Mark Nale
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Nature’s Ways: Rhododendron Is Nature’s Winter Thermometer
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Rhododendron leaves hang curled and seemingly lifeless on a frigid winter morning. As temperatures rise into the 20s, rhododendron’s leathery evergreen leaves uncurl to greet the morning sun. When temperatures reach the 30s, their leaves look almost summer-like. This curling-uncurling characteristic makes the rhododendron Mother Nature’s winter thermometer. Rhododendron is easy to recognize but it…
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Nature’s Ways: White-Throated Sparrow, a Winter Visitor from the North
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“Oh sweet Canada, Canada, Canada” is the mnemonic often associated with the easily-recognized song of the white-throated sparrow, a common winter resident of Pennsylvania and states to our south. Flocks usually arrive here from Canada in October and don’t leave until late April or early May. While some species only sing while defending breeding territories,…
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Nature’s Ways: Witch-Hazel — the Last Pa. Native Plant to Flower Each Year
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One doesn’t typically expect to see plants flowering outdoors at the time of year — except maybe potted mums. The last native Pennsylvania plant to flower each year is the witch-hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), a small understory tree. The genus name Hamamelis means “together with fruit,” which refers to the flower blooming at the same time…
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Make the Most of Your 14-Day Rifle Deer Season
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The long-awaited firearms deer season begins in just over a week. This season has the highest hunter participation of any Pennsylvania hunting season. However, increased archery deer harvests in recent years and fewer hunters overall have made that participation much lower than it was 40 years ago. That could change somewhat this year. This fall,…
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Nature’s Ways: Red Squirrel — Common in Cone-Bearing Forests
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A machine-gun-like chatter echoing through the mixed hemlock, beech and maple forest is the scolding that a deer hunter gets when he enters the territory of a feisty red squirrel. Weighing approximately 6 ounces and measuring only a foot long — half of which is tail — the little squirrel packs a large vocal punch.…
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Nature’s Ways: Butter-and-Eggs Brighten Fall Days
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The brightly-colored butter-and-eggs loves late September and early October weather. This beautiful wildflower is around all summer, but seems to get a second life in mid-September. Butter-and-eggs, as its common name suggests, is a buttery yellow flower with a large orange spot, about the color of an egg yolk, in the center. This snapdragon-like flower’s…
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Nature’s Ways: Indian Pipe — an Interesting Non-Green Flowering Plant
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Even a casual woodland walker will quickly notice the odd-looking white plants poking up through the leaf litter at this time of year. Their bleached color often leads people to mistake them for some sort of fungi, but a closer inspection will reveal that they are topped with flowers rather than spore-producing structures. The unusual…
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Nature’s Ways: Eastern Phoebe — the Under-Bridge Dweller
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After a long winter, I always look forward to the day when I can step outside and hear the loud and familiar “FEE-bee” call of the eastern phoebe. This spring it happened on March 25. The previous year, it was on March 23. Birds are not quite as precise as calendars, but pretty darn close.…
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Nature’s Ways: The Often Overlooked Trout-Lily
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“Trout Time” it is, with anglers lining local streams, but it is also time for an often overlooked wildflower — the trout-lily. Trout-lily is a small yellow wildflower that is so named because its leaf coloration resembles the speckled coloration of Pennsylvania’s native brook trout. Trout-lily is a long-lived perennial wildflower. It occurs in suitable…
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Nature’s Ways: One of Everyone’s Favorites — the Eastern Bluebird
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Small flocks of brilliant blue and orange birds will soon be redecorating the shrubs and sumac thickets in open areas of Centre County. The eastern bluebird is a “temperate migrant” as opposed to a “tropical migrant.” It migrates southward only into the southern states — rather than flying the entire way to the tropics or…