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Nature Walk: In Flight
Waterfowl such as Canada geese are well adapted to withstand the worst of winter’s cold. Flocks of birds can often be seen sitting on the ice or helping maintain a patch of open water in an otherwise...
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Nature Walk: Dark-eyed Junco
Every yard has likely hosted a flock of dark-eyed juncos during the winter. They are members of the sparrow family with a white breast, white outer tail feathers, a slate gray or brown plumage above...
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Nature Walk: Meltwater Ponds
In ponds with thick layers of ice the first major spring thaw makes few changes unless melt-water floats the ice sheet. Dry prairie potholes, however, become instant open water ponds for migrating...
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Nature Walk: Moon Rise
If you have watched the moon rise through the magnification of a pair of binoculars or a telescope, you may have noticed that it is not precisely circular in shape. The dense atmosphere close to the...
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Nature Walk: In Flight
The opportunity to watch ducks in flight is always exciting for the observer, but may pose more questions than answers. First and foremost, what species are they? Where did they spend the winter and...
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Nature Walk: Settling In
When we watch a flock of birds or a school of fish moving in unison they capture our imagination. How do they maintain space for each individual and who is in charge of the direction of travel? In this...
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Nature Walk: Not a Duck
Water birds are not all ducks, geese or herons. Less obvious but often accompanying them are pied-billed grebes. They are about the size of the smallest ducks, but have lobed—not webbed—feet for...
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Nature Walk: Sandhill Crane
Bird songs often indicate the presence of birds before we see them. They can also bring back vivid memories of past observations. Few experiences are so wonderful as hearing the trumpeting sound of...
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Nature Walk: Spring Beauty
Woodland wildflowers such as Spring Beauty are among the first spring ephemerals to blossom in native woodlands. Like many other woodland plants they flower, produce seed and restore their root...
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Nature Walk: Eastern Cottontails
“When we see an Eastern Cottontail Rabbit nibbling grass, feeding on dandelions or running across our lawn, the detailed facial markings are not easy to see unless you have binoculars and a motionless...
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Nature Walk: Dodder
Dodder is a parasitic plant that appears like an enormous batch of wet spaghetti draped over and wrapped around other plants such as the wild bergamot we see here. It sprouts from seeds in the soil...
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Nature Walk: Red-tailed Hawk
Juvenile red-tailed hawks lack the wariness of mature adult birds. They are more tolerant of humans and less wary of potential danger. They lack many of the skills needed to survive and their first...
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Nature Walk: Bumblebees
Bumblebees probably aren’t given enough credit for the pollination services they perform. They’re a life-sustainer for a host of native flowers and some agricultural crops, like red clover, a hay crop....
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Nature Walk: Red-tailed Hawks
Bird identification can require serious observation and science. Here we have two red-tailed hawks that are completely different. On a recent bald eagle survey, wildlife biologist Bruce Ehresman...
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Nature Walk: Ice Designs
photo by Carl Kurtz Plants such as bulrushes, cattails, water lilies and animals such as frogs, fish or even snail shells often freeze on or just below the surface of ice that has formed on ponds and...
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Nature Walk: Pintails in Flight
The challenge of watching ducks in flight is keeping up with the action. Dabbling ducks such as mallards, shovelers, blue-winged teal or these pintails take off vertically. Once airborne they often fly...
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Nature Walk: Icy Spring Reflections
The end of winter and the beginning of spring is a gradual process of warm days and cold nights, which may be interrupted by snowstorms or unusual heat waves. The melt water that fills prairie potholes...
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Nature Walk: Hermit Thrush
From a distance it may be difficult to distinguish a buff-brown Hermit Thrush from the fallen leaves in an un-raked lawn or a woodland as it searches in the litter for insects. We see them in early...
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Nature Walk: Perfect Camouflage
Mottled plumages of birds such as the brown creeper offer perfect camouflage. Creepers are tiny birds (less than six inches in length) that search the bark of trees for insects or spiders and their egg...
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Nature Walk: Warblers in the Snow
During our recent snowy weather, we observed warblers, which are basically insectivorous, feeding along our melted gravel driveway and in the adjacent woodland. They were constantly eating, although...
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