Spring Reigns

More than a week after the equinox, spring has taken hold in central Missouri. Forsythias, red maples and wild cherries are blooming and th...

Swallows and Saints

Long before humans inhabited Southern California, cliff swallows returned each spring to nest on rocky bluffs along its streams and rivers. ...

Caribbean Subduction Zones

The breakup of Pangea began with the formation of the Tethys Sea during the Triassic and continued with the opening of the Atlantic during t...

Waves of Thunder

Late yesterday afternoon, a cold front draped across central Missouri, from west to east. As a result, a thick cloud layer formed above Col...

Anticipation

March and April can be difficult months in the American Midwest. Periods of warm, sunny weather induce spring fever, only to be doused by t...

A Spring-Fall Mix

It was mild in Columbia last evening, with temperatures in the upper fifties. But the dry air and east breeze made it feel more like early ...

Meeting Stan Freden

In 1980, as we returned from a ski trip to Utah, my wife and I were bumped from our flight and placed on another. Advised to grab any open ...

The Early Flycatcher

Despite the cold, gray, breezy weather, a scattered flock of eastern phoebes turned up at the Forum Nature Area, in Columbia, yesterday. Th...

Immortality

Ever since hominids developed the intellectual capacity to fear death, we have sought the key to immortality. Neanderthals were the first o...

A Watershed Journey

Naturalists tend to ignore State and National borders, preferring to view our planet as a mosaic of geophysical provinces. Most of these re...

After the Thaw

Another mild and sunny morning sent me down to the South Platte Valley for a hike along the river. The recent bouts of warm weather had ope...

White Ranch Park

One of my favorite destinations close to Denver is White Ranch Park, northwest of Golden. Draped across Belcher Hill and its adjacent ridge...

The Noisy Plover

Most North American shorebirds breed in the Arctic and winter on southern coasts; exceptions include species that summer in the U.S., such a...

Tibet and Appalachia

At first glance, the Tibet and Appalachian Plateaus appear to have nothing in common. The first is a high, stark, arid landscape while the ...

Front Range Snow

Metro Denver sits in the southwestern corner of a broad, topographic wedge that is bordered by the Front Range, to the west, and the highlan...

High Plains Sandhills

On my trip back to Colorado, today, I observed a flock of migrating sandhill cranes in western Kansas. Heading for their staging grounds al...

Cold Rain

For those of us who enjoy the outdoors, cold rain is surely the least welcome weather. While we can dress for frigid days, maneuver through ...

Surfing the Fronts

Just as surfers ride the edge of an oncoming wave, waterfowl move northward on southerly winds that precede an approaching front. Boosted b...

Voyeurs of Pain

Religious people believe that man is inately good, instilled with God's divine spirit. I am inclined to believe that we are a product o...

Seasonably Erratic

Through this second week in March, our average high was about 50 degrees F in central Missouri. While fairly normal for this time of year, ...

Life in Motion

Sitting on a park bench and reading a book on a calm, spring day, one might relish the peace and stillness. But they would be mistaken. The...

The Mellow Bird

Most songbirds are nervous creatures, flitting among the shrubs and trees as they search for food, ever wary of the predators that stalk the...

Snows over Gans Creek

Draped across a scenic gorge just south of Columbia, the Gans Creek Wild Area is a 750 acre refuge of forest, immature woodlands, meadows an...

March Monster

The latest winter storm was centered over West Virginia this morning and its cold front stretched from southern Florida to New England. Lar...

North of Winter

Over the past few days, a deep trough has formed across the Central U.S. as the jet stream took a broad dip to the south. Dropping from the ...

The Natural Exercise

Aerobic exercise is an important component of a healthy lifestyle. It is essential to the prevention and management of heart disease, high b...

The Drummers of Spring

Throughout the year, the tapping of woodpeckers is a common sound in woodlots, forest preserves and residential areas. Pecking at bark and d...

We are Star Dust

Current evidence indicates that the Big Bang occured 13.7 billion years ago and scientists believe that the first stars ignited within 200 m...

A Telling Wind

Yesterday, a strong southerly wind brought summer-like conditions to Missouri; persisting throughout the day, the gusty flow produced highs ...

Harbingers of Spring

Though the equinox is still almost three weeks away, the early signs of spring are abundant across Missouri. Morning birdsong has returned i...

Messy March

In the American Midwest, March is the messiest month. Cool, cloudy, breezy weather is the rule, with frequent rain or wet snow. At the sam...