By Lee Emmons The brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) lives out its days in relative seclusion. Like the gray catbird, which has a similar fondness for thickets and shrubby areas, brown thrashers haunt areas of dense cover, although discerning eyes may […]
Tag: By Lee Emmons
Downy woodpeckers are well adapted to winter
By Lee Emmons On winter mornings, I often venture outside to photograph the assembly of birds that visit the feeders in my front yard. One of the regular visitors is the diminutive downy woodpecker, which clings to my peanut feeder, […]
How to provide shelter for birds
By Lee Emmons Come winter, after the bears have retreated to their cold weather dens, many backyard bird enthusiasts hang feeders to attract — and nourish — avian visitors. Birds need more than a supplemental food source, however. Whether they […]
Purple finches provide year-round color
By Lee Emmons In September, as summer yields to fall, most of the colorful birds that breed in our region during spring and summer head south for warmer locales. The departure of ruby-throated hummingbirds, Baltimore orioles, migratory woodpeckers, and numerous […]
Maligned and misunderstood, the Eastern milk snake slithers in the dark
By Lee Emmons Walking down my road on an early June afternoon several years ago, I spotted a snake attempting to cross into the underbrush. Covered in colorful splotches, it quickly slithered across the pavement and out of sight. I […]
Black-throated green warblers star in the spring soundtrack of the woods
By Lee Emmons This spring, as you walk outside, keep an ear open for two distinctive bird songs: “zee zee zee zee zo zee” or “zee zee zo zo zee.” If you hear them, you’ve identified a black-throated green warbler […]
Brown creepers: denizens of the bark
By Lee Emmons On certain afternoons, if I time it just right, I may spot a brown creeper (Certhia americana) on the trunk of a tree in my front yard. Moving stealthily, almost imperceptibly up the tree, the brown creeper […]