I found three things in Schenley Park on Christmas Eve:
- Witch hazel blooming,
- Gray squirrels searching for nuts,
- An eastern screech-owl at his roost.
Tiny spider webs span a few petals of the witch hazel flower shown above. These winter flowers are pollinated at night by owlet moths.
Squirrels were busy in Schenley Park this week. Some are so black that they look like a black hole in the landscape. Despite his color he’s just an eastern gray squirrel.
This particular eastern screech-owl has been spending the winter in Schenley Park since at least 2015-2016. I saw him on Christmas Eve but my cellphone photo was too poor to use. Here’s a photo I took in January 2017.
Don’t forget to spend time outdoors in late December. There are still cool things to see.
(photos by Kate St. John)
Wow, did not know that Gerry Rising was a math professor. Always enjoyed his nature articles in the Buffalo News.
I saw something last week I had never seen before while out in the woods fishing the Patuxent River in central Maryland. A Blackbird flock appeared in a long stream flying maybe five feet off the ground. They were navigating through the woods where a large group of them would land and immediately begin tossing the leaf litter looking for food. Hundreds of them? About ten minutes into watching this a hawk swooped in and made an attempt to get a delicious Blackbird but he failed. It was quite a sight.