Bald Eagle chicks. Photo Credit: Dave Menke/ US Fish and Wildlife Service

In May, Wildlife Wednesday looks at mothers of the animal kingdom. Animals in urban and suburban areas raise their young in close proximity to people, giving us a great vantage point to look at nature’s moms. However, some precautions are necessary to protect both you and the animals.

Keep Your Distance

Even if a juvenile animal appears to be alone, don’t approach. The mother is likely nearby, or out getting food for her young, and will return soon. In the animal world, humans are predators. Many animal moms respond to predator threats to their young by attacking, while others may abandon the nest, with or without the juveniles. If you would like to show young animals in nature to your kids, consider a good pair of binoculars or field glasses so you can see the babies from a distance that is safe for both you and the animals. With birds, after chicks have left the nest, you can remove vacated nests for kids to take a closer look at the different structures and nesting materials that different birds use, and you may be lucky enough to find eggshell remnants in or around the nest site. (continue reading…)

Photo Credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service

In May, Wildlife Wednesday looks at unique mothering styles in the animal kingdom. This week, we look at how polar bears deal with raising cubs in the harsh Arctic.

Like weasels, discussed last week, polar bears use delayed implantation to ensure that their pregnancies coincides with available food resources to nourish the unborn cubs. Polar bears mate in spring, and the mother polar bear “holds on” to the fertilized ova until after she’s fed through the summer and is ready to dig a maternity den for giving birth over winter.

Female polar bears dig maternity dens in the snowbanks or in permafrost near the edge of the sea, on land or in land-fast ice. Winter snows seal them into the den, where they give birth to 1-2 cubs and nurse them for several months, surviving off fat stores. The protected environment of the maternity den allows the cubs to mature so that they’re able to walk and learn to hunt by the time the family emerges from the den in the spring. (continue reading…)

Photo Credit: Steve Hillebrand/ US Fish and Wildlife Service

In May, Wildlife Wednesday looks at unique mothering styles in the animal kingdom. This week, we look at what it’s like being a pregnant weasel and new weasel mother.

Long-tailed weasels use delayed implantation. Though the gestation period for a weasel is about 279 days (roughly comparable to a human), the baby weasels are only implanted and developing for 27 of those days. (continue reading…)

American robin. Photo Credit: Dave Menke, US Fish and Wildlife Service

It’s Spring, and the birds are out, loud and clear. The sounds of geese overheard sound through the dusk, and in the morning the trees are alive with the endless chatter of new arrivals. If you’re like me, you have every intention and desire to learn more about all the birds that you see and hear, but you find yourself thoroughly overwhelmed. There’s so many darn birds, and maybe you can identify a Robin and that’s about all.

There’s a few things you can do to help yourself out as you try and become familiar with the birds around you: (continue reading…)

Photo Credit: Steve Hillebrand/ US Fish and Wildlife Service

The white and black fur trim on the robes of fairy-tale royalty are ermine pelts. Ermine are a type of mustelid (member of the weasel family) found in the northern latitudes around the world, especially in the areas of Europe where many fairy tales originated. Like most weasels, ermine are brown in the summer. The white fur with the black tail tips is the ermine’s winter coat. So, your fairy tale king is basically wearing the back end of a weasel! (continue reading…)

ⓒ Janet Harriett

When I first decided to create a native plant garden, I knew nothing. I ogled all the plants in the catalogs, and found a book that showed pictures of different gardens and listed the plants needed. I picked a pretty-looking butterfly garden, and ordered the plants. After I planted everything, the predictable happened: I started noticing the plants all around me because, surprise surprise, they’re native. Suddenly I saw milkweed everywhere, in the field behind my house, on the side of the road, on the side of every road.

Creating a native plant garden is a lesson in humility, and it will also redefine your idea of what a garden is. For most of us, a garden is a specific, unnatural spot on our property in which we plant a range of flowers and grasses in order to create a specific effect or just make things look pretty. A native plant garden is, well, just a little bit wilder, and if it had a mind of its own probably wouldn’t call itself a garden at all. The words landscape, or naturescape, are probably more accurate. Ideally, a native landscape will blend in with the rest of your yard and make you feel like your whole yard is a garden. (continue reading…)

Photo Credit: Steve Hillebrand/ US Fish and Wildlife Service

In April, Green Diva Mom looks at weasels. Throughout history, “weasel” has been a catchall for members of the mustelid family which also includes otters, mink, but is now mostly applied to the Long-tailed, Short-tailed and Least weasel found across North America. Weasels have a reputation as being aggressive animals and, while their sly reputation is somewhat undeserved, their aggression is, if anything, understated.

Weasels are solitary creatures and attack other weasels that venture into their territory except during mating season. A male weasel’s territory may overlap one or more female weasel’s territory, but two male or two female weasels will not share turf. A single weasel may have a territory as large as 40 acres, though they tend to hunt on the same path throughout the territory. (continue reading…)