The Question: I saw a songbird on my fencing out in a field that sang and sang. It was a little smaller than a robin. The body was black with a yellow/tan cap. Then there was a white vertical stripe down the back and a white fan on the tail. What was it? Submitted by: Lisa, New [...]
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First Missing Goslings, Now Missing Parents?
The Question: Every day I pass by a lake and I have noticed a pair of Canada geese with their goslings. Today, however, I have already passed three times, and on all three occasions, I saw the goslings, but no sign of the goose or gander. Is this normal, or should I be calling someone [...]
What Made the Frogs Go Quiet?
The Question: I live by Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota. Early spring, we hear hundreds if not thousands of frogs, all day and all night. Then….nothing, not one froggy peep. What happened? Did they leave? Or do they only do their frog noises for mating season? They were quite vocal for a few weeks and then [...]
New Method of Subscribing to AskaNaturalist.com
In recent months, I’ve answered questions on everything from trees that smell like vinegar to seals that swim upside down. What I haven’t done is keep up with sending out emails to AskaNaturalist.com subscribers. However, I have finally figured out how to use Feedburner, a service that will automatically send you an email whenever I [...]
What are These Worms Doing?
The Question: What are these worms doing? Submitted by: Rick, New York, USA The Short Answer: These are earthworms mating, and I can tell you that they are the common earthworms called nightcrawlers (Lumbricus terrestris), the only species known to mate above ground. Nightcrawlers, like many other earthworms, are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning that each worm [...]