Backyard Accessories & Notes from the Edge of the Woods

I regularly give bird facts to people who don't ask for them. My sister and I had a conversation about this Northern Flicker bird the other day. I happened to know what they were because I have once before mistook it for a Red-Bellied Woodpecker. If you've heard a sharp, insistent drumming from the trees and looked up to find a head band marked bird making a racket on an old tree out back, there's a good chance you've spotted either a Northern Flicker or a Red-Bellied Woodpec

I want to tell you about the morning I checked my trail camera for the first time and found a bobcat staring directly into the lens. It was the first week I had the camera up. I hadn't even fully figured out the upload process yet. And there it was; that unmistakable blocky face, tufted ears, spotted flanks, caught at 11:55 in the evening not ten feet from my back property line. I had always heard of cats around here but never had seen one. Bobcat in open edge of woods. That'

Every spring, dozens of wood-warbler species pour back into the Northeast to breed. Here's who's coming, when to expect them, and what to grow to bring them into your yard. Long before the trees have fully leafed out, the warblers are already moving. By late April, the vanguard species: Yellow-rumped and Pine Warblers; push north along the Atlantic flyway, following the bloom of insects up the continent's spine. Over the next six weeks, wave after wave follows: orange-crowned

When Birds Hit the Window (and what we can do about it) If you live anywhere near trees, fields, or even just a yard with a feeder, you’ve probably heard it at least once. That sudden thud against the window. It’s a sound that stops you in your tracks. Sometimes you go look right away. Sometimes you wait a second, hoping maybe it wasn’t what you think it was. And sometimes—if you’re lucky—the bird shakes it off and flies away before you even get there. But not always. Living