Native wildlife returns to West Virginia - Biologists spot two Allegheny woodrats in Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Read the Full Story >>
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.
Readers Share Some Nature Tricks & Treats
As we spend time outside studying nature, it’s reassuring to observe familiar things year after year. And yet there always remains an element of surprise. Two readers shared their most recent nature surprises with me this past month. Read the Full Story >>
Pollinator Palooza Event at Shepherdstown Public Library
The Shepherdstown Public Library is hosting “Pollinator Palooza,” a four-day (Sep 7 - 10), family-friendly program in its new gardens. Read the Full Story >>
Tracking the Bats Overhead
Last Saturday night, I led a friend and her family on a bat walk. She said it was the only thing she wanted for her birthday, so I met her at her house near Ranson, West Virginia around 8:30 pm. It had rained all day but started to clear up in the late afternoon. Perfect “batting” weather. Read the Full Story >>
Dutchman’s Pipe, the Old Porch Vine
When my wife and I added a new trellis to our old side porch, we knew the perfect vine to plant there. Facing northwest, the porch is shaded by the house until it gets the full afternoon sun, just the place to plant a Dutchman’s pipe, also called pipevine. Read the Full Story >>
Stunning Colors at the Feeder
A half-dozen goldfinches, pure yellow against the fresh grass of May, sought scattered dandelion seeds. Brilliant as they are, they can’t compare to the painted bunting that showed up at Tom O’Connor’s Clarke County, Virginia bird feeder a few days ago. Read the Full Story >>
Reeling In Big Fish & Big Tales
The largest member of the pike family, Esox masquiniongy got the name muskellunge from an Ojibway expression meaning “big fish.” True to its name, a musky grows bigger than any other fish in its habitat. Read the Full Story >>
Drama at the Nest
They were all set to start a family. The nursery was almost ready. Then one day everything changed when a young stranger appeared. Is this the trailer for a new soap opera? No, it’s part of the drama that’s unfolded over the past month keeping viewers tuned in to the live camera feed at the Shepherdstown eagle nest. Read the Full Story >>
The Bradford Pear Outgrows Its Welcome
It sounded like springtime in December. Three dozen robins were singing and scolding on Christmas morning. They had gathered to feed on the fruits of a Bradford pear, an ornamental tree that was the darling of landscapers thirty years ago but is now black-listed by many gardeners and nature lovers. Read the Full Story >>
Barred Owls Hoot a Duet
As a new year starts, I love to step outside at dusk and see the twigs of the bare trees etched against the greenish afterglow of sunset. I was about to call the dogs back into the house when I heard two barred owls hooting. We don’t hear barred owls too often. Hearing them makes me smile. Read the Full Story >>
The Singing Foxes
I’ve come to recognize some cries foxes make as their love songs. Winter is their mating season and, like birds in the spring, foxes communicate by vocalizing. Late November and early December is when you’re most likely to hear foxes sing. Read the Full Story >>
Woolly Bears and Giant Leopards
What do the giant woolly bear and the great leopard moth have in common? Quite a lot, it turns out. Read the Full Story >>
The Prairie Grass Season
Years ago the highway department scraped and graded a steep bank along the road past our property. In order to prevent erosion and to enhance the area as wildlife habitat, we seeded the bare clay soil with a mixture of native perennial plants and warm season grasses. Big bluestem (Andropogon gerardi) and Indian grass (Sorghastrum nutans) are both useful and dramatically beautiful native grasses. Read the Full Story >>
On Seeing Uncommon Butterflies
Pennsylvania. There was a bath house where electric lights burned all night in the middle of the woods. Each morning and evening, countless insects covered the side of the building around the beam of the flood lights. Read the Full Story >>
A Tree Finds A New Life
For the past five years, we worried that every time it stormed a big limb would break off of our beloved old Kentucky coffee tree and destroy our entryway fence. Now our property is safe from that disaster and a magnificent old tree remains as wildlife habitat. Read the Full Story >>