Early Summer at Eagle Bluffs

Early to mid summer is often the least interesting time of year to visit Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area, southwest of Columbia.  The migrant...

Aggressive Young Men

We encounter them on a regular basis, especially on our highways.  They race up from behind, riding our bumper and flashing their lights, de...

East to the Trees

Except for desert species, which are equipped with a deep tap root, a widely radiating root system, small transient leaves and twigs capable...

The Evolution of Science & Religion

In order to survive, early man had to learn a great deal about his natural environment.  At the same time, his complex brain led him to imag...

Brushpile Assassins

A pair of eight-spotted skimmers have been hunting at our brushpile over the past week.  Skimmers are a family of dragonflies and the eight-...

A Thistle Garden

In the wild corner of our Littleton, Colorado, farm is a swath of bull thistles.  Just common weeds to most suburbanites, worthy of immediat...

Natural History of Sea Turtles

Turtles evolved in the Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era, some 200 million years ago, a time when small dinosaurs and the first, shrew-lik...

Stoking the Social Divide

Wealthy Americans have always enjoyed the benefits of their money (however acquired): expensive homes and cars, fine clothes and jewelry, ga...

Summer Smoke

I awoke last night to the scent of wood smoke.  While that smell is inviting and nostalgic during the colder months, its presence on a mid J...

The Bushtit's Cowbird

Over the past several days, I have observed an amusing yet disturbing relationship on our Littleton, Colorado, farm.  A tiny bushtit "p...

Lake Lahontan

During the Wisconsin Glaciation, the last glacial period of the Pleistocene Epoch, a large lake covered most of northwest Nevada, extending ...

The Kuskokwim River

Second only to the Yukon among Alaska's Rivers, the Kuskokwim (which means slow-flowing) drains the remote southwest region of the State...

The Human Calendar

Humans evolved in East Africa about 130,000 years ago (almost 13.7 billion years after the Big Bang).  If we condense the history of our spe...

Waxwings in the Mulberries

For the past few days, a flock of cedar waxwings has visited our Littleton farm, heading straight for the mulberry trees.  We have four whit...

The Season of Needless Death

As the first major heat wave of the summer sweeps across the nation, we are beginning to hear about heat-related deaths, the great majority ...

A Distant Fire

Yesterday afternoon, Metro Denver baked under a relentless sun and clear blue skies.  The air temperature was 99 degrees F, the humidity was...

Blue Grosbeaks

Though rather uncommon in most areas, blue grosbeaks breed across the southern half of the U.S. and northward along the Atlantic Coast, thro...

New Mexico's Bootheel

While avid American travelers are familiar with many regions of our country, few have likely been to the Bootheel of New Mexico.  Part of a ...

South Platte Summer

Summer now envelops South Platte Park, in Littleton, Colorado.  While most of the activity was concentrated along the River and its floodpla...

The Rivers of Yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park covers a massive volcanic plateau in northwestern Wyoming; slivers of the Park also extend into southern Montana a...

Front Range Storm Watching

As debates rage over the benefits and risks of storm chasing, whether for science, business or personal excitement, most of us prefer to obs...

A Dry Upslope in Colorado

It was chilly and overcast across eastern Colorado yesterday.  Checking the weather satellite, one saw that the eastern half of our State wa...

The Crazy Mountains

Endowed with one of the more colorful names in the North American landscape, the Crazy Mountains are one of the isolated ranges that rise in...

Love & Fear

It seems to me that humans are primarily motivated by two emotions: love and fear.  As young children, before we ponder such things, we love...

Kites over Central Kansas

On my journey across the Great Plains yesterday, I encountered a pair of Mississippi kites, cavorting above a field near the Solomon River, ...

Into Drier Country

Heading back to Colorado this morning, I left Columbia under a gray overcast and drove west through a verdant but soggy landscape.  Floodwat...