The Halloween Hunters

As if on cue, the distinctive call of a barred owl pierced the predawn darkness this Halloween morning. Owls, after all, are the quintessen...

Pleistocene Land Bridges

During the Pleistocene "Ice Age," which began 2 million years ago, four major glaciations occurred, separated by warm interglacial...

Children and Conservation

Children are the hope of mankind. They are the most compelling reason to end war, combat discrimination, eliminate suffering and foster fre...

Midwest Wind Tunnel

Northwest winds raked the Midwest yesterday afternoon and continued into the night. Produced by a strong pressure gradient between high pre...

Rifts, Geography and Time

Over its 4.6 billion-year history, the surface of our planet has been steadily changing; the size, shape and position of our oceans and cont...

The Big Chill

Yesterday's rain was the leading edge of a cold front that has pushed on to the southeast. High pressure behind the front has brought c...

Water Therapy

Water has a calming effect on most people. Waterscapes, from pounding surf to placid lakes to whitewater streams, are popular destinations ...

Human Nature

We humans, like other animals, are products of our genes and everything that we do in our lives is devoted, in some way, to their preservati...

Dusk on the Beach

One evening last week, my wife and I walked out to the beach to watch the sunset on the Gulf of Mexico. Though we missed the main event, a ...

Ghost Crabs

Residents of sandy beaches, ghost crabs live in burrows that they dig along the seaward edge of the dune line. These burrows are up to four...

A Feast at Low Tide

Yesterday morning, a low tide had doubled the width of the beach on Longboat Key. Broad sandflats spread toward the calm Gulf, cut by braid...

A Retreat to Summer

Just as the autumn colors are spreading and the first winter storm is pushing out of the Rockies, we'll be retreating to summer for the ...

Western Snow

The first major snowstorm of the season pushed into the Northern Rockies and Intermountain West, yesterday, dumping up to a foot of snow. W...

The Dow and the Hawk

Yesterday afternoon, I returned to my office, logged onto CNN and found that the Dow had dropped another 800 points. Preferring to ignore th...

The Ferocious Loner

Ferocious yet reclusive, wolverines inhabit the vast northern forests of Russia, Europe and North America; the North American subspecies, wh...

The Contrarian Bird

As the first hints of winter blow across North America, many birds begin their migration to southern climes. Those dependent on insects or ...

Heaven on Earth

Many religious zealots live to die. Their entire earthly existence is devoted to achieving eternal life and death is the portal to that rewa...

Insect Deadline

The insects of the Midwest are approaching their deadline. With the first freeze only a week or two away, they are busily ensuring the sur...

Unicorn of the Sea

Narwhals are toothed, Arctic cetaceans, best known for the prominent tusk of the adult male. The latter is actually an outward eruption of ...

October Marsh

The early October marsh is not your noisy, buggy wetland of late spring and summer. Gone are the colorful songbirds, flitting among the thi...

Roxborough State Park

One of the most scenic destinations along Colorado's Front Range is Roxborough State Park, on the southwest edge of Metro Denver. Encom...

Pokeweed

One of the more conspicuous plants in the early autumn landscape is pokeweed. Growing in small stands or as scattered, individual plants, t...

The Outdoors Month

October has arrived with its warm, sunny days and chilly nights. The oppressive heat and humidity of summer are now a distant memory and th...