Arctic Blast

On this last day of the human calendar, the coldest air of the season is poised to drop into the Plains and Midwest. A center of low pressu...

Riverlands

Established in 1988, Riverlands Environmental Demonstration Area is north of St. Louis, just across the Mississippi River from Alton, Illino...

Irruptives

Most birds adhere to predictable migration patterns, wintering and summering in specific geographic ranges. However, some birds, known as i...

The Florida Platform

The peninsula of Florida is the exposed, "high ground" of the Florida Platform, a broad, southward extension of the North American...

Swamp Ghost

The possible rediscovery of ivory-billed woodpeckers in eastern Arkansas sent a wave of hope through the conservation community in 2004-2005...

Tale of Two Lows

Yesterday afternoon, a low pressure center, associated with a cold front, sat over southeastern Colorado. Its counterclockwise winds, draggi...

Christmas Moon

While a "star" plays a central role in the Christmas story, it was the moon that dominated the night sky this year. Rising on Chri...

Postcard Morning

Walking to work this morning was like a stroll through a winter postcard. A full moon glowed in the cold, clear, western sky while Venus be...

Great Blues over Snow

Driving through Missouri farmland this afternoon, I saw two great blue herons fly across the highway, seemingly out of place in the snow-cov...

Solstice Storm

On this shortest day of the year, a powerful winter storm is sweeping across the Plains and Midwest. This morning, the center of the storm ...

The Milky Way

Some 1.7 billion years after the Big Bang, galaxies began to form, appearing in clusters across the expanding bubble of the Universe. Hydrog...

Morning Fog

Dense fog shrouded much of the Midwest this morning; the visibility in Columbia was less than a third of a mile. Extensive fog is most comm...

The Winter Nuthatch

Just outside our family room window is a large, deciduous magnolia, a single feeder filled with black sunflower seed and a hanging block of ...

December at Eagle Bluffs

On this sunny, December morning, I headed down to Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, southwest of Columbia. Stretching along the Missouri Rive...

The Permian Extinction

Today, as global warming threatens the welfare of many species, including humans, we tend to believe that this is a unique, man-induced phen...

Secondary Low

After blanketing Kansas and Missouri, the latest winter storm was centered over southern Illinois last evening, dropping heavy snow across t...

Birding in the Snow

Conditions were not ideal for Columbia's annual Christmas Bird Count this morning. Snow had fallen through the night and the temperatur...

Our National Scavenger

Once endangered, the bald eagle has made a dramatic comeback over the past few decades and is now fairly common along the larger lakes and r...

Christmas and Conservation

Christmas, at least in its western, secular form, is not conservation friendly. Though it was established to celebrate the birth of a man w...

The Resilient Cottontail

After denning up through the ice storm, the cottontails were out in force this morning, moving about in the predawn light. Yesterday's ...

Cousin Hairy

Downy woodpeckers range throughout most of the U.S. and are common in residential areas throughout the year. These small, black and white wo...

The Unnatural Salton Sea

Created by faulty irrigation engineering in 1905, which triggered a 2-year flood from the Colorado River, the Salton Sea covers 376 square m...

Ice Storm

As a cold front settled across Missouri last night, a series of sleet thunderstorms dropped over an inch of ice on Columbia. This morning, ...

The Darkest Month

We are now entering the darkest month of the year, the two weeks before and after the winter solstice. During this period the Northern Hemis...

A Weddell's Winter

Should the cold, gray Midwestern winter begin to depress you, think of the Weddell seal. This large pinniped, the southernmost mammal on the...

First Snow

Columbia's first significant snowfall of the season began at noon today, about a month later than usual. Though only a few inches fell b...

Inland Gulls

Most Americans associate gulls with coastal beaches, seaports and, perhaps, the Great Lakes. However, gulls are fairly common inland, someti...

Mattamuskeet

While almost all wildlife refuges are interesting throughout the year, some were established for specific, seasonal reasons and, thus, are e...

The Wildlife Advantage

In dealing with the harsh conditions of winter, wild creatures have a definite advantage (both mentally and physically) over we humans. Equ...

Thunder in December

While we usually associate thunderstorms with warm seasons and warm climates, they can occur at any time of year. In fact, snow thunderstor...

Winter Storm

After forming off the coast of Southern California and bringing much needed rain to the Desert Southwest, the first major winter storm of th...