Invasion of the House Finch

Once upon a time, House Finches (Haemorhous mexicanus) only lived west of the Rocky Mountains. Then, in 1940, a group of captive birds flew to [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:44-05:00April 22nd, 2015|

Gnarly Trees

Branches of the live oak (Quercus virginiana) loop and twist their way toward openings in the forest canopy. Many branches sag down to the ground [...]

By |2015-03-30T14:16:32-04:00March 30th, 2015|

Help locate the coughing frog!

You may have heard of a newly described species of leopard frog, the Atlantic Coast leopard frog (Rana kauffeldi) -- also known as the coughing frog [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:45-05:00March 12th, 2015|

Cold Feet, Warm Heart

Raleigh has had a fit of cold, snowy (and icy) weather this week. So while I watched this snow-covered Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) swim around [...]

By |2015-02-27T15:49:16-05:00February 27th, 2015|

Look but don’t touch

Watching Out for Nesting Birds Look but don’t touch. This was a lesson I learned early on as a young boy, staring intently along with [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:45-05:00February 23rd, 2015|

The Fashionable and Practical Turkey Vulture

Turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) remind me of 16th century European royalty (you know those “ruffs” they wore around their necks?). That regal appearance results from [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:46-05:00January 22nd, 2015|

Who’s in My House?

Tiny rustling noises arise from our kitchen garbage can. I tip-toe up to it and out pops a little fuzzy face with a twitching nose. [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:52-05:00January 13th, 2015|

Talking Turkey Parts

The male wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo), weighing in at around 20 pounds, is one of the largest birds in North America. By comparison, many domestic turkeys [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:53-05:00November 26th, 2014|

A Study in Scarlet

No doubt you’ve been wowed this autumn by the crimson colors of the red maple (Acer rubrum)! This tree, native to eastern North America, has [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:53-05:00November 10th, 2014|

Spooky Spider

I love Halloween. It’s the time of year when I can leave all the spider webs up around the front stoop and call them decorations. [...]

By |2014-10-30T18:09:43-04:00October 30th, 2014|

June Beetle Boogie

Because I’m an Entomology graduate student, meeting people is often like this: Me: Hi, my name is Emily. New friend: Hi Emily, what do you [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:53-05:00October 27th, 2014|

A Tale of Two Hemlocks

I have never poisoned anyone. I recently learned that if I were to try, I would be very bad at it. The hemlock I thought [...]

By |2014-10-22T10:36:04-04:00October 21st, 2014|

A visit from the garden spider

This past week I noticed something other than Brussels sprouts in my garden -- a beautiful garden spider! I did what any curious entomologist and [...]

By |2016-11-22T13:46:54-05:00October 16th, 2014|

Warts & All!

Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire, burn; and cauldron, bubble. Shakespeare’s witches open Macbeth by tossing a toad into their cauldron, along with parts of [...]

By |2014-10-08T11:16:19-04:00October 8th, 2014|
Go to Top