By “Biff” Andrews

• Champion trees are huge, strong, and noble — and they don’t mug for the cameras or do “selfies.”
• The relationship between monarch and viceroy butterflies illustrates the most salient concepts of evolution.
• There is a reason why they call bluefish over 5 pounds “choppers.”
• Cormorants, starlings, tree of heaven, and other foreign invasive species should go home.
• Apparently mosquitoes don’t like brewer’s yeast. That’s a good thing.
• The legend of the sand dollar may be true.
• Naturalists are a strange tribe and the sub-families (birders, reptilians, entomologists and so on) are even weirder. But they are all really nice folks and smart, too.
• I can’t believe a true nature-lover could ever commit a crime. That’s not Mother Nature’s way.
• Ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, inlets, bays, and oceans all have their special brands of magic. You are blessed if you are lucky enough to have grown up on — or in — any of them.
• Water critters and plants are as varied and as beautiful as land critters and plants.
• Why is it that Virginia (and the entire East) have only one hummingbird (the ruby-throated), while there are dozens of species out West? Unfair!
• And why is it that many of Mother Nature’s most beautiful creatures (ring-neck pheasants, mahi-mahi) are also quite delicious?
• I’ll give a nickel to anyone who can come up with a beneficial use for kudzu.
• A sunrise over the ocean often gives a viewer a “light bulb effect” as the sun seems to elongate and hold onto the ocean’s surface.
• A sunset on clear tropical waters sometimes gives a viewer a flash of green just as the sun dips below the horizon.
• Lawns are anathema, abominations and the enemy of Nature.
• There is no GPS that can compete with an osprey, which can find a two-by-two-foot platform after thousands of miles of flight, day and night.
• A marsh or beach at low tide is the most interesting environment on Earth.
• The tulips that grow on a Virginia native tulip poplar tree are prettier than anything that comes out of Holland.
• There’s no better feeling than harvesting game or fruits or vegetables and giving them to others who have none.

Susan and Bradford “Biff” Andrews are retired teachers and master naturalists who have been outdoor people all their lives, exploring and enjoying the woods, swamps, rivers and beaches throughout the region for many years. Email them at b.andrews22@live.com.