They call a group of whales a pod. A gathering of  rattlesnakes is a rhumba and a bunch of crows flocking together is a murder.  Last week I witnessed a murder -  a murder of crows. For much of the year, crows keep selected company, usually 3 or 4 birds together, often family members. Young crows stick around several years before leaving their parents as they help in babysitting chores. But for … [Read more...]

It was the middle of the day. My wife Nancy was putzing around the house when we had a visitor. A young male deer was on our carport peeking inside. “Well, hello,” Nancy said. “Can I help you?” The deer said nothing, just turned and walked away. He had one thing and one thing only on his mind. Ladies. This, you see, is the the rutting season for deer. It’s a time that hunters savor and … [Read more...]

It’s that time of year. Cricket time. The little fellows which normally find refuge beneath leaves and garbage cans somehow manage to sneak inside. If you see one, you have to catch it and let it free outside. It’s bad luck to kill a cricket and in this year of the China Virus, who needs more bad luck? Crickets are second cousins-once-removed from grasshoppers, but there are almost a thousand … [Read more...]

Not everyone is a good at landscaping. Some of us, in fact, are a little sloppy with our lawns. The Game Department says that’s a good thing, especially for wildlife. Here’s why. As the Department of Wildlife Resources’ (DWR) Small Game Project Leader, Marc Puckett explains, “Autumn is a time when birds need cover and seeds, pollinators need the last fall nectar, and insects still need plants … [Read more...]

So, will there be a good mast crop this fall or not? People who enjoy watching wildlife, and some 200,000 hunters in Virginia who enjoy eating wildlife will be interested to find out. For hunters, the availability of mast has everything to do with their tactics. If there are lots of acorns, for example, deer for one will not travel as far because they don’t need to. They’ll fill their belies … [Read more...]

  This is big news because they are not just any caterpillars, they are monarch butterfly caterpillars. Many assume if they have butterfly bushes and lots of flowers, it will draw and sustain monarch butterflies. Not necessarily true.  If the beautiful butterflies don’t have an acceptable plant on which to lay their eggs, there will be no monarch butterflies. Period. Butterflies must … [Read more...]

(An Alabama Bass) The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries – or whatever they call themselves these days – has issued a de facto APB on a species called Alabama bass. The reason? This unique strain of black bass can potentially destroy the largemouth bass fishery in Virginia – and this is big business. Largemouth and smallmouth bass account for millions of dollars in economic terms … [Read more...]

  It was Friday night – often our steak night. TGIF. Time to celebrate. Besides, we love steak. I stopped by Food Lion and they had a couple New York strip steaks that looked good - nice and marbled. Then I saw a strange package.  It  was Spring Crossing Cattle Co. They were grass-fed rib-eyes, a little higher in price than the others, and not nearly so marbled. But I had eaten a … [Read more...]

  It really bothers me to see all these signs saying their yards have been mosquito-proofed  with poison. I seems to me that if you poison mosquitos, you poison beneficial insects that birds feed on. I don’t want more poison in my yard, I want less, but I absolutely don’t want mosquitos biting my grandchildren or backyard guests. Last year, Nancy bought a couple mosquito plants, potted … [Read more...]

  Wildlife across our state is busy this time of year. Baby birds are hatching, butterflies are emerging from cocoons and mother deer are conceiving fawns – which is often a problem when nosy humans get involved. People see what they think are abandoned fawns, take them home and often call the Wildlife Center or Animal Control people for help. In almost every instance, the fawns are not … [Read more...]