Happy Memorial Day Weekend– Sharing Our Seas & Shores!

May 23, 2015May 24, 2015 / jrmilson / Leave a comment

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Safe Memorial Day weekend!

If heading to the beach, inland waterways, or anywhere out with nature and wildlife, please remember this is nesting and babies season. Please teach the kids to keep a respectful distance for their own and the wildlife’s safety not to damage any nests, eggs or babies. When we are out on the beach, in the woods or on the rivers and streams, we are really guests and visitors in someone else’s home. Here is a link to a great article and advice from the American Bird Conservancy→ Fish, Swim and Play From 50 Yards Away

For more information, please visit the National Audubon Society→ Sharing Our Seas & Shores

Image via National Wildlife Federation, by Jim Gray

Hope everyone has a chance to have a picnic, go hiking or biking, play softball, go fishing, splash in the surf, go boating or swimming this weekend and enjoy the great outdoors, fresh air, exercise and the start of the summer season! Remember to bring the sunscreen. Stay safe and please keep an eye out for rip currents, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcycles!

And please pause for a moment to reflect on the real meaning of the weekend.

Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life.

Robin Hayes

“Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life.”– Robin Hayes

Little Red Bear always reminds– “Remember when visiting in Mother Nature’s home, leave nothing behind but footprints, take nothing away but memories, and kill nothing but time.”

Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_memorialday.html#lqIY9pTKYCMBMxPw.99

Memorial Day this year is especially important as we are reminded almost daily of the great sacrifices that the men and women of the Armed Services make to defend our way of life.

Robin Hayes

Have a wonderful weekend and visit back next week for an important update on “The Adventures of Little Red Bear” short stories collection. Hint- it’s coming very soon! — Jim (and Red!)

Birds- Little Blue Heron Family at Lowry Park, Pinterest, not photo signature

Little Blue Heron Family, Paul Fernandez Photography

Endangered Species Day

May 15, 2015 / jrmilson / Leave a comment

Today is “Endangered Species Day”, a day set aside by Congress to bring awareness and attention to the plight of endangered, fragile and threatened species. Folks of all ages can and are encouraged to learn more about the importance of protecting imperiled species and what they can do through their own actions to help.

For more information and links, please visit The Endangered Species Site.

Here are two other links for great information–

From the Park Advocate Site — Nine Endangered National Park Animals.

Black-footed Ferret in a Colorado conservation center. Photo by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

From the wonderful folks at BirdNote, a discussion of Piping Plovers and Golden-cheeked Warblers– BirdNote.

Golden-cheeked Warbler, via BirdNote, photo by Greg Lavaty

Please learn more and contact your elected representatives to help support the wildlife and plants struggling so hard to survive faced with oppressive habitat loss, climate change, illegal poaching and other dangers. And please get the children involved, as it is their future we are talking about, as well.

Thanks as always for stopping by! — Jim (and Red!)

We Are Part of Mother Earth!

May 11, 2015 / jrmilson / 4 Comments

Whoever was the first to coin the term “dominant species on the planet” should have also spent more time addressing the responsibility that comes with that assumption. We need to do better, for the sake of all species and the Earth, not just ourselves.

“Forest, Soil, Water, and Wildlife are mutually interdependent, and the ruin of one element will mean, in the end, the ruin of them all.”

~ Peter Matthiessen, “Wildlife in America” (1959)

Native Plants for Birds & Wildlife

April 29, 2015May 1, 2016 / jrmilson / 1 Comment

Getting ready to start work on the garden and yard work soon? Please consider using and decorating with plants, trees and wildflowers native to your geographical region. Here’s why it is so important– the birds and animals in your area have adapted to native plants over thousands of years and are dependent on them. Overrunning the landscape with non-native plants, trees and ornamentals can seriously impact the native wildlife’s food chain and resources.

“Because native insects did not evolve with nonnative plants, most of them lack the ability to overcome the plants’ chemical defenses so cannot eat them. Caterpillars, a particularly important food source for birds, are especially picky about what they feed on. Like the famous monarch butterfly larva, which must have milkweed to survive, more than 90 percent of moth and butterfly caterpillars eat only particular native plants or groups of plants.”

— Laura Tangley, National Wildlife Federation article.

And of course, the birds feed on the insects feeding on the plants. Not only are the insects directly affected, but the pollinators and those that feed on the insects as well, right up the food chain. As more and more imported varieties and ornamentals crowd out native plants, the birds, pollinators and wildlife have an increasingly difficult time. That plant at the nursery might be pretty, but is there another native to the area that might work just as well or better? Check it out. The birds and wildlife will thank you for it!

For more information and to read the article in entirety → “Chickadees Show Why Birds Need Native Trees”

Thanks as always for reading. — Jim (and Red!)

Birds- Chickadee, Carolina Chickadee via National Wildlife Federation FB, photo by Doug Tallamy

Carolina Chickadee via the National Wildlife Federation. Photo by Doug Tallamy.

“The Adventures of Little Red Bear” Short Stories on Amazon.

Old-fashioned, Family-friendly Stories and Fun for All Ages and Fitness Levels!

Join us for an Adventure in the beautiful Ozarks Mountain Country!

Birds of Prey– Why the Rush?

April 12, 2015 / jrmilson / 2 Comments

Remember the images of the nesting Eagles dutifully tending their nest and eggs covered over in the snow the past few weeks? It takes very dedicated parents to go thru an ordeal like that. Why the rush? Why start nesting so early before the weather has changed for the better, we wonder? Most other birds wait until April or later to arrive at their summer breeding grounds and start to build nests.

Nesting Bald Eagle in Snow- Codorus State Park in Pennsylvania, 2015

Nesting Bald Eagle with Eggs in Snow- Codorus State Park in Pennsylvania, 2015

Turns out, there’s a very good reason. It’s all about rodent and other prey animal population control and giving the baby birds of prey an easier start in life. It takes a long time for large raptors to grow big enough to be independent and hunt on their own. An early start in the nest allows them the required time to grow and develop, while also insuring that when they are fledged and on their own, there will be a plentiful supply of prey animal babies emerging from their nests and running about at the same time to help make the raptors’ initial hunting forays a little easier and more successful.

The early bird gets the, ummm– baby mouse shall we say. Check out today’s BirdNote for more.

The Lyric Wood Thrush

April 11, 2015 / jrmilson / 4 Comments

Of one of my favorite birds, Henry David Thoreau wrote–

“This is the only bird whose note affects me like music. It lifts and exhilarates me. It is inspiring. It changes all hours to an eternal morning.”

The wood thrush’s beautiful, lyric songs echo thru deciduous forests in the eastern U.S. in spring and early summer. A bit smaller than an American Robin, the wood thrush will occasionally nest in suburban areas where there are enough large trees.

Numbers have seriously declined in the past decades due both to loss of habitat and Cowbirds laying eggs in the wood thrush nests, with the result of the thrushes raising more cowbirds than their own species. New preservation and protection zones in the Adirondacks, Smoky Mountains and Ozarks National Forest will hopefully help these beautiful singers to rebound.

Check out the BirdNote presentation to learn more and hear the song of this glorious singer→ the Wood Thrush.