“In all, I recorded a whopping 33 different insect species on this plant! From bees, butterflies, beetles, flies, moths, wasps, and other bugs, I was continually astounded at the vast variety of insects utilizing this clearly important native plant.“ When we first moved to our…

By the end of winter, Stacey and I -and many others in western Pennsylvania- are anxious for that first sunny day to go into the woods and look for spring, sensationally announced by wildflowers, and flowering trees.

I decided to put together this list of favorite chicken thigh recipes to share with all of the other chicken thigh fans out there. Some of the recipes are mine (and come from this Catbird Life website), but most come from other favorite recipe websites such as New York Times Cooking, and Bon Appetit.

We cannot overstate the importance of these inadvertent meadows in powerline right-of-ways in providing critical habitat to support butterflies, as well as native bees and other important insects. Because we typically view powerline corridors as common and unsightly, we overlook the beauty they hold at a more detailed scale, and more importantly, underestimate their potential as native species corridors.

Two-stem tulip trees are fairly common in Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests where tulip trees are dominant. Three-stem tulip trees are less common. But the rare four-stem tulip tree is a sight to behold.

There are few things more comforting than spending a restful Sunday at home with a huge pot of this sauce and meatballs slow simmering away on the stove with its delicious aroma wafting through the entire house.

Of all the months here in western Pennsylvania, October is surely the most splendid. Its vibrant warm colors splash vividly across the blue-gray autumn sky. The bracing scent of leaf litter permeates the crisp air and invigorates the soul. The faded glory of summer’s once-spectacular…

Kevin’s latest book, Near Woods: A Year in an Allegheny Forest, is available from the publisher, Rowman & Littlefield (Stackpole Books), on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and numerous independent online book sellers.

Classified in the Sphinx Moth family, these intriguing creatures hover about just like hummingbirds and also feed on nectar. They lay their eggs on a few specific host plants such as Cherry, Plum, Hawthorns, Snowberry, and Honeysuckle, which are among the only plants their caterpillars can eat.

In all, we encountered three different bands of wild mustangs in two different regions of Wyoming and Montana. The very first band we encountered was absolutely by accident. In fact, it took us a while before we fully realized that these were indeed WILD horses!