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 >>
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.
Rough-Wings Are Somber Swallows
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
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
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
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
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 >>
Grassland Nesting Birds are Disappearing
Eastern meadowlarks used to be common birds in local hayfields. Now they’re on a growing list of field-nesting birds—bobwhite quail, vesper sparrow, American kestrel, and red-winged blackbird—whose numbers have seriously dropped. Now you can drive though the countryside and never see any of them. Read the Full Story >>
Song of the Wood Thrush
Wood thrush song sounds like cathedral organ music to me. Muted by distance, it’s even sweeter. It invokes childhood evenings in June seated on a porch step, enchanted by an unknown birdsong coming from the neighbor’s woods. Read the Full Story >>
After 20 Years—a Purple Martin Colony!
For over 20 years, my wife and I have wanted purple martins to nest where we lived. We bought books about attracting martins. I set up a wooden, three-story purple martin house with the proper measurements and studied the best places to attract the birds. I made white-painted gourd houses, hung them from a telescoping pole the proper height above the ground, and installed a baffle to deter climbing raccoons and other predators. Read the Full Story >>
A Winter Bird Walk at the National Fish Health Laboratory
I recently toured the grounds of the National Fish Heath Laboratory, a beautiful facility in Leetown (WV). There are numerous freshwater ponds, a natural wetland, and a woodland trail. The Fish Health Lab belongs to the U.S. Geological Survey. Grounds are closed to the public except by appointment, and visitors must be accompanied by a member of USGS staff. My host was staff member Heather Walsh. I came to familiarize myself with the place so I could help lead a winter bird walk there later this month with the Potomac Valley Audubon Society (PVAS). Heather has been leading nature activities with various organizations for the past year—part of an educational outreach program to the public. Read the Full Story >>
Your Neighborhood Wren
As the sun broke through the rain clouds recently, a Carolina wren sat on the arm of a wooden yard chair next to our big forsythia bush, singing for all he was worth. His wet and molting feathers looked bedraggled, but the sun was shining, his mate was perched nearby, and all was right in his world. I love wrens. They go cheerily about their business hunting spiders in shadowy places, tails cocked upwards, wings quivering, and eyes aglitter. Hereabouts, we have the house wren, the Carolina wren, and the winter wren. Two others, the marsh wren and the sedge wren, are less often seen. Read the Full Story >>
Stories in Tree Bark Announce More Than Just the Season
The big tulip tree in the front yard has beautiful bark. Like most mature trees, its bark has deep furrows or cracks, but is smooth in between. The fractures in the corky bark surface interconnect like chains in a wonderful pattern. On the widest part of the trunk, next to the ground, lichens and mosses Read the Full Story >>
Celebrate the Birth of a New Year
In the dark hours of morning, the first snow fell, unannounced and unpredicted. Barely a dusting, it whitened the ground and stuck in the crevices of tree trunks. Read the Full Story >>
The Butterfly and the Pawpaw
I had seen zebra swallowtails before and had long admired them. Smaller than the big yellow tiger swallowtail, the zebra has sharply triangular forewings, dramatic tail streamers, and a bold, racy pattern of black and white. The white seen up close is actually very pale green. Two crimson and two blue spots adorn the hind wings just ahead of the streamers, and two crimson stripes run along the underside of the hind wings. All these longitudinal stripes enhance their streamlined look. Their beauty is unsurpassed. When half a dozen zebra swallowtails land close together in the wet mud near our mailbox, it looks like a butterfly bouquet. Read the Full Story >>
As The Crow Flies: The Hayfield Deer
The fence builders said they saw a small spotted fawn there as they worked. After we moved into the house in August, we saw it feeding and playing there every day. Other deer jumped the fence, grazed, or bedded down beside it for a while, and then jumped out. But the fawn stayed. Summer progressed. She grew bigger, lost her spots, but stayed on. We knew she was female because she squatted to pee. While we saw her daily, she never seemed bothered by us as we went about our business. Even our dogs seemed to ignore her. Read the Full Story >>