Praying Mantids – Ambush Predators Recently, I was lucky enough to see a couple praying mantids. I am always excited when I see a wild animal or an interesting insect. Of course, I love fungi too. In Virginia, mature praying mantids are big insects. The ones in these photos were about 3.5” long. They are […]
I wrote about beavers a little while ago. It should be no surprise that there are beavers living around the Potomac River. Where I frequent in Great Falls, VA, there are always signs of beavers. Until the past summer (2019), I hadn’t seen any actual beaver construction. That is different now. In Great Falls, VA […]
If you live around Northern Virginia, I am sure that at some point you have seen a large flock of Canada geese somewhere. Maybe it was on an idyllic pond at some regional park, on a golf course, or even walking across a major highway. Read on to find out information about Canada geese, the […]
Caribou are common in Alaska with their numbers in the hundreds of thousands. This makes seeing them probably not a big deal for native Alaskans. For visitors like me, who want to see wildlife, it is always thrilling to see a wild animal in the wild. These photos were taken off the Dalton Highway past […]
If you live in Great Falls, McLean, Reston, Herndon, or anywhere in Fairfax County, there probably is a resident herd of white-tailed deer in your neighborhood. Some people like to see them grazing and meandering through their yards. Others put up fences to keep them out of their landscape. Deer are drawn to all kinds […]
Common snapping turtles range from the United States from the East Coast to the Rock Mountains, from Southern Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, and into Central America. They can live in almost any permanent or semi-permanent type of water including rivers, streams, lakes, bogs, swamps, marshes, and creeks. They also can live in polluted […]