Martin Mania

Behind our cottage on Sandy Lake, in northeast Ohio, two purple martin structures tower above the end of a dock, each harboring a dozen nest...

North through Appalachia

Leaving Athens, Ohio, this morning, we headed northeast through the Sunday Creek Valley, a tributary of the Hocking River.  As is typical ac...

Heading for the Hills

Invited to attend a wedding in southeastern Ohio, we left Columbia this morning and drove east on Interstate 70.  For most of our trip, we c...

Summer Dusk

It is in mid summer that we most appreciate dusk, a welcome reprieve from the late afternoon heat.  Venturing outdoors, we often enjoy a sof...

Mid Summer Relief

After more than a week of hot, humid weather, a cold front has dropped into central Missouri.  Igniting thunderstorms early this morning, wi...

The Trump Phenomenon

Donald Trump knows America.  He understands that racism and intolerance pervade our society, that many Americans fear "foreigners"...

Legions of Legumes

Yesterday morning, before the heat of the day, I removed tree seedlings from our flower beds.  While some were oaks or maples, the great maj...

Horsemint

The lavender blossoms of horsemint (also known as wild bergamot) were abundant at Forum Nature Area, in Columbia, this morning.  A common me...

Rendezvous with Pluto

This morning, 9.5 years and 3 billion miles after launching from Earth, the New Horizons spacecraft will zip past Pluto, coming within 7800 ...

The Residential Finch

Natives of the American West, house finches inhabit foothills, desert canyons and open woodlands, including urban parks and suburban neighbo...

Back in the Jungle

After a month in Colorado, I have returned to the heat and humidity of central Missouri.  Fed by these jungle-like conditions, including cop...

Prickly Poppies

By mid summer, clumps of prickly poppies are abundant along the Colorado Front Range, their large white flowers shimmering above ranchlands ...

U.S. Chamber promotes Smoking

We Americans, proud of our Democracy and enjoying unparalleled freedom, tend to assume that U.S. intervention across the globe is always wel...

The Nature of Alzheimer's Disease

First described by Dr. Alois Alzheimer, a German psychiatrist, in 1906, Alzheimer's Disease is rapidly becoming the third most common ca...

Cool Change for Denver

Over the past 36 hours, a cold front dropped across the Front Range, putting an end to several weeks of hot, sunny weather.  Behind the fron...

Evolution of Large Flightless Birds

Looking at the current distribution of ratites (large flightless birds including ostriches, rheas, emus and cassowaries) and understanding t...

Shark Attacks on Humans

The plethora of shark attacks along the Carolina Coast this summer has spawned headlines across the country and, I assume, around the globe;...

The Asteroid Belt

As the sun formed, 5 billion years ago, surrounding gas and debris gradually coalesced into the planets, four inner solid planets and four o...

Season of Discovery

Naturalists and birders look forward to the cooler months of the year when large flocks of migrant cranes and waterfowl stop to rest and fee...

Religion & Individual Rights

When national laws or rulings assert individual rights (access to birth control, abortion, gay rights) that clash with their beliefs, religi...

Our Cottontail Colony

Over the years of writing this blog, I have related the saga of cottontails on our Littleton, Colorado, farm.  During the first two decades ...

Justice & Enlightenment

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples have the right to marry throughout the United States.  Decades late in coming, thi...

Ladybirds in the Thistle

The "crop" of bull thistle on our Littleton, Colorado farm is exceptional this year, no doubt fueled by the wet spring.  While gui...

Supercell over Denver

Though we enjoyed a warm, sunny day in Metro Denver, a stationary front stretched across northeastern Colorado, adding instability to the at...

Yellow Goat's Beard

By June, yellow goat's beard (yellow salsify) is blooming on our Littleton, Colorado, farm and will continue to do so for the next month...

An Unexpected Gift

Just after 7:30 this morning, strong northeast winds raked Metro Denver, dropping the temperature by ten degrees (F) or more.  In the midst ...

Fathers & Sons

Today, Americans celebrate Fathers Day, honoring those who have stayed involved in the care and nurturing of their children.  While it is ye...

The Prairie Owl

Burrowing owls are summer residents of the Western U.S., from the High Plains through the Intermountain West; they are also permanent reside...

Front Range Heat Wave

After six weeks of intermittent rain and heavy thunderstorms, sunny, hot weather is forecast to invade the Front Range over the next five da...

Popes & Climate Change: Round 2

Pope Francis' proclamation that global warming is real and that humans are primarily responsible is causing indigestion for Catholic Rep...

Illness & Guilt

Having practiced medicine for almost forty years, I am well aware that persons diagnosed with a serious illness must also deal with guilt.  ...

Geology of the Baraboos

An elongated ring of hills and ridges rise in south-central Wisconsin.  Known as the Baraboos, they represent outcrops of ancient Precambria...

A Rim of Storms

A dome of high pressure over the Southeastern U.S. is causing two interconnected weather problems.  Beneath the dome, air is sinking and hea...

