Category: Uncategorized

Coltsfoot – I’m not a dandelion
Photo by Matt Valencic

This edible flower is a true harbinger of spring.  It grows in ditches, along roadsides, on forest edges, and on steep slopes prone to landslides. It tolerates wet, poorly drained areas, and riverbanks susceptible to spring flooding. As a medicinal herb, coltsfoot has anti-inflammatory properties...

European Starling

This highly successful non-native, alien, invasive species was introduced to North America in 1890 by Eugene Scheifflin whose goal was to transplant all of the birds mentioned in William Shakespeare’s plays. Now our native cavity nesters are paying the price because the Starlings are usurping...

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Here is a warbler that nests in North-eastern Ohio. In all the years of John James Audubon’s time of bird study he only saw one! Today on a good day during spring migration several could easily be seen. This bird likes scruffy, brushy, successional habitat....

Great Blue Heron

These colony nesters are the largest herons we have in Ohio. They are hardy souls and some will stick with us all winter if there is some open water to fish in. Most migrate south for better fishing and frogging. They will eat just about...