The Naturalist’s Blog

Week of April 2, 2023 – April 8, 2023 by David DuBois, Land Steward Everyone knows that spring is the time for flowers, but what is so special about this time of year that allows our woodland herbs to create such spectacular displays? Spring represents unique opportunities in a deciduous forest. The only part of the year that is both reliably warm enough to photosynthesize and well lit on the [...]

Week of March 26, 2023 – April 1, 2023 (Originally published March 13, 2022) by Bridget Jones, Environmental Educator As the snow begins to melt and days get longer, I’ve been looking forward to seeing leaves start to emerge on the trees at Baltimore Woods. Right now, weeks away from the leaves’ emergence, the trees look as still and silent as they have all winter. But at the tips of [...]

Week of March 19, 2023 – March 25, 2023 by Sunny Guyette, Environmental Educator The big snow storm that arrived on Tuesday left Baltimore Woods in a thick blanket of twinkling snow. There was a beautiful calm for two days after the storm, blue skies, the sun was shining, the air was warmer, and the snow was glistening. The critters below must have known that it was a good day [...]

Week of March 12, 2023 – March 18, 2023 by Anna Stunkel , Environmental Educator One of my favorite signs of spring starts on March 1, when the hawkwatch season begins at Derby Hill Bird Observatory and many other North American hawkwatches. A great variety of raptors, or birds of prey, can be seen from this hill overlooking Lake Ontario.Spring raptor migration in the northeast includes hawk, vulture, falcon, eagle, [...]

Week of March 5, 2023 – March 11, 2023 by Elizabeth Suzedell , Environmental Educator One evening about a month ago, I saw a huge flock of big, white birds flying around above a distant field. They were snow geese, who are winter visitors to Central New York. I decided to head over in their direction. As I got closer, I saw that there were hundreds of snow geese landing [...]

Week of February 26, 2023 – March 4, 2023 by Bridget Jones , Environmental Educator This week, students from across the Syracuse area came to Baltimore Woods for Winter Break Camp. At the heart of the camp experience is the chance to learn about nature through free play and exploration. As an Environmental Educator and camp counselor, I love seeing the campers experience moments of discovery and connection with nature. [...]

Week of February 19, 2023 – February 25, 2023 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator This past weekend, I visited the Morgan Road marshlands at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge around sunset. As I watched flocks of Snow Geese, Trumpeter Swans, and ducks flying to their roosts on whooshing wings, the mild daytime temperatures began to drop. Beavers and Muskrats were swimming busily around me, and I thought about how chilly the [...]

Week of February 12, 2023 – February 18, 2023 by Bridget Jones, Environmental Educator This past week, we had a spectacularly sunny day in between the clouds, snow, and rain. Temperatures warmed up enough to melt most of the snow and ice on the trails, providing a brief glimpse of spring in the middle of winter. Although the warmth was unusual for this time of year, I couldn’t help but [...]

Week of February 5, 2023 – February 11, 2023 by Sunny Guyette, Environmental Educator The Baltimore Woods Nature in the City program visits every K-5 grade classroom in the Syracuse City School District three times a year for a one-hour hands-on/minds-on natural science lesson. The current lesson that we give to Kindergartners is “Animals in Motion”, where the educators have the pleasure of introducing how and why non-human animals move certain ways [...]