by Rich Leighton | May 28, 2021
Did you know that barnacles are a type of stationary crustacean? Barnacles are in the same family as shrimp, crabs and lobsters and like most crustaceans, they are omnivorous predators that eat whatever they can catch with their modified “feeler” feet (called cirri)...
by Rich Leighton | May 23, 2021
Most people know garter snakes as common and mostly harmless, but they are in fact mildly venomous. These beautiful snakes are what is known as rear-fanged, meaning they have enlarged back teeth connected to what is called the Duvernoy’s gland that they use to help...
by Rich Leighton | May 18, 2021
Blackberries are one of the most delicious wild berries you can find on almost any continent and belong to the rose family, Rosaceae (notice all those thorns?). Did you know that what we call the blackberry isn’t actually a berry though? It’s technically an aggregate...
by Rich Leighton | May 13, 2021
The word salamander comes from the Greek word for fire lizard. While not a lizard or a reptile, salamanders are amphibians and related to frogs, are nocturnal and have been around since at least 40 million years before the first dinosaur! While these amazing animals...
by Rich Leighton | May 8, 2021
Skippers are a group of butterflies in the Hesperiidae family that are often mistaken for moths, as most of them are drab brown to orange. They have short wings and stubby bodies, but you can always tell it’s a skipper because they have their thin antennae clubs...