“In all things of nature, there is something of the marvelous.” – Aristotle   Insects belong to the phylum arthropoda (arthropods). Arthropods make up the largest number of animal species in the world, far outnumbering mammals and birds. The characteristics of an arthropod is that it has...

I recently photographed a brown-colored bird on the shore of the man-made lake at Bridgeport in Valencia that I thought might be a bittern. When I looked it up in a field book, there was a comment that the juvenile green heron is often confused with the American bittern. So I solicited comment from some...

One usually thinks of a fungus as “icky,” and there is no way you’d eat one, right? The impression is that a fungus is creepy. It grows in dark, moist places, obtaining its nutrition from decaying plant and animal matter, and it is generally to be avoided. Indeed, fungi – which include molds,...

First in a series.   When I took biology in high school, I was taught that among living things, there were only two kingdoms: the animal kingdom and the plant kingdom. Mushrooms and various edible (and non-edible) fungi were included in the plant kingdom. In recent years, scientists have classified...

Growing up as a young Jewish boy in New York, my family and I did not celebrate Christmas, but many of our friends did. When we would visit, they always had mistletoe hanging in the center of a doorway. Initially, I thought the idea of kissing under the mistletoe was silly. As a teenager, this became...

Today is Thanksgiving, and the main course on many tables is turkey. While the turkey is not native to Southern California, it can sometimes be seen here having escaped or been released from farms and sanctuaries. Wild native turkeys – the only native poultry in North America – had been raised...

Life in the wild is difficult with larger animals wanting to eat smaller animals. In prehistoric days, people, too, were prey for the larger predators. We were even prey from members of our own species, but we could fight back – we could punch, kick and bite. We could hide or run away. We even developed...

A butterfly’s coloring is impressive, similar to that of many paintings. The pattern of a butterfly’s coloring is created by two distinct processes of color combined with the art form of mosaics. Mosaic painting and patterns are made up of multiple small, colored stones or other objects carefully...

An ongoing challenge to us all is where to live while at the same time protecting the environment around us for our personal quality of life. Some like to live in a city densely packed into multifamily dwellings called apartment buildings, accepting a small community park either close to or far from...

In my role as a docent at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center, it is not uncommon to hear someone say there were far more insects, be they butterflies or bees or virtually any insect, when they were growing up, than now. I would echo those thoughts – whether growing up on Long Island, N.Y., as I did,...