It sure seems generous and altruistic to take care of a stray cat. It is, on the face of it, a noble activity. Confronting the consequences, however, isn’t easy.Birds, small mammals, butterflies—all can end up in the jaws of a domestic cat. Even well-fed domestic cats keep killing smaller creatures for fun, as cat owners
MoreThe marshy middle basin provides a hunting spot for herons and foxes. | Photos by Christian Hunold
The East Park Reservoir provides home for birds, and in 2017, a nature center
The pied-billed grebe flying south along the Atlantic Flyway can see the water in the East Park Reservoir right away, but you, looking at the embankments
story by Bernard Brown | photos by Jen BrittonFor at least 10 years I’ve been trying to learn more about trees. Back when I lived in Atlanta, I resolved to identify the trees growing in a large wooded park near my home. I bought a Peterson field guide and got to work. I did okay
MoreStory by Bernard BrownWEST PHILADELPHIA will never be the Everglades. It will never be the Pine Barrens, or even the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. As much as the naturalist in me would like to see more greenery and less asphalt, more snakes and fewer cars, I accept that I
Morestory by Bernard Brown l photo by flickr user over_the_rainbow
What amazed me most about the honey locust trees at Awbury Arboretum were the thorns. I had imagined something like rose thorns—sharp, but proportional—not four-inch-long spikes jutting out from branches and erupting from trunks in grotesque, savage clusters. Surely this was overkill.
story by Bernard BrownThe birds and the butterflies get the majority of attention, and rightly so. You can’t ignore a scarlet cardinal or a swallowtail butterfly flashing its way across your garden. Our more brilliantly colored birds and insects have evolved to be seen. Almost as a rule, our native reptiles and amphibians have evolved
Morestory by Berrnard BrownLook up, Philadelphia. Study the clock tower at City Hall and the tops of our Center City skyscrapers to witness the high drama unfolding above the concrete and asphalt. Here the air’s top predators are flying high over rooftops and knocking their prey from the sky at 200 miles per hour.
Morestory by Bernard BrownYou won’t hear urban coyotes howling. They’re nocturnal and as quiet as, well, cats. But coyotes are filling the vacancy we created at the top of the food chain when we wiped out grey wolves and cougars in eastern North America. By now, hundreds of the wily canids
Morestory by Bernard BrownOne nice thing about snorkeling in Philadelphia rivers is that you generally don’t have to think about sharks (the occasional, adventurous bull shark notwithstanding). But carp scare me, or at least startle me. More than once I have been nearly shocked out of my flippers by carp (which
MoreI often feel hemlock trees around me before I look up and identify them. I’ll be hacking my way through the woods, sweating in summer heat. Then the underbrush opens, the light dims and a slow, refreshing breeze washes over me. I’m under the tight canopy of a hemlock standing alongside a stream. I love
More