It's fitting I posted this earlier today....the invasion is underway. On Thursday's and Saturday's hikes I saw none. This afternoon I saw a dozen of them. Bust out your binoculars...the warbler migration is pretty special.

Yellow-rumped warblers are migrating through WNY now on their way to their breeding grounds in the boreal forests of Canada. They also nest in NY in the great pine and spruce stands of the Adirondacks and the hemlock woods of the Catskills and northern Appalachia #Nature365

I encourage you to try the Onondaga Trail. Doesn't get crowds like Kanyoo Trail or Swallow Hollow. Next 3 weeks are prime nature watching: Spring woodland wildflowers have started blooming and warbler migration has just begun....don't miss those 'butterflies of the bird world'

While hiking/driving through the Iroquois Wildlife Refuge today I saw four groups of people cleaning roadsides and trails. Given the signage at the welcome center, it must have been BNWATERKEEPER's Spring Sweep. THANK YOU for keeping all of WNY's waterways and watersheds clean!

With the Facebook event page showing 117 people interested in today's hike, park ranger and I agreed we should plan on somewhere between 5 and 500 :) 'Thank you' to the half dozen who joined me on the trail today. The Onondaga Trail provides so many stories to tell #Nature365

Tonight, Royalton-Hartland CSD will pay a very special tribute to former longtime Rams football Coach Bruno Pacini who has passed away at the age of 101.

orleanshub.com/stadium-lights…

I reflect on the past, present, and future of nature hikes.

Tomorrow's hike at Iroquois Wildlife Refuge is the first one I've led in a very long time.

FRIENDLY FRIDAY

On Fridays we shine the spotlight on a coworker so you can get to know our team. We want our customers – existing and future – to see buying American, buying Confer, has impact in the community. Behind every awesome product is a really awesome person

Meet Logan:

Unlike its cousin the leek, field garlic or onion grass can't be over-harvested; it's incredibly abundant and seen as a weed. Now, patches are up in yards, fields and forests. Chop and eat the tender, mild leaves. Dig-up and consume the powerfully-flavored bulbs #Nature365

Just read an ad for a bike repair shop on Alps Rd in Lyndonville. Took my thoughts back in time to 'the Alps Road Journal' a weekly The Buffalo News column written by the late Royalton-Hartland CSD teacher John Sillick. Always a good read about the serenity and joy in country living.

I just scouted Onondaga Trail to fill my mind with ideas for nature hike I'm leading Saturday. I've got A LOT to talk about. That trail at USFWS Refuge System Iroquois Wildlife Refuge is an underused gem. It literally might see 5 to 10% the volume of hikers Swallow Hollow or Kanyoo see

A big victory for the 'Two Fs' who are my kind of people: Factory workers and Farm workers.

Attention WNY homeschooling families:

Our 50th Anniversary Open House provides a great opportunity for some experiential learning for your kids and students!

conferplastics.com/other/open-hou…

Throwback Thursday: From the late-1980s, a birds eye view of the plant floor shortly after we finished moving in to our current location.

Bidding begins today on the property that once was Lockport Memorial Hospital

Where I was born. And, where I was saved 24 years later

tranzon.com/ap24035

This turtle we saved crossing a road a couple years ago highlights the intelligence of ravens. How so? Four ravens were in a tree above it, likely waiting for a car to smash its shell so they could eat the contents. They got quite vocal when the turtle was saved #Nature365

Orleans County native John Snell has built a successful career as the football coach at Baldwin Wallace University

'I hope we taught [each player] the importance of being a person of integrity, a person with great work ethic and a great attitude.'

orleanshub.com/john-snell-an-…

This as aluminum prices are at their highest since February 2023.

Biden and Trump both love tariffs.

I don't...and I compete against foreign enterprises.

I'll be writing a column about that in the next week or so.

cnbc.com/2024/04/17/bid…

Many have wondered what happened with Matt Burke, the coach of the softball team at Wellsville Central School District. Spencer Bates digs into the controversy of the suspension of the state's reigning coach of the year oleantimesherald.com/newsletter/des…

Many of us who used to listen to NPR found Berliner's essay cathartic. NPR seemingly didn't see that as a learning moment.

NPR's member stations need to do some damage control: As more listeners abandon ship the great reporting by many local stations won't be heard.