Rochester Hills Parks and Recreation

Reptile Roundup and Winter Survival

Oakland County, MI Government Leave a comment
A nature educator listens to questions from children gathered around aquariums on a table

WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Nature in winter is an amazingly beautiful and at times mysterious place, especially when the temperature plunges well below the negative zero mark, as it did in the pre-dawn hours of the Blood Moon Eclipse. Some humans celebrated that onslaught of winter, while others acted like the world was about to end. We humans are endotherms, creatures that create heat internally. One could say we are actually walking heat-generating furnaces. Thanks to our physiologic adaptations, adaptations we share with many other mammals, we can pretty much maintain a nearly constant body temperature if properly attired and sheltered from frigid winds. We can also go inside. We can turn the heat up. And some of us can even fly off to exotic tropical locations. Continue reading →

Answering the Call of the Urban Wilds

Oakland County, MI Government Leave a comment

WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

“Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, water-lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education.” – Luther Burbank (1849 -1926), American botanist/agriculture pioneer  Continue reading →

The Magic of Night – A Nocturnal Creature Adventure in Rochester Hills

Oakland County, MI Government Leave a comment

WILDER SIDE OF OAKLAND COUNTY

Darkness: for some it’s a fearful time. A simple walk in the woods in the waning days of October stirs over active imaginations and creates imagery of ferocious fanged creatures with sharp claws and nasty temperament. Illusions of reality run wild. For others, the darkness of autumn is a soothing and magical time of nature when the woods are alive with nocturnal creatures and the songs of owls, the whispering of the winds, and perhaps the distant yip of coyotes.

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