This is the time of year when large numbers of cedar wax wings migrate through South Carolina. The cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) is a member of the family Bombycillidae or waxwing family of passerine birds. It is a medium-sized, mostly brown, gray, and yellow.This bird is named for its wax-like wing tips. It is a native of North and Central America, breeding in open wooded areas in southern Canada and wintering in the southern half of the United States, Central America, and the far

A listener finds part of the remains of a grass carp on the beach. This Asian species has "pharyngial teeth." In the United States, the species was first imported in 1963 from Taiwan and Malaysia to aquaculture facilities in Alabama and Arkansas. The first release is believed to have been an accidental escape in 1966 from the US Fish and Wildlife Service's Fish Farming Experimental Station in Stuttgart, Arkansas, followed by planned introductions beginning in 1969. Subsequently, there have been

The common names of the Coreidae vary regionally. Leaf-footed bug refers to leaf-like expansions on the legs of some species, generally on the hind tibiae. In North America, the pest status of species such as Anasa tristis on squash plants and other cucurbits gave rise to the name squash bugs.

Rudy shares an important tenent of nature from naturalist John Muir ...

Rudy shares some words of Charles Dickens ...

The groundhog (Marmota monax), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through much of the eastern United States, across Canada and into Alaska. It was first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.

The two types of galls you'll find on Goldenrod are caused by insects. The round gall is caused by a fly; the eliptical gall is caused by a moth.

Dioecy (from the Greek for "two households") is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct male and female individual organisms. Dioecious reproduction is biparental reproduction.

Rudy shares some words by Oliver Herford about white-throated sparrows.

The red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) is a medium-sized hawk. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. It is a permanent resident throughout most of its range, though northern birds do migrate, mostly to central Mexico. The main conservation threat to the widespread species is deforestation.