Pam Otto

The very last installment of Pam Otto's Good Natured column shares what's ahead for this naturalist extraordinaire.

Pam Otto: "After 25 years of living the dream as a naturalist, I’m stepping away from full-time employment to chase after a few other dreams and goals I’ve set for this next chapter."

This non-native plant blankets its surrounding landscape and smothers everything in sight.

Is your home's exterior experiencing a conflict with a cavity-roosting bird?

For those of us who aren’t great with binoculars or whose eyes don’t pick up on subtle details, Cooper’s and sharp-shins look practically identical. And big changes now are coming to bird identities.

The lingering warmth this fall has led to an extended kinglet-sighting season. Typically seen in northern Illinois in October, both golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets are still popping up in numerous parks and preserves.

Their great numbers can be attributed to their reputation as beneficial insects, because they consume large quantities of garden and crop pests.

Kane County Certified Naturalists is a year-long program designed for adults who want to learn more about the natural history of our great county, and also find out about ways to put that knowledge to good use.

When they’re not creating tiny works of functional art, female potter wasps also function as pollinators. They are one of many reasons why it’s important to “leave the leaves” through the cold months.

Turkey vultures are notoriously wary, and spook at the slightest hint of something amiss.

The cormorant is a creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky bird that's a familiar sight along the Fox River as well as select marshes and assorted neighborhood retention ponds.

As swifts come down from points north – Wisconsin, Michigan and southern Canada – they congregate in huge numbers in prominent chimneys throughout our area.

Now that we know better, we can do better when it comes to our wild neighbors.

Spoiler alert: In this thriller of a turtle rescue, the turtle lives happily ever after. Watch the video.

Why don't we see one of our longest-lived butterflies in summertime?

It won’t be too much longer before we start getting calls at Good Natured World Headquarters about the sounds of a species hitting its next phase of development.

As familiar as the insect's raspy two- or three-note sound is, few people know what a katydid actually looks like.

Singing may sound like fun, but the responsibilities that come with it add up to a lot of hard work for birds.

Walking across Michigan granite outcrops, amid the lush ferns and beneath the mixed hardwood and conifer canopy, I might just as well have landed on another planet.

It’s been said by more than one starry-eyed romantic on more than one occasion that love makes the world go ’round.

Just like human babies, insect babies – also known as larvae – sometimes bear little resemblance to the adults they become.

This year, we seem to have an explosion of earwigs – primitive little creatures many find "creepy."

Central Illinois offers learning adventures described as “field trips for grown-ups.”

Lured in by the promise of a meal, the small arthropods bump into the trigger hairs – and pop! The would-be consumers are instead consumed.

Here's how to handle red-winged blackbird season, including stopping any dive-bombing should you encroach on the birds' territory.

Seventeen years he’d waited for his one time to shine, and here he was in a cicada desert far away from millions of potential girlfriends.

Ever tried basswood honey? It tastes just like the blossoms smell. Before the flowers are gone, drink in the sweet smell of basswood in bloom.

A delicate creature discovers better living through chemistry and spurs.

Sharing the story of Poly Pupa, who had a helping human hand, prompted a second mystery for a curious naturalist.

You’ve probably seen the mature form of a rat-tailed maggot without even realizing it. You likely mistook the hover fly, a prolific pollinator, for a bee.

Eastern phoebes seem to have a natural ability to make people happy.

Don’t feel left out if you’re not seeing cicadas in your area. You still can participate in a community science project.

Not everyone is going to be a part of the coming Cicada-palooza.

Periodical cicadas are predicted to emerge throughout northern Illinois in just a few weeks. But will their appearance live up to all the hype?

Give this community science effort a try! Entomologists working to sort out the intricacies of butterfly life cycles will thank you for it.

By tapping holes in trees in springtime, when the sap is rising, these birds help ensure that many other creatures also gain access to the sweet elixir.

A better understanding of life’s complexities actually is made possible by fish alarm chemicals.

Pet rabbits make lousy Easter gifts, and don’t belong in the wild.

For a few weeks in late winter and early spring, the usually underground tiger salamanders come to the surface and hit the trail.

Here are ways to control odorous house ants without using harsh chemicals or hiring an exterminator.

Petite, resilient and stinky are only a small sampling of the odorous house ant’s many fascinating traits.

A gaggle of birders, scanning the Canada geese in and around a man-made pond, noted that one of the birds was not like the others.

I was just about to throw in the towel, when I found out I’m not alone in this sea of color confusion.

The warmer weather we’ve experienced recently has caused some arthropods, aka woodpecker food, to start moving around.

As casual observers, we have no way of knowing for sure whether our winter robins are year-round residents or visitors from farther north.

Here are ways to kick out intrusive flora and fauna before they damage our environment.

Invasive plants and animals are hitching rides all over the planet.

The European brown snail has been introduced widely because they are, frankly, delicious.

We’ve all been trained to expect leaves to fall off trees when autumn comes. But have you noticed that some trees don’t follow the plan?

European starlings actually wore out their welcome here in the United States several decades ago.