Nature of Delaware Blog

A major analysis published last week (Rosenberg et al. 2019, Science, downloadable) makes depressing reading for anyone interested in birds or in nature in general. A team of leading North American researchers analyzed almost 50 years of data from multiple sources and calculated that about 3 billion birds (= 3 thousand million!) have been lost…

One of my favorite books is Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, in which a mysterious beast pursues Sherlock Holmes through the eerie mist of an English moor. Driving the back roads of northern Delaware in the early morning reminds me of this gloomy setting because many of the trees are now shrouded…

Ian Stewart & Lori Athey Now that spring is here many Delawareans are enjoying the colorful wildflowers blooming in their backyard, local parks and road sides. Unfortunately, the great majority of those currently flowering are alien weeds which were either deliberately or accidentally introduced by Europeans. These plants found themselves in a new environment with…

By Matt Bailey, Delaware Nature Society Volunteer: It is the depths of winter.  What better time to wrap your hands around a warm mug of your favorite comfort drink?  If you live in the US, that hot drink is statistically most likely to be coffee.  The warmth (and steam) wafting from your mug might put…

Ian Stewart These are the opening words of the poem ‘To a mouse’, written by the legendary haggis-eating Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1785 (which also contains the famous line oft-paraphrased as ‘The best-laid schemes of mice and men go often askew’). Although this is an apt description of mice it is also used to…

By Joe Sebastiani, Ashland Nature Center Manager Delaware Nature Society graduated fourteen “Certified Naturalists” in December, awarding those who successfully completed the year-long Naturalist Certification Series and the associated field journal.  In the past 12 years, over 300 people have taken this class which focuses on gaining a foundation for the study of nature in…