Nature of Delaware Blog

Ian Stewart, Ornithologist The need to reduce the spread of the coronavirus has led to these strange and uncertain times. Out of an abundance of caution our programs are temporarily cancelled and our buildings are closed. However, our trails remain open for you to enjoy at Ashland Nature Center in Hockessin, Abbott’s Mill Nature Center…

Ian Stewart Most people don’t think of this time of year as being pretty. The colorful flowers and their butterflies are long gone, the bright green leaves have either fallen or turned pale and shriveled, and the meadows are a straggly tangle of dull browns and grays. Nature looks especially gloomy on the chilly, damp,…

100% American chestnut DNA confirmed in rare, unusually large tree found at Coverdale Farm Preserve in Delaware.

Tips from Delaware Nature Society By Christi Leeson Halloween can be a celebration that is not so green.  Make it a Halloween that’s not so scary for your bats and beasties with these environmentally friendly tips from Delaware Nature Society: Don’t scare the costumed kids with single-use plastic. Instead, give kids reusable Trick-or-Treating sacks and…

A major analysis published last week (Rosenberg et al. 2019, Science, downloadable) makes depressing reading for anyone interested in birds or in nature in general. A team of leading North American researchers analyzed almost 50 years of data from multiple sources and calculated that about 3 billion birds (= 3 thousand million!) have been lost…

One of my favorite books is Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’, in which a mysterious beast pursues Sherlock Holmes through the eerie mist of an English moor. Driving the back roads of northern Delaware in the early morning reminds me of this gloomy setting because many of the trees are now shrouded…