Belugas

Belugas are small, white, toothed whales that inhabit the Arctic and sub-Arctic waters of North America and Siberia. Gregarious, they prefer...

From Spring to Winter

Today dawned like an April morning, with a clear sky, balmy air and a hint of moisture on the streets; it was 54 degrees F. By mid morning, ...

Country Sparrows

Of the common winter sparrows, two are not often found in urban or residential areas. Rather, they prefer more open habitat and those who w...

Smoky Hills Wind Farm

On my last few trips between our Missouri and Colorado homes, I have watched a large wind farm sprout from a broad ridge in central Kansas, ...

Late Day Visitors

Yesterday, as the sun was poised to drop behind the Front Range, a flock of sixty or more cedar waxwings descended on our farm. These nomad...

Four Juncos

Dark-eyed juncos are small, hardy, attractive birds that winter throughout most of the U.S. Often called "snow birds," they are r...

Winter on the Farm

Our small farm in Littleton, Colorado, sits on the west wall of the South Platte Valley. Each morning, we are treated to a spectacular sunri...

Apishapa Canyon

Most visitors to Colorado head for the mountains or western canyonlands, often deriding the State's eastern plains as a dull, flat exten...

Weather Wall

When polar air drops into the Northern Plains it is often rather shallow and its movement is frequently not governed by a fast-moving front....

Winter Oasis

By mid winter, most lakes and ponds along the Colorado Front Range are frozen over and the South Platte River becomes a vital source of open...

Day of the Raptors

On our trip back to Colorado today, the sun blazed in the southern sky but had little effect on the cold, Arctic air that enveloped the Grea...

The Paleozoic Center

From the Appalachian Plateau to the Central Plains and from the Great Lakes to the north edge of the Gulf Coastal Plain, almost all of the e...

The Fear of Science

This week, the Pope cancelled his visit to an Italian University due to the protests of that institution's professors and students. Thei...

Tumbling Highs

Three domes of high pressure will dominate the U.S. weather map over the next few days. The first, over the Great Basin, will keep the Inte...

The Uniformity of Life

If you accept the Big Bang theory, the universal laws of physics and the uniformity of chemical processes, then it is reasonable to conclude...

The Extreme Desert

A desert is generally defined as an area that averages less than ten inches of precipitation per year. None is more dry than the Atacama Des...

Truculence in Blue

Winter is the season of the jay. Though birdsong is generally subdued, the harsh call of the blue jay rings through the neighbor-hood, annou...

Aransas

By 1941, only 15 wild whooping cranes remained in North America. Since that time, thanks to habitat protection, pollution control, public e...

The Grassland Owl

Breeding throughout Canada and across the northern U.S., short-eared owls are common winter visitors in the Heartland. These mid-sized owls...

Hominids and the Pliocene

The Pliocene Epoch, a relatively short period in geologic history (10-2 million years ago), covers a very important phase in early human evo...

Ice and Human Dispersal

Most anthropologists believe that modern man evolved in East Africa, about 125,000 years ago; this coincides with the last, warm interglacia...

The Western Appalachians

The Southern Appalachians, which stretch from New York to Alabama, formed as the North American and African Plates collided, about 250 milli...

January Thaw

High pressure to our east and a deep low pressure system to our west have combined to produce strong, southerly winds across the Heart-land ...

Wintering Woolly Bears

Most insects of the Temperate Zone winter as eggs or pupae, providing nutritious snacks for mice and birds. Some, including ladybird beetles...

Pacific Wind Machine

Yesterday afternoon, a massive winter storm was centered off the coast of Washington State; its central pressure was equivalent to a Categor...

Colorado Lynx

Apparently extirpated from the State by 1973, lynx would not be seen in Colorado for more than 25 years. Then, in 1999, the Division of Wild...

Missouri's Great Lakes

Three large reservoirs span the upper watershed of the Osage River in southwest Missouri. These lakes (Truman, Pomme de Terre and Stockton)...

Deep Freeze

Even most of us who prefer winter to the hot, humid summer are not especially fond of temperatures in the single digits. Arctic air has now...

Resolutions for Wildlife

As Americans across the country make their New Year's commitments to lose weight, give up tobacco or stop drinking certain beverages, I ...