BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Seriously, it could happen to anyone. Well, any working mom operating on instinct and snap-judgements who needs to snag some groceries before she flies back home to those perpetually ravenous kiddos. Okay… maybe it couldn’t happen to anyone. But every now and then, once in a very blue moon, some harried female […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD This year’s class of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) naval aviators have started flight school! I’ve been watching these youngsters on daily dog-walks in the park since early May. When they first showed up I noticed their resemblance, in size and coloration, to the yellow puffball flowers of the American sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) towering above. There […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Walking with my terrier-boy in Lafayette Park, I often happen upon the beginning of a late-afternoon performance by the American Robin Ballet Company. The dancers scatter across the lawn, their dark charcoal cloaks and garnet waistcoats vivid against a verdant stage. They appeared frozen in place, waiting for the orchestra’s opening chords. […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD The melody seeped into my REM cycle, making me just lucid enough to believe someone was singing a cappella outside my window. But my sleep-clouded brain couldn’t make out the words and I didn’t recognize the voice either. Besides, who would want to serenade me?  Slowly, as I became more conscious, it […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Everyone has their own personal markers of summer—the flash of a firefly, the pulsing hum of cicadas, the aroma of freshly cut grass… I’m sure you have a favorite.  To my mind, nothing says summer quite as definitively as the sight of chimney swifts (Chaetura pelagic) foraging overhead. These small, sleek birds […]