If you’ve been wanting to get into birding, now’s the time. The East Cascades Audubon Society and a group of dedicated birders have set up the “Oregon Birding Site Guide” website, providing maps and directions to the some 1100 birding sites in Oregon. Start by going to ecaudubon.org, which will open the ECAS home page. […]
Natural World
Posted inOutside
Drop Some Knowledge for Science — Take part in the Greater Backyard Bird Count
Believe it or not, citizen scientists are on a roll. The National Audubon Society, in its quest to learn more about birds around our homes, has asked John Q. Public to help it understand what’s going on among metropolitan bird populations by taking part in the the Greater Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). Each year, on […]
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Natural World: The Oregon rock crawler
Back in 1954 I was living in Bend and doing a lot of underground exploring with my dear caving partner, Phil Coyner. I can’t recall how he and I got to going into lava caves, but we were good at it. In fact, he and I were the first known human beings to go all […]
Posted inCulture
Source Spotlight: Naturalist Jim Anderson
A spotlight on the people of Central Oregon
Jim Anderson, 88, admits he’s had a lifelong love affair with perhaps the most beautiful creation in the universe: Mother Nature. While the longtime Source Weekly Natural World columnist doesn’t have a formal education as a naturalist, he has something even better: a lifetime of experience. In his 1991 book entitled, “Tales from a Northwest […]
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Natural World: Winter and Wildlife
Winter’s hard on wildlife, just as it is on you and me. But like you and me, wildlife that spend winter with us have tools they can use to stay warm and dry. Birds in particular are well suited to survive winter, with downy feathers close to their little bodies. The down is like warm […]
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Eagle, Eagles, Everywhere
There is nothing to relieve the boredom of the straight paved freeway coming at you like an eagle, or better yet, many, many eagles. I went on a family and business journey to Minneapolis, Minn., recently, and the return trip home was eagle after eagle. Eagles have been a love of my life from the […]
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Natural World: Crab Spiders
Crabs may be living in your flowers…and they’re good at mimicking bird droppings, too
It’s that time of year, dear ones, for garden lovers to be on the lookout for the local crabs that hang out in your flowers. Well, not real “crabs,” but crab spiders, who are masters at camouflage. Look for it in the photo provided; it’s perched right there among the stamens, a forward pair of […]
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The Alligator Lizard: A Creature by Many Names
This alligator lizard shown at right was serious about living up to its name as it tried to eat Caleb’s finger. They met while we were exploring the Lava Beds National Monument back in the 1980s when my wife Sue and our kids were pursuing and tagging Monarch butterflies on the northern part of the […]
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Rattlesnakes: Born to do Battle?
In our travels assisting the Oregon Eagle Foundation to survey Central Oregon for active Golden Eagle breeding territories, my wife, Sue and I come across a wonderful variety of reptiles. When the days are nice and warm, just about all the lizards that live in the Great Sandy Desert dash across the road ahead of […]
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Mercury in Our Air, Water, Soil and Fish
In April of this year the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) issued a warning about consuming too many bass found to be contaminated with excessive amounts of mercury in fish tissue sampled from a number of water bodies across the state. Dave Farrer, Ph.D., toxicologist in the Environmental Public Health Section at the OHA Public Health […]
