The Amazing Slime Mold
Week of July 23, 2023 – July 29, 2023 by Bridget Jones, Environmental Educator As I’ve been walking in the woods this summer, a particular kind of creature has been catching my eye. These creatures are small, grow from soil or decaying wood, and come in a fascinating array of shapes and colors: bumpy bright red globs, smooth pink beads, clusters of brown threads, bright yellow networks. While they appear [...]
Marvelous Moths
Week of July 16, 2023 – July 22, 2023 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator One of my favorite nature happenings of summer can only be observed under cover of darkness, and is best seen very late in the middle of the night. On a warm and dark summer night, if you hang a white bedsheet vertically and illuminate it with a blacklight, a beautiful diversity of moths and other nocturnal [...]
Why Do Worms Come to the Surface When it Rains?
Week of July 9, 2023 – July 15, 2023 by Sunny Guyette, Environmental Educator We have been getting quite a bit of rain recently and a recurring question I’ve had is ‘why are there so many worms on the surface when or after it rains?’. Ever since I was young I would see about fifty worms crawling on the sidewalk after a rainy day, but I never really thought to [...]
Appreciating the Rain
Week of July 2, 2023 – July 8, 2023 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator Last week, we had lots of scattered showers and thunderstorms across the region- a true sign of summer. I love the weather, so seeing the towering cumulus clouds grow, hearing the booms of thunder, and watching the flashing lightning was pretty exciting for me. However, I have to admit that I was starting to get a [...]
The Transitions of Nature
Week of June 25, 2023 – July 1, 2023 by Sunny Guyette, Environmental Educator Over the past week we had our final sessions of our homeschool and preschool series, our final lessons in Nature in the City Classrooms, and our final on-site pond and stream field trips of the year. For the last Pond and Stream field trip, we take the students to the pond and the stream where they get to [...]
Connections to Distant Natural Spaces
Week of June 11, 2023 – June 17, 2023 by Bridget Jones, Environmental Educator This week, smoke from the Canadian wildfires covered our region, transforming the world outside our windows. The fires have caused devastation and evacuations in Quebec and impacted air quality as far as the midwest and southern United States. Although we are not experiencing the wildfires themselves here in Central New York, for many of us, the [...]
What is that white fluff in the air?
Week of June 4, 2023 – June 10, 2023 by Sunny Guyette, Environmental Educator Have you noticed a bunch of white fluff in the air? It’s not all from dandelions, most of it is from Eastern Cottonwood trees or Populus deltoides. You may know these trees for their heart shaped leaves that shimmer in the wind and rough bark! Many people mistake this “fluff” for dandelion fluff or pollen, but it [...]
Cloud Watching
Week of May 28, 2023 – June 3, 2023 by Elizabeth Suzedell, Environmental Educator Getting outside in nature is so beneficial to our health as humans. From going on a gentle walk to find the season’s blooming wildflowers or backyard birds, to an intense hiking expedition up to a mountain’s peak, there are so many ways to discover and enjoy the wonders of our earth. One of these activities that [...]
Health Benefits of Birding
Week of May 21, 2023 – May 27, 2023 by Anna Stunkel, Environmental Educator Recent days have been filled with birds as many spring arrivals flew in at Baltimore Woods and beyond. Last Friday morning, I led a program all about rediscovering the joys of childhood in springtime as an adult. As we grow older, many of the simple joys that we experience as children can become clouded by stress [...]