Thanks to Rob Beaton, Cohort 8, for sharing about this fascinating phenomenon! The Eastern monarch butterfly migration is one of the most impressive natural events in the world. Every year, monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) undertake a long and arduous journey, traveling thousands of miles from their summer breeding grounds in the northeastern US and Canada…
Ticks are active year-round in Virginia As Virginia Master Naturalists, it is important to know that every season is tick season in Virginia, and winter weather doesn’t necessarily determine how bad the spring and summer tick seasons will be. April through September are generally considered prime tick months but May is National Lyme Disease Awareness…
Rare MacGillivray’s Warbler graces DWR’s Lake Shenandoah Pollinator Trail! We think of pollinator plantings as hosting, well, pollinators: bees, butterflies, moths, and other insects. Some birds, such as hummingbirds, do of course serve as pollinators though we generally don’t connect pollinator plantings with birds. But wait! By late fall, with their elegant flowering days in…
HMN David Forrer, Cohort VI, on a collaborative effort to curb invasive plants in Virginia: All of us HMNs are painfully aware of the many invasive plants that are taking over landscapes and forests around us. In addition to the stiltgrass, garlic mustard, and other invasives we see and do battle with in the forest,…
After contracting Lyme Disease last summer, and then finding another attached deer tick a month after recovering (and after hearing that Sandy’s daughter is dealing with a tick-borne illness), I’ve become pretty paranoid about ticks. I was wondering whether there’s any risk of tick bites in the winter and googled it. I found this article,…
Virginia Master Naturalists Headwaters Chapter 