Today, few critters are as abundant as cicadas. Thousands of different cicada species are found throughout the world, and some even periodically emerge by the trillions. But the prehistoric world was not crawling with periodical swarms. The cicadas of the late Jurassic Period — which had bulkier bodies than today’s …
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In January 2023, scientists attached tracking devices to eight grey plovers on the coast of the Wadden Sea off the Netherlands. The hope was to learn more about the birds’ yearly migration to breeding grounds in the Arctic. And all was going well until late May, when one of the …
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There’s hardly a spot of color on the hardwood trees in our yard, but the light is glorious, as it always is in October, and the signs of fall are unmistakable. The pokeweed, in full berry-laden splendor at the end of September, has been reduced to drooping leaves and magenta …
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It happens every fall: The days grow colder, the nights grow longer, the birds grow restless and then they take flight. In North America alone, billions of birds fly south for the winter, sometimes in enormous undulating flocks. It is one of nature’s great spectacles as well as an athletic …
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