Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

As the countdown to the first snowfall begins in earnest, another flurry is happening in our skies every night. As the light leaves pastels of pink and purple along the horizon, American ( Corvus brachyrhynchos ) and Fish Crows ( C. ossifragus ) have started their nightly journeys across the sky. Here in Syracuse, you usually see them as you travel home from work while waiting for the lights to change. Huge crowds heading over route 690 to some place beyond where they spend the night in great roosts, clustered together amidst the encroaching city. Why they cluster together like this during the winter is a bit of a mystery. Some hypotheses suggest that it could be a means for crows to gather information about potential food sources in the surrounding areas, while others suspect it has something to do with safety in numbers. Either way, such a huge gathering of these black birds seems ominous and sinister. After all, throughout history, crows and their cousins, the ravens have always...

As per my new year's resolution, I have chosen to go foraging more often this year and I haven't let myself down yet. While I've stuck to fairly easy uses such as leafy greens like dandelion ( Taraxacum spp. ) and lamb's quarters ( Chenopodium album ), berries like black raspberry ( Rubus occidentalis ), and my failed attempts to go after roots from the likes of evening primrose ( Oenothera spp. ) and burdock ( Arctium spp. ). Well today I decided to make a drink that I'v read about in many foraging guides, but hadn't tried until now. Like many wild foods, it goes by several colloquialisms including sumac lemonade, sumac-ade, "Indian" lemonade,  and sumac berry tea. It is in fact an infusion of freshly picked staghorn sumac berries and cold water (made bold to emphasize importance) that is left to sit so that the berries can release their sweet and slightly sour taste. The comparison to lemonade is based largely on flavor, but the first time one gaz...