Nature's Handiwork

Unlike Winter Storm Q, which brought windswept pellet snow to our region and left behind a scenic landscape, its successor dropped heavy wet...

Feeder Magnetism

During periods of heavy snow, as has occurred in Columbia this week, backyard feeders are especially effective at attracting a wide variety ...

Twin of Q

Before Winter Storm Q has completely departed the Northeast, its twin, nicknamed Rocky by the Weather Channel, is spinning over the Texas Pa...

Australian Volcanism

Most of the active volcanoes on Earth occur along subduction zones of the Pacific Rim and western Indonesia.  Others rise above hotspots (bo...

A Conspicuous Visitor

The heavy snow cover across central Missouri has dramatically increased visitors to our backyard feeder.  After all, when natural food sourc...

Human Colonization of Australia

Current DNA evidence suggests that humans evolved in East Africa about 130,000 years ago and did not migrate from our home continent until 8...

Thundersnow in Missouri

Winter Storm Q lived up to its forecast, dumping a foot of snow in Columbia.  The powdery flakes began to fall about 7:30 AM and, by late mo...

A Gathering Storm

Winter storm Q, so named by the Weather Channel, was spinning over Southern California this morning, bringing snow to the Sierra Nevada, the...

Trouble on the Mekong

The Mekong River of Southeast Asia rises on the southeastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau and flows SSE for more than 2700 miles to its delta...

Origin of the Pacific Ocean

When the continental land masses merged into Pangea at the end of the Paleozoic Era, some 250 million years ago (MYA), that supercontinent w...

Pelican Parade at Eagle Bluffs

Yesterday morning, it was sunny and cold at the Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area on the Missouri River floodplain; the temperature was 25 degr...

Cosmic Missiles

Yesterday's spectacular meteor explosion over Russia and the near miss of a sizable asteroid (which passed closer to Earth than our comm...

The Panama Connection

While some controversy remains, most geologists believe that Panama initially formed as a peninsula of Central America, projecting southward...

The Nature of Adventure

Adventure is the opportunity to explore the unknown, an exciting experience that may entail risk.  It follows that adventurous individuals a...

Vanguard of White-Fronts

Flocks of snow geese have been passing over central Missouri for a week now and I observed several more at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area ye...

Depth of the Great Lakes

Scooped from Precambrian and early Paleozoic bedrock by the Pleistocene glaciers, the Great Lake basins of North America have varied subsurf...

Polynesian Migration

When humans first reached Southeast Asia, some 70,000 years ago, most of Indonesia was a broad peninsula; in like manner, due to the lower s...

Rooting for Champions

While I am a fan of many college sports, I am not especially devoted to any particular team.  And when it comes to the professional leagues,...

Mark Twain Mergansers

The Salt River and its numerous tributaries drain a large part of northeastern Missouri, flowing eastward to join the Mississippi just north...

Northeast Blizzard

Yesterday, a chilly rain fell across Missouri on the south side of a winter storm that was centered over eastern Iowa; north of that central...

Nature's Audio Recovery

As the cold, quiet season begins to lose its grip and inches toward the north, nature's varied noisemakers are greeting the first signs ...

Black Bears in Missouri

It's February and the next generation of Missouri black bears is arriving in dens throughout the wooded hills of the Ozarks.  How many a...

Before the Snows

On this bright, cool morning at Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, southwest of Columbia, snow geese had not yet graced the Missouri River floo...

Cedar Creek Bluffs

Cedar Creek snakes southward through central Missouri, forming the border between Boone and Callaway Counties, before entering the Missouri ...

Nadir of the Year

For human residents of the Northern Hemisphere, early February is often viewed as the low point of the year,  We are, after all, tropical cr...

Preying on the Weak

Throughout the animal kingdom, predators tend to prey on the weak: the young, the old, the frail, the injured or the sick.  Biologists and e...