WindStar
Wildlife Garden Weekly
Connecting People
To Nature Through
Education April 16,
2007
Official Publication of
WindStar Wildlife
Institute
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Support Your
Local Wildlife
Most people take the indigenous wildlife in
stride. It's fun to see the occasional Whitetail or Mule Deer,
Raccoon, Virginia Opossum, or maybe even an Eastern
Coyote. The western expansion has limited the area for
wildlife to live and raise their young. As life in the woods
and storm sewers becomes more crowded, wildlife will spread
out into homeowners' properties, such as attics, sheds, decks
and woodpiles to nest and raise their families. We need to
remember that wildlife was here first. We owe them living
space!
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Spring Is In The Air--Really!
This angler had the catch of a
lifetime
By Kathy
Reshetiloff
ALL AROUND, there
is an eruption of life beyond the typical signs of
spring like robins and crocuses. The land, skies and
waters-quiet and gray throughout the winter months-now
sing day and night and burst with
color.
In the waters, anadromous
fish, like shad, journey from oceans to rivers to spawn.
The word anadromous comes from the Greek word meaning
"running uphill."
What's really
amazing is these fish return to the same area where they
were born. How they accomplish this remains a mystery.
Many scientists believe that this homing instinct may be
due to an uncanny sense of smell and sensitivity to
magnetic signals, polarized light and unique
characteristics of the natal stream or
waterway.
Prompted by rising
temperature... More
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Osprey Morning Landing
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Photos also
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The Osprey (also known as
the fish hawk) is one of the largest birds of prey in
North America. The Osprey readily builds its nest on
man-made structures, such as telephone poles, channel
markers, duck blinds, and nest platforms designed
especially for it. Photo by Michael Smith, an
internationally known wildlife photographer, who
also
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photos.
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Find more nature products in
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Wildlife Photo of the
Week
Although the Wilson's (Common) Snipe generally
migrates in flocks at night, during the day the birds
scatter and usually feed alone. They use their long
bills to probe deeply in the mud to find small animals.
These birds have a variety of calls heard only on the
breeding ground, and they perform a spectacular aerial
territorial display in which the feathers of the tail
produce an eerie whistling sound. Photo by Tim
Flanigan, Nature
Exposure
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First Condor Egg In
Century
California Condor
By Tony Russomanno
SALINAS,
CA--No one had seen a wild Condor egg in a
hundred years, until one was discovered last month in a
nest in the Ventana
Wilderness.
"The first wild egg to
us is the sign that the birds are being successful out
in the wild and that they're going to make it," said
biologist Joe Burnett.
Volunteer
climber Joseph Brandt rappelled down a cliff in a remote
part of Monterey County to visit the nest. He radioed to
others watching from a distant ridge that he had to
crawl on his belly to get to
it.
His mission was to remove
the... More
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What To Do With Baby
Wildlife
Dr. Dave
McRuer, veterinary resident with the Wildlife Center
of
Virginia, inspects a baby Gray Squirrel.
By
Steve Metsch
ALMOST everybody loves
rabbits, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who's
crazy about opossums because, let's face it, even as
babies they're kind of creepy.
Cheryl
Beste doesn't fall into that category. She loves the
critters, and as a licensed rehabilitator, often helps
raise baby opossums when their mother is
killed.
"I
care for them because a lot of people don't like them
and I feel badly for them," Beste said. "Actually,
they're very much needed. They're the little scavengers
of the earth. Without them, the earth would be a much
dirtier place."
In
the early days of spring, there are lots of opossum
babies around--and raccoon, bird, squirrel, rabbit,
skunk and deer babies, too ...
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Try Gardening On Your
Roof!
Rooftops can become a sea
of color.
By Patricia Leigh Brown
CARMEL
VALLEY, CA-- It is the green season, when the
rains give way to a landscape of renewal, and gardeners
clutching copies of Sunset magazine's
Western Garden Book emerge exultantly from
their winter dens.
In this place
where the political climate, too, is green, it is
perhaps not surprising to encounter a hardy new
perennial in the world of horticulture-the green roof
gardener.
While others nearby toil
over grapes and artichokes, Cooper Scollan spends his
days hunched over some 1.7 million baby sedum and other
native plants destined for hillocks atop the green roof
at the new California Academy of Sciences building,
nearing completion in Golden Gate
Park.
Mr. Scollan, 30, is a green
collar worker, responsible for the safety and well-being
of what soon will be the largest continuous swatch of
vegetation... More
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 NOW
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NEW!
WindStar National Master
Naturalist
Course More
Info Register
PLUS! WindStar
Wildlife Habitat Naturalist Course
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 That's it
for this week!
Be sure and sign up for the American Wildlife Blog for the latest
commentary and please feel free to add comments of your
own.
Have An EXCELLENT Day in your WILDLIFE
HABITAT!
Tom Patrick
President
Bad hair day for this Northern Cardinal!
Photo by Paul Evans
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WindStar Wildlife
Institute
10072 Vista Ct.
Myersville, MD
21773
301-293-3351
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