What's Your Nature?
Become a Nature Up North explorer to share your encounters with wild things and wild places in New York's North Country. Post your wildlife sightings, landscape shots, photos from your outings, and even your organization's events!
Just Our Nature Posts
Hot Sounds of Summer: Cicadas
By Paul J. Hetzler on
Blog: Just Our NatureProbably everyone has a sound they connect with high summer. For me, nothing says “August” like the drone of a cicada, its song a miniature buzz saw that cuts across a hot afternoon, undulating a bit and then dropping off near the end of its arc. Cicadas are stout, ancient-looking bugs with bulgy eyes and clear wings. While the largest species is about three inches long with a seven-inch wingspan…
Funtography Tips Part II: DSLR Cameras
By Justin Dalaba on
Blog: Just Our NatureThere’s nothing more frustrating than reaching for your camera when you see something exciting and not being able to capture the shot that you imagined. Although automatic settings on cameras are getting better and better, there are some situations that can be tricky to capture without making some manual adjustments. Lighting can make or break a photograph and can be the reason your picture…
Touch-Me-Not: When a Weed is Not a Weed
By Paul J. Hetzler on
Blog: Just Our NatureBy definition, a weed is any plant growing where you don’t want it. To clarify, this holds true only in the garden beds or acreage under your cultivation. “Weeding” flowers in a park planter because they offend your sense of aesthetics is frowned upon.
To a plant, having “weed” embedded right in its name is probably akin to having a “Kick Me” sign on your back. Right out of the box there is…
Volcanoes in Northern New York?
By Paul J. Hetzler on
Blog: Just Our NatureWhen you think about it, trees in our landscape have it pretty rough. They don’t get to choose their neighborhood; good, bad or indifferent. Depending where they’re planted they may have to contend with “visits” from territorial dogs, “materials testing” by late-night fraternity mobs, entanglements with errant kites, and other issues.
Rooted in one spot day in and day out, year after year, they…
Six Nature Myths Busted
By Krista Sonia on
Blog: Just Our NatureHere at Nature Up North we hear a lot of great questions about wildlife and the outdoors. Do porcupines really shoot their quills? Will ticks fall on you from trees? What does it mean to be blind as a bat? Will a bird abandon its young if I touch them? To answer these questions, here are six common misconceptions about nature and the truth behind them! Which myths did you believe…
Lyme Disease Ecology Part Two: Is Biodiversity a Buffer?
By Jacob Malcomb on
Blog: Just Our Nature
You might be wondering – what does ecology have to do with my risk for catching Lyme disease, anyway? In our first post about Lyme disease, we introduced the blacklegged tick (also commonly called deer tick), the creepy crawly arachnid that transmits pathogens to unwitting hikers, hunters, and gardeners. As much as we’d like to blame ticks, and ticks alone, for getting us sick, it turns out…
A Tale of Nine Lives
By Paul J. Hetzler on
Blog: Just Our Nature
The two cats at my place have survived many life-threatening traumas such as falls, fights and even the compulsory “devotions” of small children. It’s amazing the hazards they can evade. I think if pets could drive, only dogs would get speeding tickets—cats would always find ways to wriggle out of a citation. Sadly, my contacts in the veterinary field continue to assert that cats have but a…
X Marks the Spot! Exploring Nature with Letterboxing
By Krista Sonia on
Blog: Just Our Nature
“There is a park named after Chief Ahanton's daughter--find this park to begin your search,” the clue said. As an eager twelve year old, I could not wait to begin the search for real hidden treasure! Having visited that same park with my family for many summers it wasn’t hard to solve the hint’s riddle. Standing at the entrance, my mother read aloud from the “map”, a little sheet of clues we had…
Funtography Tips
By Justin Dalaba on
Blog: Just Our NatureKnowing Your Resources
There is no lack of access to cameras these days. Many of the electronic devices we carry on our person, including smart phones and tablets, have some sort of camera built into them. This can be to your advantage when you come across something that seems worth capturing. While shooting with a traditional film camera may be a skillful art, shooting with digital cameras is…
Lyme Disease Ecology Part One: A Ticky Situation
By Jacob Malcomb on
Blog: Just Our Nature
All year round we await the North Country summer – when the landscape is green and lush, the days are long, and shorts finally seem like a viable clothing option. In early summer we can easily tolerate a few mosquitos and black flies in exchange for the abundance of outdoor opportunities that our region offers. But over the last decade, Lyme disease has emerged as a serious concern for northern…
