Everything WNY and Only WNY
The feeding of songbirds is incredibly popular in rural Western New York. A majority of homes have one or more bird feeders. This writer maintains two sunflower stations, a nyjer…
When snowy owls make their periodic irruptions into the northern states, those beautiful birds get all the ornithological press. That often overlooks the other feathered friends that visit us from…
Over my 42 years I’ve seen some significant swings in wild turkey populations on the Niagara Frontier. Over the first half of my life, turkeys were common in the Southern…
Chances are, that if you live in rural Western New York you’re a backyard astronomer of sorts. You might find yourself outdoors on a cool, clear winter night marveling at…
Everyone has their “official” sign of winter. They might consider the start of Jack Frost’s domain to be the first snowfall of the season or maybe Thanksgiving or the winter…
Trying to figure out what to get an outdoors enthusiast for Christmas can be a daunting task, especially if the shopper really isn’t an outdoorsy person. So, for the past…
It seems like Western New York forests are under constant attack, in wars that they can’t win. In the early 1900s, chestnut trees were all but exterminated from our woodlands…
There’s a strange perception among folks that most any wildflower that blooms after June is a weed. Maybe it’s because those summer and fall plants normally aren’t found in the…
Heading off to one of our family vacations in the Adirondacks, I — of course — had to include fishing gear on the list of necessities. When it comes to…
I have a love-hate relationship with porcupines, the giant tree-climbing rodent of the Southern Tier. If I encounter the prickly creatures in the forest I can’t help but enjoy their…