by Kieran Lindsey | Dec 9, 2021 | Mammals, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD There’s a wonderful word—one of my favorites — to describe creatures that are active at dawn and dusk. Crepuscular. There are plenty of them so the great outdoors gets lively when the light is low, making dusk and dawn excellent times to see...
by Kieran Lindsey | Nov 25, 2021 | Birds, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD I don’t know what American grade school kids are being taught these days—my days at Oakville Elementary ended a couple of decades ago (okay, fine—several decades ago) so I don’t have direct access to 21st century homework assignments. But I’ll...
by Kieran Lindsey | Nov 11, 2021 | Invertebrates, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Daddy longlegs are the jazz cats of the arachnid world! This realization came to me as I watched a single backlit note bebop across the asphalt path in front of me. A soundtrack of jazz piano greats immediately began to play in my head — Willie...
by Kieran Lindsey | Oct 31, 2021 | Fish, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Setting out for a walk, I paused just past my building’s threshold to savor morning air crisp as a fresh Granny Smith apple, perfumed with a blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves that have been whisked, infused, and frappéd into breads,...
by Kieran Lindsey | Oct 14, 2021 | Invertebrates, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Have you ever listened to the mesmerizing serenade of field crickets (Gryllus spp.) on a crisp autumn evening and wondered why they’re doing that? I mean, the mercury’s definitely headed south, the nights are going to become pretty...
by Kieran Lindsey | Sep 30, 2021 | Invertebrates, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Enter the term “engineering marvels” into your favorite search engine and you’ll see there’s some debate over the Top 10 but several projects always seem to hit the mark, such as Dubai’s Palm Islands, the Large...
by Kieran Lindsey | Sep 16, 2021 | Invertebrates, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Mark Zuckerberg would not be one of 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world without the help of wasps. I mean the six-legged kind (whether or not two-legged WASPs should get any of the credit is something for attorneys to discuss...
by Kieran Lindsey | Sep 2, 2021 | Invertebrates, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Once upon a time there was a damsel(fly). [Imagine, if you will, a bucolic Disneyesque soundtrack of flutes and piccolos in the background.] She (or maybe he — this is a modern fairly tale) explored the lovely little pond from which s/he...
by Kieran Lindsey | Aug 19, 2021 | Amphibians, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD I say potato, you like potahtos. You wear pajamas, I wear PJs. And a rose by any other name, we’re told, would smell equally sweet. So does it really matter that we all agree on what to call an American bullfrog? “HELL, YEAH!” That’s the...
by Kieran Lindsey | Aug 5, 2021 | Mammals, Wildlife
BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD World War II had barely ended when researchers began to notice a major migration under way in North America, from undeveloped and agricultural areas to cities and suburbs. Now, in the early 21st Century, the urban population is over 20 times...
