The Naturalist’s Blog

Week of November 17, 2024 – November 23, 2024 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator “What’s a fancy word for rain and snow?” This is a question I’ve been asking a lot recently to the Syracuse 3rd graders during their first Nature in the City lesson of the year. The answer is “precipitation.” In this lesson, they learn a lot about water- where it comes from, local watersheds, and the water cycle. There’s never [...]

Week of November 10, 2024 – November 16, 2024 by Catherine McLaughlin, Environmental Educator Do you have a calendar? Not the calendar we typically use with days of the week and holidays to keep track of the time passing, but one in tune with nature’s cycles? I do. One of those natural moments that I appreciate that doesn’t come with a date is when the crows congregate in fall. I start [...]

Week of November 3, 2024 – November 9, 2024 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator For many thousands of years, we humans have used art as a powerful way to connect with the natural world. As the seasons change, so do the colors that we see around us. Fall brings a chill to the air, and crunchy leaves settle over the soft soil and grass. Many painters have been inspired by how [...]

Week of October 27, 2024 – November 2, 2024 by Kaylen Iorio, Environmental Educator In honor of Halloween just a few days away, I thought we would take some time to talk about the misrepresentation of some of our animal friends in association with Halloween. Halloween has become the one of the largest holidays celebrated in America celebrated with trick or treating, carving pumpkins, and visiting haunted houses. Have you noticed [...]

Week of October 20, 2024 – October 26, 2024 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator Did you see the northern lights last week? Until this year, I always thought I’d have to go to Alaska to see them. We’ve had several solar storms over the past few months that were strong enough to produce auroras at our latitude and even well to our south. The pesky clouds keep preventing a lot of [...]

Week of October 13, 2024 – October 19, 2024 by Katie McLaughlin, Environmental Educator Let your imagination run wild! … but how do we do that? It all starts while we are young, as our little minds are trying to figure out the world and how it works. We mimic what we know and observe in play. I would pretend to pour water or potions from an empty bottle to fill [...]

Week of October 6, 2024 – October 12, 2024 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator Both spring and fall are exciting transitional times in the natural world around us. Here at Baltimore Woods, I always look forward to the arrival of fifth graders from the Syracuse City School District for their Ecosystem Exploration field trip. For many of these kids, it is their first time exploring such extensive forest, field, and water [...]

Week of September 29, 2024 – October 5, 2024 by Kaylen Iorio, Environmental Educator One of my favorite things to do while exploring nature is to look around for animal tracks; the evidence of animals is all around us… if we know where to look! We don’t always need to see animals to know they have been here. Woodpeckers, for example, leave holes in trees in search of food or a [...]

Week of September 22, 2024 – September 28, 2024 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator Did you know that we now have a weather station at Baltimore Woods? A weather station is a collection of instruments that measure atmospheric conditions, or more simply, the weather. Our new station was installed earlier this month with the help of our amazing A-team volunteers. As someone who loves the weather, this was a very special [...]