By Katie Koerten
As an environmental educator at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment, I do most of my work outside. Until our recent move to our new “living” building I didn’t consider that our nature center itself could help me teach about the environment as well.
By David Spector
The ways birds use the sun, the stars, their own internal clocks, the Earth’s magnetic field, odors, and other cues to navigate are well documented. Birds can also help a human to know his or her location.
By Benjamin Weiner
At Ellis Island, years ago, I was struck by an exhibit listing some of the contributions made by immigrant languages to American English, though I realize now that at least two important Jewish offerings went unrecorded. The more colorful of my ancestors’ Yiddishisms were probably deemed unfit for inclusion in a family museum. But the other gift I’m thinking of, Hebraic, has more dignity and has more recently entered fully into the specialized vernacular of social activism.
By Sally Jewell Coxe
Do you know what a bonobo is? Have you ever seen one? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, you are an exception. Bonobos, closely related to chimpanzees, were the last great apes discovered by Western science, and still remain largely unknown to most of the world. Found only in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bonobos inhabit the heart of the world’s second largest rainforest.
By Margaret Bullitt-Jonas
Suppose you deeply loved this planet and were also deeply concerned for its future. And suppose you wanted to hold an event to give voice to those feelings. What would you call it?
By Elizabeth Farnsworth For the Gazette
Have you ever noticed a line of funnels dotting the sand at the base of your house, just inside the drip-line of your gutter or roof? Funnels about an inch across, and so regular that they could not possibly be due to raindrop drips?
By David Spector
At this time of year I count on one of my favorite spring wildflowers, the little bluet (Houstonia caerulea), for a lovely show. Depending on exact location, altitude and microclimate, anytime from early April (even late March after mild winters) to early May, I see lawns covered with a late “snow” of these flowers. A highlight of my commute is a lawn a few miles from my house that has ideal conditions for this species and is often covered with bloom before the flowers appear elsewhere.
By Michael Dover
Like others concerned about climate change, I was disheartened by last November’s election. We now have a president who has called climate change a hoax, and his appointees to lead the Departments of Energy and Interior and the Environmental Protection Agency all have strong ties to the fossil fuel industry. The new administration appears to be moving toward more widespread fossil fuel extraction and use. The very act of collecting and reporting information on climate change may be at risk.
By Lawrence J. Winship
In my youth, tromping through the deciduous woodlands of Ohio and Pennsylvania with family and friends, we occasionally came upon strange-looking trees. Their shapes were so contorted that we found it hard to imagine how they could have gotten that way.
By David Spector
People unfamiliar with birds are often amazed at a birdwatcher’s ability to identify individual sounds from the natural chorus of birds, frogs, grasshoppers and others.
It’s not an inborn talent, though: Anyone who can hear can learn identification by ear, and in this column I offer some tips for learning bird sounds. Each person learns differently, so, as with any advice, use what works and ignore the rest.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
845 West Street | Amherst MA 01002 | 413.256.6006 | 413.253.2809 fax