If you’re looking for a present for someone that will be used year round, year after year, Naturally Curious may just fit the bill. A relative, a friend, your child’s school teacher – it’s the gift that keeps on giving to both young and old!
One reader wrote, “This is a unique book as far as I know. I have several naturalists’ books covering Vermont and the Northeast, and have seen nothing of this breadth, covered to this depth. So much interesting information about birds, amphibians, mammals, insects, plants. This would be useful to those in the mid-Atlantic, New York, and even wider geographic regions. The author gives a month-by-month look at what’s going on in the natural world, and so much of the information would simply be moved forward or back a month in other regions, but would still be relevant because of the wide overlap of species. Very readable. Couldn’t put it down. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the natural world, but there was much that was new to me in this book. I would have loved to have this to use as a text when I was teaching. Suitable for a wide range of ages.”
In a recent email to me a parent wrote, “Naturally Curious is our five year old’s unqualified f-a-v-o-r-I-t-e book. He spends hours regularly returning to it to study it’s vivid pictures and have us read to him about all the different creatures. It is a ‘must have’ for any family with children living in New England…or for anyone that simply shares a love of the outdoors.”
I am a firm believer in fostering a love of nature in young children – the younger the better — but I admit that when I wrote Naturally Curious, I was writing it with adults in mind. It delights me no end to know that children don’t even need a grown-up middleman to enjoy it!
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November 23, 2012 | Categories: A Closer Look at New England, Adaptations, Amphibians, Animal Adaptations, Animal Architecture, Animal Communication, Animal Diets, Animal Eyes, Animal Signs, Animal Tracks, Anti-predatory Device, Ants, April, Arachnids, Arthropods, August, Bark, Bats, Beavers, Beetles, Bird Diets, Bird Nests, Bird Songs, Birds, Birds of Prey, Black Bears, Bogs, Bugs, Bumblebees, Butterflies, camouflage, Carnivores, Carnivorous Plants, Caterpillars, Cervids, Chrysalises, Cocoons, Conifers, Courtship, Crickets, Crustaceans, Damselflies, December, Deciduous Trees, Decomposition, Deer, Defense Mechanisms, Diets, Diptera, Dragonflies, Ducks, Earwigs, Egg laying, Ephemerals, Evergreen Plants, Falcons, Feathers, February, Fishers, Fledging, Fledglings, Flies, Flowering Plants, Flying Squirrels, Food Chain, Foxes, Frogs, Fruits, Fungus, Galls, Gastropods, Gills, Grasshoppers, Gray Foxes, Herbivores, Herons, Hibernation, Honeybees, Hornets, Hymenoptera, Insect Eggs, Insect Signs, Insects, Insects Active in Winter, Invertebrates, January, July, June, Lady's Slippers, Larvae, Leaves, Lepidoptera, Lichens, Mammals, March, Metamorphosis, Micorrhiza, Migration, Millipedes, Mimicry, Molts, Moose, Moths, Mushrooms, Muskrats, Mutualism, Nests, Nocturnal Animals, Non-flowering plants, North American River Otter, November, October, Odonata, Omnivores, Orchids, Owls, Parasites, Parasitic Plants, Passerines, Plants, Plumage, Poisonous Plants, Pollination, Porcupines, Predator-Prey, Pupae, Raptors, Red Foxes, Red Squirrel, Reptiles, Rodents, Scat, Scent Marking, Seed Dispersal, Seeds, Senses, September, Sexual Dimorphism, Shorebirds, Shrubs, Slugs, Snails, Snakes, Snowfleas, Social Insects, Spiders, Spores, Spring Wildflowers, Squirrels, Striped Skunks, Toads, Tracks, Tree Buds, Tree Flowers, Tree Identification, Trees, Trees and Shrubs, turtles, Vernal Pools, Vertebrates, Vines, Wading Birds, Warblers, Wasps, Waterfowl, Weasel Family, White-tailed Deer, Winter Adaptations, Woodpeckers, Woody Plants, Yellowjackets, Young Animals | Tags: Christmas Gifts, Naturally Curious, Naturally Curious by Mary Holland | 2 Comments »
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Black walnut (Juglans nigra) is a relatively easy tree to identify, as it has so many distinctive qualities. In the summer there are round, tennis-ball-sized nuts, which have a delightful smell. The bark of black walnut is dark and deeply furrowed. Best of all are the twigs and buds. If you cut a twig at an angle, you will see the central portion, or pith, is chambered. It is also brown. The only other tree that is chambered (not solid) like this is its relative, butternut (Juglans cinerea), and butternut’s pith is buff colored. The buds of black walnut are greyish and fuzzy – lacking bud scales. By far the most amusing thing about black walnut (and butternut) is its leaf scars – the scar left when a leaf falls off. The vessels that transport food and water, called vascular bundles, are darker than the rest of the scar, and are shaped in such a way that the leaf scar resembles nothing more than the smiling face of a monkey! (Butternut leaf scars also look like monkeys, but they have a “furrowed brow” of fuzz on the top edge of the leaf scar.)
