Nature Notes from Sue

Greetings, Tomorrow starts a 4-day event all around the world! It is the " City Nature Challenge ", where cities around the world compete over 4 days to record the most number of species using the iNaturalist app. Baltimore is in the challenge, and all observations from Baltimore City and Howard, Carroll, Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harford and Queen Anne's Counties are included in the species totals for Baltimore. You can participate on your own and make observations from your yard or favorite park. I organized this event for Howard County Rec & Parks in 2018 & 2019. It was cancelled last year because of Covid. Since I am retired now, I am not leading the event for Rec & Parks. However, the Park Rangers are sponsoring several opportunities to partipate in Howard County, check them out! If you don't know how to use iNaturalist, they will get you started. To find the scheduled opportunities, go to https://hocovolunteer.org/ and search for "Ci...

Greetings from Sue Muller "citizen"! Are you the kind of person who likes to walk off the beaten path? For those of you that like to walk through grassy fields/meadows at this time of year, when vegetation is low, please be on the lookout for nests! Yes indeed, a perfect example is the Killdeer. This bird is easy to identifly with the two black bands that stretch across the front of the bird and the red circle around the eye. However, if you happen to be walking through a grassy meadow and see this bird acting funny, it is trying to lead you away from a nest that is on the ground. Sometimes this bird will walk along dragging a wing or as I saw recently in the first photo, it was just sitting in one place in the meadow flapping around like it was injured. I backed off immediately, as I didn't want to step on the eggs. Watch where you step! .

Recently, a friend asked me what were all the white trees he was seeing blooming along all the highways? Unfortunately, those trees are the non-native Bradford Pear. This is an invasive species. When you see it in bloom at this time of year, it is obvious how much it has spread around the area.

Siberian Squill is a flower planted in yards and is now escaping cultivation and showing up in natural areas. If it is planted in your yard, please don't let it spread out of your yard!

 Great Horned Owls like to use old hawk nests to raise their young, especially Red-tailed Hawk nests.  Let me know if you come across any owl nests so I can submit them to the Maryland Breeding Bird Atlas.