BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Lately, when I’m feeling especially stressed or anxious, I find it comforting to escape reality by watching a sitcom episode, or three, from “the before-times” (shorthand for “everything prior to the first quarter of 2020, when the world changed for everyone, everywhere”). Little wonder I’ve considered, in odd moments, what the Friends […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Just in case readers assume the title of this post is a typo, let me assure you it is not. I’m fully aware that the photos featured here are of mute swans (Cygnus olor) but, like any wordsmith worth her salt, I can’t resist indulging in a little harmless wordplay. As you’ll […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD A scientists’ work is never done. That’s because there’s always another layer to peel away, another stone to turn, another angle from which to view the situation. Case in point — about 200 years ago, Charles Darwin made the connection between the size and shape of a finch’s beak and the availability […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD   Like Water Off a Duck’s Back — That tried and true adaptability adage is an apt observation for just about any species of waterfowl, thanks to their liquid-resistant outer contour feathers, but in the case of Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) it’s also metaphorically germane… because this is one plucky duck. I won’t […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD How often do you come across a bird so dee-lightful, so dee-lectable that it captured the attention of characters as disparate as W.C. Fields and Cole Porter? Quite often, actually, because chickadees (Poecile spp) are far from rare in North America. In my own little corner of the world, a historic neighborhood […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Thanks to the photographers who granted permission to use their photos, and to those who made their work available through the Creative Commons license: Matt Ward, Richard Gibbons, Robert, Cletus Lee, Ashley Wahlbert (Tubbs), Don Faulkner, and Kieran Lindsey. © 2020 Next-Door Nature. Reprints welcomed with written permission from the author.

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Watching a white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) cascade along the steep slope of a tree brought to mind the playground at Oakville Elementary, and made me wonder if the species’ iconic bottoms-up foraging style is the result of a dare. The far corner of our grade school property was the site of many […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Maybe Bobby McFerrin was a house wren (Troglodytes aedon) in a previous life. This thought popped into my mind when, after listening to On Being’s Krista Tippett interview the singer, I went out for a walk with my canine companion. We hadn’t made it too far down the sunny sidewalk when we […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD  One for sorrow, Two for joy, Three for a girl, Four for a boy, Five for silver, Six for gold, Seven for a secret, Never to be told. Eight for a wish, Nine for a kiss, Ten for a bird, You must not miss.* ONE… I’ll concede to the prognosticating poet who […]

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD [Thanks to Lafayette Square residents Jim and Carolyn Willmore for reporting a brown creeper sighting near the Cook Pavilion of Lafayette Park.] On frosty mornings, Mercury is uncharacteristically slow to leave that snug thermometer bulb… and I can’t say I blame him. I’ve been in no hurry to leave my own cozy […]