Landlubber on the Coast

After ten days on the Gulf Coast of South Florida, we will head north tomorrow.  It has been a pleasant, relaxing visit with fabulous, mild ...

Crested Caracaras

The crested caracara, also known as the Mexican eagle, northern caracara or Audubon's caracara, is a widespread member of the falcon fam...

East to the Prairie

This morning, we left the watery landscape of the Gulf Coast and headed east to the dry prairie region of central Florida.  Following Florid...

Feisty Sanderlings

Sanderlings, one of the most widespread shorebirds on Planet Earth, breed on the Arctic tundra and winter along sandy beaches and mudflats a...

Beach Topography

I have long been enamored with landscape and, the greater the topographic relief, the better.  So, while I thoroughly enjoy our visits to Fl...

Leaping Rays

After a beach walk on Longboat Key, Florida, I stopped to survey the flat, blue Gulf of Mexico.  Scanning with my binoculars, I noticed a la...

Longboat's Shifting Beach

Longboat Key is a long, narrow barrier island off the west coast of Florida, stretching between Anna Marie Island, off Bradenton, and Lido K...

Gulf of Mexico Gannets

The northern gannets of North America breed in six large colonies along the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the coast of Newfoundland.  Adults arri...

Longboat Key Parakeets

Longboat Key, off Sarasota, Florida, boasts a wide variety of resident and migrant birds.  The great majority are aquatic species such as pe...

Edge of the South

Where does the American South begin?  As a child, traveling to the Gulf Coast on summer vacations, I determined that it was somewhere beyond...

Crossing Rivers

Heading for our condo on Longboat Key, Florida, we left Columbia this morning and drove east on I-70, undulating across the southern edge of...

Summer Kill

Most of us are very familiar with winter kill, the toll that ice storms, deep snow and severe cold take on plants, wildlife and humans as we...

The Nature of Retirement

Today will be my last at the University of Missouri and the last of my thirty-six year career as a private or employed physician.  Though I ...

Lassen Peak

Rising just north of the Sierra Nevada Range, Lassen Peak (10,461 feet) and its cohort of volcanic domes represent the southern end of the C...

Meant to Happen

One often hears the phrase "Everything happens for a reason."  Does this reflect our natural tendency to look on the bright side o...

Myanmar's Earthquake

About 90 million years ago (MYA), during the Cretaceous reign of Tyrannosaurus rex, the Indian Subcontinent split from the Antarctic Plate a...

Snows in the Night

Soon after going to bed last evening, I was awakened by the distinctive calls of snow geese as they passed over Columbia.  Catching a ride o...

The Nature of Heroes

General David Petraeus has become the latest American hero to fall from grace, revealing that he is, in fact, human.  Unfortunately, as a so...

Escaping Brutus

Following a night of gusty winds and rattling windows, Winter Storm Brutus (so named by the Weather Channel), pushed into Metro Denver this ...

Winds of Change

For the past few days, a downsloping, southwesterly breeze has scoured the Front Range urban corridor, yielding sunny skies, warm temperatur...

A Victory for Nature

The re-election of President Obama is a victory for nature, a sign that many Americans care about our natural environment and reject the cla...

Skittish Visitors

On this mild, sunny, crystal-clear morning, we took a walk along the South Platte River in Littleton, Colorado.  The usual mix of waterfowl ...

Crossing High Pressure

Heading to our Littleton, Colorado, farm, we left Columbia this morning, enveloped in a steady rain.  The copious precipitation, falling thr...

Messing with Space-Time

Getting prepared for work this morning, I noticed that my favorite college football roundup was not on ESPN and, when I arrived at the hospi...

The Bighorn Mountains

Over 200 miles in length, the Bighorn Mountains stretch from north-central Wyoming into southern Montana.  This range, which angles southeas...

A Close Second

Coming on the heels of glorious October, the month of November is not welcomed by many of us in the Northern Hemisphere.  Though it is offic...