Based on their maps, […]
Over the next several weeks, our hummingbird numbers will begin to drastically decline as they leave for their wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America. Growing up, I always heard that you should take your hummingbird feeders down in the fall so you don’t encourage the hummingbirds to stick around […]
I have always loved watching fireflies and lightning bugs dance in the backyard. They are one of my favorite insects and bring back lots of childhood memories. Even today, I will run outside to watch the first fireflies of the year or to see a particularly good display. Fireflies and […]
The monarch butterfly is one of the most widely recognized and celebrated butterflies in the U.S. For many of us, the love affair started in grade school when we learned about the monarch’s migration and their giant winter clusters in Mexico. The U.S. has two populations of monarch butterflies – […]
Many people put up birdhouses to attract nesting birds. Even without putting up a birdhouse, it isn’t uncommon to find a nest in your yard or at a nearby park. When we lived in town, I frequently had robins build nests in the curve of my downspout or in the […]
It’s almost time for the hummingbirds to start arriving in Kentucky! In Kentucky, like the rest of the eastern U.S., we only have one common species of hummingbird – the ruby-throated hummingbird. Each year these tiny birds migrate from wintering grounds in Mexico and Central America to breeding grounds in […]
Recently, the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) made history when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed it as this country’s first endangered bumble bee. The rusty patched bumble bee is one of approximately 50 bumble bees native to the U.S. Relatively little research has been done on many […]
Hummingbirds are much loved and welcomed visitors to gardens and backyards across the country. In order to survive, they must feed almost constantly or they would literally starve to death. It has been estimated that if hummingbirds were the size of people, then they would need 155,000 calories a day […]
“Everything seems to be blooming early this year,” has been a common observation over the last month. I’ve made it and so have many of my friends and colleagues. But memories, especially casual observations from a year or more ago, can be tricky. That’s why many people who are interested […]