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February 1, 2012 | Categories: Bark, Buds, Deciduous Trees, February, Tree Buds, Tree Identification, Trees, Trees and Shrubs, Woody Plants | Tags: Bark, Black walnut, Butternut, Juglans cinerea, Juglans nigra, Leaf Scars, Pith, Tree Buds, Tree Identification, Woody Plants | 4 Comments »
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Yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) buds are oval and pointed, and there are two shades of brown on each of their 3 – 5 bud scales. The buds and twigs of yellow birch taste like wintergreen. In the early morning and late afternoon, look for ruffed grouse filling their crops (“budding”) in yellow birch trees, as these buds are one of their favorite foods. The thin bark of a mature yellow birch is a very distinctive yellow-bronze color (the bark of saplings is a shiny red-brown color), and curls when it separates from the trunk.
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January 28, 2012 | Categories: Bark, Deciduous Trees, January, Tree Buds, Tree Identification, Trees and Shrubs, Woody Plants | Tags: Bark, Betula alleghaniensis, Tree Buds, Tree Identification, Trees, Woody Plants, Yellow Birch | 1 Comment »
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Maples have what is referred to as “opposite” branching – the buds, leaves and branches are positioned opposite one another. If you look at this photo of the terminal bud of a sugar maple (Acer saccharum) you’ll see that the two lateral buds (on either side of the terminal bud) are directly across from each other. This is relatively rare in the woody plant world — you’ve narrowed down the identity of a tree significantly if you determine that it has opposite branching (ashes and dogwoods, among others, share this characteristic). The buds of sugar maple are pointed. The appearance of its bark depends on the age of the tree you’re looking at. Saplings and younger branches are quite smooth (right branch in photo), whereas the bark of an old sugar maple is furrowed with vertical ridges curled outward along one side (left side of photo).
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January 19, 2012 | Categories: Deciduous Trees, January, Plants, Tree Identification, Trees and Shrubs | Tags: Acer saccharum, Sugar Maple, Tree Bark, Tree Buds, Tree Identification | Leave A Comment »
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While identifying an oak species by the shape of its leaf is fairly easy, there are other characteristics in winter, when leaves aren’t available (except under the snow), that serve as clues to an oak’s identity. A mature northern red oak can be readily recognized by its bark — its ridges appear to have shiny stripes down the center. The buds of northern red oak are also distinctive. Like most oaks, red oak’s terminal (located at tip of twigs) buds occur in clusters. Northern red oak’s terminal buds are conical, and are a reddish-brown color.
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January 17, 2012 | Categories: Deciduous Trees, January, Plants, Tree Identification, Trees and Shrubs | Tags: Bark, Buds, Deciduous Trees, Northern Red Oak, Quercus rubra, Tree Identification, Trees, Woody Plants | 1 Comment »
Bark, silhouettes and buds are the three keys to identifying trees in winter. My preference is buds, as they are so distinctly different from one species to the next. American basswood, or linden (Tilia americana), is a favorite. Its plump, oval, asymmetrical red buds, bearing only one or two bud scales are unmistakable.
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January 7, 2012 | Categories: January, Plants, Tree Identification, Trees and Shrubs | Tags: American Basswood, Buds, Linden, Tilia americana, Tree Buds, Tree Identification, Trees, Woody Plants | 1 Comment »
Bark, silhouettes and buds are the three keys to identifying trees in winter. My preference is buds, as they are so distinctly different from one species to the next. American basswood, or linden (Tilia americana), is a favorite. Its plump, oval, asymmetrical red buds, bearing only one or two bud scales are unmistakable.
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