A Few Things To Look For

Top Photo: Hermit thrush inspects sumac seeds for possible consumption. While walking the outdoor loop through Explore the Wild and Catch the Wind, it’d be worth your while to keep an eye out for what’s around you. Winter residents, hermit thrushes eat fruit, seeds, and invertebrates when available. Some trees retain the seeds they produced during the growing season until well into the winter, even within the same species. Most white ash trees typically disperse their seeds in fall. SomeRead more

Full Speed Ahead

With temperatures in the 70s and 80s during much of this period, things were happening fast and furious out on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. The Redbuds are budding, the elms are producing seeds, and many of the various shrubs and trees around the loop are showing flower buds or new leaf growth. However, during the last few days of this period cold, heavy rains slowed things down a bit, if only temporarily.Read more

Looking Back: Flora

With the closing of the year it’s perhaps time to look back and see what we’ve observed on the Explore the Wild/Catch the Wind Loop. With plenty of rain and no deep freezes during spring, it was a fairly good year for the berry, seed, and nut crop. Many people in the Triangle area are reporting lower than usual numbers of certain birds at their feeders, particularly northern seed-eating species. This is anecdotal, but it would seem that the birdsRead more