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By BILL DANIELSON

October has arrived and I find myself taken by surprise. The forest behind my house is showing spots of fall colors and this appears to have happened all at once. I am certain that it has been a gradual process, but when one is distracted by the...

By BILL DANIELSON

Everything seems to have changed at the end of August. Things had been going along “normally,” which meant that I needed to fill my birdfeeders every morning and they were all empty by the time I got home from work. Then, one day, I noticed that the...

By BILL DANIELSON

The first week of September was appalling. The highest combination of head and humidity that we had experienced all summer all presented in a heat wave that lasted for four days. Then, even though the temperatures moderated somewhat, the humidity...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was the first full week of September and for some reason the weather gods decided to save some of the hottest days of the summer for those of us going back to school. The combination of heat and humidity made the notion of relaxing on the deck...

By BILL DANIELSON

We’ve all heard the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” This suggests that if you can simply see something, then you can understand the situation perfectly. In my line of work, however, this is often a gross underestimate of the power of a...

By BILL DANIELSON

By the time you read this column, my summer break will officially be over. It has been an eventful summer for me with new birding records being set in both July and August (more on that next time) and I have taken thousands of nature photos that will...

By BILL DANIELSON

Dear Reader, I am pleased to announce the 2023 Hummingbird Wars are now open! This is a time of great excitement and entertainment for me and I look forward to it with great anticipation every year.There has been quite a buildup this summer and it...

By BILL DANIELSON

The clock of the seasons keeps ticking away, whether we are paying attention or not. There are signs all around us that will tell us what season we are in, but you have to pay very close attention to interpret them correctly. Some signs are very...

By BILL DANIELSON

Those of you who know me will already “get it.” Those of you who do not know me will need to embrace the following declaration about myself – I am a Bird Nerd! I am constantly thinking about birds and I am forever in pursuit of them. If ever I have...

By BILL DANIELSON

Today we have a two-fer and it is all thanks to a wondrous change in the weather. I’ve complained about it before and I will complain about it again; the first two weeks of July were just a complete mess. Rain, smoke, rain, more rain and then… more...

By BILL DANIELSON

With all of the news ricocheting around in our heads, I’m not sure if anyone has the RAM to allow us to remember back as far as last year, but that’s what journals are for. Why bother remembering something when you can write it down? Then all you have...

By BILL DANIELSON

Although summer has only really just begun it feels like “deep summer” has already arrived. We already have the heat and the humidity and the almost daily threats of thunderstorms, but if you go out into nature and use your eyes and ears, then it...

By BILL DANIELSON

Attention one and all: that special time of year has arrived. Finally, after a long, long school year, teachers are subjected to their annual, involuntary, two-month unpaid furlough. I have already managed to catch up on some desperately needed sleep...

By BILL DANIELSON

I live on one of those quiet country roads that feels like it’s off in the middle of nowhere. To the east of my house there is a stop sign at a 4-way intersection of similarly quiet country roads, one of which is a dead end. To the west there is...

By BILL DANIELSON

For me, the light is now at the end of the tunnel. The school year is about to conclude and I find myself utterly and thoroughly exhausted. I am now running on fumes; almost completely spent. I am looking forward to my mandatory unpaid furlough and...

By BILL DANIELSON

I don’t know if this has been a problem for you, but for most of this spring I have been having trouble getting the “feel” of things. The weather has been very odd and I can’t seem to tell if we are stuck in a perpetual cycle of early April, or if we...

By BILL DANIELSON

Happy Memorial Day everybody! I hope today finds you happy and healthy at home with a little extra time on your hands to sit and contemplate life. So many people have given so much so that we might enjoy the comforts of life in a stable country and we...

By BILL DANIELSON

It was the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend and I was visiting my parents to celebrate the big day. I had arrived on Friday afternoon, gone out for a wonderful dinner and returned to the old homestead where, for some reason, we all decided to stay up...

By BILL DANIELSON

To celebrate our anniversary, my beautiful wife Susan and I decided to spend the first weekend of May in Newport, Rhode Island. This is where we were staying when I proposed to her and every now and then we like to head back to the scene of the crime...

By BILL DANIELSON

Three or four times last week I noticed an enormous raccoon on my deck in the moments just before dawn. This was clearly a raccoon that was scrounging for any scraps left over from the meal that I had set out for the birds the evening before and I...