Author: Neil A. Case

There’s one house finch on the thistle seed feeder outside the window in front of my desk and a cardinal on a branch of the tree nearest the platform feeder but there are no birds on that feeder. . . Read More

Robins make nests from grass and sometimes a strip of cloth or a piece of string. They line the inside with mud, molded by the female to the shape of her breast. . . Read More

“Turtle,” I said to my daughter when I saw one in the road ahead. My daughter, who was driving, had seen it too and was slowing the car as I spoke. . . Read More

“I just love to hear robins sing. When I hear robins sing, I know spring is here,” a neighbor told me recently. Our American robin, as suggested in the book Birds of America, is perhaps the most common bird in North America. . . Read More

There’s a bird house on the trunk of a tree near our back door, a screech owl bird house. My son-in-law made it and put it there for me after I saw what I thought were screech owl droppings on the ground near the tree. . . Read More

I looked out the dining room window one morning and was astounded at the sparrows; house sparrows. They covered the ground, as numerous as dead leaves in the fall. They lined every branch of the bush near the window. . . Read More

One wintry morning a few days ago, a day when the sky was gray and snowy, blown by a strong cold wind, I went driving on a country road, hoping to see some wildlife activity, an uncommon bird, or maybe a mammal that should have been holed up for the . . . Read More

A river runs through my home town, and there was a bridge across the river when I was a boy, just a block and a half from my home. I often walked to that bridge, after Mom and Dad decided I was old enough to roam alone, then walked up river.The . . . Read More

We have a new neighbor. One, maybe two, maybe more. Beavers have moved into the wetland at the end of our pasture. We haven’t seen them. Beavers are nocturnal. Only on rare occasions does a beaver venture out during the day. . . Read More

When my older daughter turned into our driveway a few nights ago, in the headlights we saw a small animal crossing the yard. My daughter stopped the car and we watched as the little animal walked slowly across the lawn, then around the corner of the house and out of sight. . . Read More

My next article, I decided one afternoon, is going to be about the blue jay. Coincidentally, when I sat at my desk to start writing that article was just one bird on the feeder outside my study window, a blue jay. . . Read More

Crows are black feathered bad boys, disliked by farmers and by birders. To the displeasure of farmers they eat corn, pulling up sprouts to get the grains. They also kill and eat chicks. . . Read More

To a dedicated bird watcher there’s no better way to start the day than with the sighting of a rare bird. That’s just what I did a few days ago. I got up, washed, dressed, went to my desk, looked out the window in front of my desk and there it was, a red-shouldered hawk, perched on a branch of a tree across the road by my house. . . Read More

One hundred seventeen years ago, before 1900, it was the custom of hunters in America to get together as teams and spend one full day during the Christmas holidays killing as many animals as they could. . . Read More

I came to my desk to write this morning without a subject in mind. That’s not unusual. I’d think of something. The birds flying back and forth to the feeder outside the window beyond my computer would give me an idea. . . Read More

To the early settlers, the pioneers, North America was a land of trees, primarily pine trees. Canada south to mid-continent there were many species of trees but white pine stood out in the minds of the British. . . Read More

This year, 2017, is on its way into history as the year of hurricanes for us in the United States. First there was Hurricane Harvey, blowing into Texas with a wind of 180 miles per hour, gusts over 200 miles per hour, and four feet and more of rain. . . Read More

Black mask across its eyes, small head, pointed nose and ears, bushy tail with black rings, no animal in North America is more distinctively marked, more easily recognized than a raccoon. . . Read More

Sparrow hawk and English sparrow were common birds when I was a boy. The sparrow hawk was a bird of the country, of open fields, though fields with trees along the edge for it nested in holes, cavities in trees. . . Read More

My daughter told me there had been a bat circling around the light by the barn when she came home from work late one night recently. Two nights later she saw it there again. . . Read More

Seeing a turtle in the road ahead as I drove over a hill, I slowed to give the turtle plenty time to cross the road ahead of me. Turtles, I thought as I watched the slow progress of the one in the road before me, evolved before dinosaurs. . . Read More