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Latest Stories

Shepherdstown Farmers Market Open for the Winter

January 16, 2021

CATF Shares Highlights of New Theater Online

January 16, 2021

Seeing & Hearing The Signs of New Beginnings

January 12, 2021

Coming Together to Talk Politics

January 4, 2021

Civics and Civility for Students

January 4, 2021

The Eastern Panhandle Transit Authority Rides Out The Pandemic

January 4, 2021

Talking Across Time & Space

January 4, 2021

Pancake Revisited

January 4, 2021

Reading Programs for All Ages at the Shepherdstown Library

January 4, 2021

Shade’s Farm Offers Local Honey Products & More

January 4, 2021

Bushel & Peck Receives Grant to Expand Operations

January 4, 2021

The Pandemic is Here & Now

December 22, 2020

In Print

Doug Pifer

Doug Pifer is an artist, naturalist, and writer. He has a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Penn State and has been an editor and art educator. His illustrations have appeared in various books and magazines and he has been a contributor to The Observer for several years. He lives with his wife and  assorted animals on 5.7 acres in a historic farmhouse near Shepherdstown.

Seeing & Hearing The Signs of New Beginnings

January 12, 2021

Photo of witch hazel flowers in bloom. Photo Credit Doug Pifer.

As a difficult and challenging year winds down and the pandemic shows new surges, I find much comfort observing nature. The transition from late fall into winter to me represents more of a beginning than an end.  Read the Full Story >>

Even the Birds Sound Different in 2020

December 1, 2020

White-Throated Sparrow. Photo by Doug Pifer.

About a half hour after sunrise, the song of a white-throated sparrow came from our big forsythia bush. I look forward to these sparrows every year, but this time I was paying special attention. Read the Full Story >>

A Colorful Winter Ahead?

October 29, 2020

A Pine siskin in an arborvitae branch. drawing.

Last month I heard a different bird call coming from one of our tall arborvitae trees in the front yard. When I heard it again a few days later I recognized it—pine siskins! I was excited to see a flock of about a hundred land in the same tree. Read the Full Story >>

Rediscovering Hummingbirds

September 1, 2020 Tagged With: hummingbirds

Ruby-throated hummingbirds. illustration.

Can you find something positive to remember about this summer, despite the lockdown and the quarantine? I shall remember this as the summer we rediscovered hummingbirds. Read the Full Story >>

Butterfly Weed — Outstanding In Our Field

August 1, 2020 Tagged With: butterflies, grassland bird habitat initiative, Potomac Valley Audubon Society

zebra butterfly sipping nectar from the flower of an orange butterfly weed plant.

We were talking and my wife suddenly stood with her mouth open, staring out into our distant hayfield. “That looks like orange butterfly weed!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise. Read the Full Story >>

Wake Up: It’s Later Than You Think.

March 9, 2020

Birds flying near a birdhouse

March sneaks up on me. I still consider it the beginning of nature’s year when the earliest spring birds and flowers appear. But now there’s a somber side to nature’s awakening—an odd, empty feeling, like waking up to discover I forgot to set the alarm clock. Time has passed while I’ve been snoozing. What did I miss and why is it so quiet? Read the Full Story >>

Winter is Party Time for Crows

January 12, 2020

An American crow on a fence post.

People might say a crow is a crow, but in the Potomac and Shenandoah Valley, when you see a crow it could be one of three different species. By far, the most common is the American crow, followed by the slightly smaller Fish crow. Occasionally a Northern raven will join them. All three species nest here and can be seen all year. But they’re more evident and easier to see in winter. Read the Full Story >>

Tracing the Travels of Saw-Whet Owls

December 22, 2019 Tagged With: Potomac Valley Audubon Society, saw-whet owls

saw-whet owl

The caravan of cars reached the top of South Mountain. A couple-dozen riders emerged into the night, bundled into parkas and wearing winter coats. As we inhaled crisp November air, our ears were blasted with a continuous amplified recording that sounded like a big truck backing up. Read the Full Story >>

Bringing Back Bobwhite Quail

November 20, 2019 Tagged With: conservation, Nature Conservancy, quail

On our wall hangs an ammunition poster printed in the 1940s featuring a crouched rabbit and ten Bobwhite quail. Painted by sporting artist Lynn Bogue Hunt, it celebrates bygone days when hunting was a favorite fall pastime. Read the Full Story >>

Welcome Back, Bob White!

October 12, 2019 Tagged With: conservation, Quail Recovery Initiative, Tomblin Wildlife Management

Doug Pifer

The whistled call, “Bob-White,” is seldom heard here anymore. But that may be about to change. Interested farmers and landowners in Virginia and West Virginia now have an opportunity to bring the cheerful little quail back to their original habitat. Read the Full Story >>

Rough-Wings Are Somber Swallows

May 12, 2019

I saw my first rough-winged swallow when I was a teenager fishing along a creek in western Pennsylvania. I thought it wasn’t much to look at. It had a graceful swallow shape, but otherwise it was plain and dull. Skimming low over water catching insects along with other swallows, a rough-wing lacks their polished plumage and contrasting, iridescent colors. The back, head, and wings are wood-brown and the throat is drab, shading to gray on the chest and sides. The belly is a dirty, brownish white. Only the undertail feathers are dazzling white. The black, shiny bill looks very short, even for a swallow.  Read the Full Story >>

Swan Pond Attracts Wintering Waterfowl

April 17, 2019

A sign beside Route 45 says: “1.5 miles north is Swan Pond Manor, a 2,000-acre retreat set aside in 1745 for use of Thomas Lord Fairfax, once the proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia who established an estate at Greenway Court, Frederick County in 1738. So named because wild swans inhabited [the] site.” Read the Full Story >>

Audubon Remains America’s Premier Bird Artist

February 25, 2019 Tagged With: Potomac Valley Audubon Society

John James Audubon was a French immigrant who adopted nineteenth-century America as his home. Early on, he resolved to roam the country hunting and drawing birds. “Audubon” has become synonymous with birds and conservation, but few today appreciate his indefatigable genius. Read the Full Story >>

Snowfall Reveals a Fox’s Hunting Methods

January 24, 2019

Several inches of snow blanketed the ground when I went to the barn to feed the animals. Snow stuck to every branch, stem, and twig, but my eye caught a glimpse of movement in the buffer of trees along the stream. Ducking behind the barn to avoid detection, I glimpsed a red fox about to spring into the air and pounce on a mouse. Read the Full Story >>

Otters Are Back in our Rivers

November 11, 2018

Doug Pifer

Once common throughout the United States, river otters were heavily trapped during the nineteenth century when tall hats were in style for classy European and American gentlemen. Beaver and otter felt was the standard material for such hats. Otter became the ultimate standard for durability against which all other furs were compared. Read the Full Story >>

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