Before much light even comes along in the morning, and well after sunset, you’ll see them at the feeders. That’s the Cardinal for you. They also normally mate for life and this colorful male will spend a lot of time bringing food to the nest for the female as she sits on eggs. This guys … Read more
Looking back I now consider it a privilege to have worked on a family farm. It wasn’t my family, it was that of a friend, but they treated me very kindly. Farmers are often like that. I realized that the work in such a place is never really done…there is always something to do. In … Read more
When you visit the west in the late summer or early fall, there’s a good chance you’ll run into some smoke from wildfires…it’s just been a common thing over the last few years. On this morning in August in Badlands National Park, the sunrise was dramatically diffused by the hazy smoke. Sunsets too would end … Read more
I’ll grant you that there are many birds that can serve as a sign of spring. Robins might be the most notable for many people, but Orioles, Red-winged Blackbirds, Grey Catbirds…are certainly contenders in my mind. But I think for me, these days, the diminutive Hummingbird would take the prize as the primary sign that … Read more
The mink is a small but amazing predator. And I’m not sure if there’s anything that it won’t try to hunt that would be in it’s general size range. I know for a fact it’s not above going after birds, up in the trees, at night…confirmed by a raucous sound coming from the backyard one … Read more
Bald Eagles around the Midwest are now either on eggs or actually have some young in the nest right now. Look around and you might just spot an eagle nest…they are popping up in a lot of places and they are usually BIG. You can see them from quite a distance away. I watched an … Read more