Browsing: Environment

Now is a great time to look for one of the most colorful songbirds in North America: the Painted Bunting.  This small passerine bird, related to cardinals, is a familiar sight in some portions of the southern United States during the spring and summer.  The adult male has a blue-violet head, a grass-green back, green wings, and red underparts, and the adult females and immature birds are distinctive in being an overall leaf-green shade.  Male Painted Buntings display delayed plumage maturation, which means that they molt into full adult plumage in their second year.  In their first year, they are often indistinguishable from females.  

As a child of the sixties, I listened intently as Smoky the Bear shared the message that “only you can prevent forest fires”. It made perfect sense. But not all fires are bad as we have learned over the past half century, especially in the fire-adapted, pine forests of the southeastern U.S. It turns out that small, periodic fires help keep the forest healthy and safe from destruction that we often see in western forests. Here is the story.

had never seen a Limpkin prior to 2022.  One turned up in the winter, on Columbus Lake, and stayed for several months, much to the delight of local birders.  Although I knew this was a rare species for Mississippi, I didn’t think too much about it until another one showed up at Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge.  By this time, observers were reporting Limpkins—including nesting pairs—in many locations across the eastern and central United States, far from where they normally occurred in Florida.  Birds were spotted even in southern Canada.  What was going on?

Southern Magnolias help define the deep south landscape. Their large, prominent white flowers are hard to miss and are a favorite subject for artists and photographers. Southern Magnolia is the state tree and flower for Mississippi, the Magnolia State, and the state flower of Louisiana. And although the flowers are the main attraction, the plant offers other equally prominent features.

I am not a fan of mowing grass. I cut more than my share of lawns in my youth. Mary and I live on a wooded lot, so I have been liberated, at least at home. But, for those of you that still maintain a lawn, there is hope for your liberation as well. Bear with me as I proposed reducing lawn care through “no mow” and “less mow” options. 

This time of year, I almost always get asked the same question: where have all the pelicans gone? For many of us that frequent beaches and coastal bayous, we enjoy watching pelicans and the many other coastal birds that live there. It wouldn’t be the coast without the sounds and sights of Brown Pelicans and Laughing Gulls that are hard to miss most of the time.  

Spring brings a flush of new green leaves to our landscape, in every shade and hue. But these young leaves do not keep their pristine shapes for long, because an army of hungry caterpillars race to eat them as fast as they can. The timing is no accident. It is an ongoing tit for tat between plants and insects that has driven evolution of both groups for millennia. 

Ten years ago, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) purchased the R/V Point Sur from San Jose State University with a $1 million grant provided by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The ship embarked on a long journey down the California coast, through the Panama Canal, and arrived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast on March 29, 2015. This milestone opened the door for USM to provide life-changing research opportunities and tell countless stories.

 Growing up, fishing was one of my favorite hobbies to do with my dad during the spring and summer months. Loading up our fishing gear on his grey Chevy Silverado, swinging by the bait shop, and coming home to clean and fry fish are reminders of simpler times and good, southern living. As the days stretch longer, and the temperatures start their rapid climb, there’s no better time to grab your fishing gear and head out for a day on the water. Mississippi offers no shortage of beautiful places to cast a line— whether you’re after a quiet afternoon or a cooler full of fresh catch. Here are five spots (plus a couple of bonus picks) worth visiting this spring and summer.

Easter egg hunts are lots of fun for children during this spring holiday. And if you do it right, those eggs are scattered in the thick grass of an un-mowed lawn that inevitably has a variety of spring wildflowers. The flowers are as much a treat as the eggs and can be part of an Easter nature hunt for adults and kids alike. 

We all learned about the food chain in grade school and have even seen the drama unfold in a nature documentary. But witnessing a critter eating another critter up close is another level of experience – it makes it real.  

Late winter in the deep south doesn’t last long, but it does try our patience. We long for the coming spring when it is safe to plant our gardens and replace the brown colors of winter with colors of spring. But it always seems to take forever until the spring greening happens, in what seems like an instant. One day the world is dreary, the next it is covered in every shade of green and other colors of the rainbow. 

Some plants add a certain kind of pizazz or elegance to our world. Such is the case for Green Dragons, Arisaema dracontium. Although not commonly seen, unless you frequent moist woodlands in early spring, this forest floor plant has a wide distribution across the eastern U.S. and Canada. As for the name, well, the person that described it apparently saw a long, flickering lizard’s tongue under a multi-lobed dragon’s mane.

Mississippi State University officially broke ground today [March 10] on the Northern Gulf Aquatic Food Research Center, a first-of-its kind facility in Mississippi dedicated to aquatic food safety, quality assessment, processing and product development.

The nighttime sky offers Mississippians a great show this week in the form of a total lunar eclipse.

Sometimes the tiniest of organisms in our world evoke memories we hold dear. Such was the case when I recently shared a few photos of one of the smallest of our regional flowering plants, a Tiny Bluet, Houstonia pusilla. As many of you know, I share tidbits about nature daily, through my Cajun Daily Dose of Nature post on Instagram and Facebook. The post about the Tiny Bluet reminded me that many of my friends also share my passion for nature, big and small.