Genetics, Gender & Sexuality

From a purely anatomic point of view, one's gender is determined at conception; if the mother's egg is fertilized by a sperm with a ...

Magpie Invasion

Black-billed magpies are common residents along the Colorado Front Range and we often observe pairs or small flocks on our Littleton farm.  ...

Woodhouse's Toad

On my many hikes at South Platte Park, I occasionally run across a Woodhouse's toad, especially during their breeding season of April th...

Climate Change & Human Migration

We humans evolved about 130,000 years ago in East Africa; at that time, the last of the Pleistocene's warm interglacial periods was unde...

A Three-pronged Attack

Two days ago, just after noon, a blue jay began to shriek from a treeline behind our Littleton house.  He was soon joined by three other jay...

The Blanca Monsoon

Blanca, initially a hurricane off the coast of the Baja Peninsula, has moved into the Desert Southwest as a Tropical Depression, bringing co...

High Water on the Great Plains

Returning to Colorado yesterday, I crossed the Missouri River west of Columbia.  Racing along, the river waters were lapping at trees on the...

Common, Beautiful & Unrecognized

Indigo buntings are sparrow-sized birds that breed across the Central and Eastern U.S. and in parts of the Desert Southwest.  While the fema...

Death in the Backyard

We have all witnessed death in our yards.  Robins yank worms from the soil, accipiters snare unwary songbirds, snakes feast on nestlings or ...

Procreation on the Deck

New experiences, however carnal they might be, are worth reporting and yesterday's spectacle deserves a post.  It began early in the aft...

A Peaceful Morning at Eagle Bluffs

A gray overcast stretched above the Missouri River floodplain yesterday morning and seemed to induce a peaceful calm at Eagle Bluffs Conserv...

The Republican Circus

As the number of Republican Presidential Candidates approaches the census of many American towns, it seems appropriate to look at their agen...

A Trilling Reception

We returned to Columbia last evening, arriving just after the latest spring storm.  Stepping from my pickup, I realized that a full blown or...

Texas: Land of Drought & Flood

Texas, second only to Alaska in size, lies in the south-central U.S.  To its west are the dry landscapes of Mexico and the Desert Southwest ...

A Prodigal Sun

After weeks of cloudy, cool, wet weather, an intense morning sun lit the Front Range today.  Lasting through mid afternoon, the brilliant su...

Remembrance & Apologies

On this Memorial Day, Americans attend parades, visit cemeteries and enjoy picnics while honoring the men and women who served, or currently...

Avian Sunshine

After almost a month of cloudy, cool, rainy weather along the Colorado Front Range, packets of avian sunshine arrived on our Littleton farm ...

Geologic History of Cuba

As the Atlantic Ocean began to open, some 160 million years ago (MYA), the North and South American Plates were forced westward, a tectonic ...

Stressed Swallows

The recent chilly, damp weather in Colorado has curbed the activity of flying insects and has stressed those birds that feed on them.  Swall...

The Nature of Trust

Trust is the sense that another person or human organization has integrity and will act in our best interest.  It is distinct from love and ...

A Relentless Upslope

Over the past two weeks, a series of Pacific storm systems has produced a nearly continuous period of upslope flow along the Colorado Front ...

Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield

Settled by Frank and Elizabeth Hildebrand in 1861 and by the Green Family in 1935, the lower Deer Creek Valley, southwest of Denver, was obt...

The Nature of Avian Flu

Avian flu, commonly known as Bird Flu, is caused by a spectrum of influenza A viruses; many strains and subtypes have been documented and so...

Country Folk

On our recent trip to Flaming Gorge, my pickup blew out a tire.  Fortunately, we were at the exit for a small town when that random event oc...

Crossing Southern Wyoming

After leaving the Green River Valley, we drove east on Interstate 80 this morning, headed for our Littleton farm.  Between Rock Springs and ...

Flaming Gorge

The Green River of the Western U.S. rises on the northwest flank of the Wind River Range in west-central Wyoming and flows southward through...

Journey to Flaming Gorge

Though my wife and I have traveled extensively throughout the Western U.S., a visit to Flaming Gorge, on the Wyoming-Utah border, has eluded...

Caving to Big Oil

Despite the ecological disaster wrought by the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, five years ago, the effects of which have ...

On the Storm's Cold Side

At our Littleton, Colorado, farm, the rain began to change to snow just after 7PM last evening.  A potent upslope flow on the backside (nort...

Spring Bird Census

The annual spring bird count was conducted at South Platte Park this morning, a swath of ponds, meadows and riparian woodlands along the Sou...

Downslope Drying

In the midst of a Front Range deluge, drier air is moving into Metro Denver this evening.  The moisture flow is currently from the south, mo...

Water, Deserts & the Wealthy

In American society, the wealthy enjoy an increasing number of social perks, based on their ability and willingness to pay for them; close-i...

The Mystery Legume

When we purchased our Littleton farm, in 1990, I discovered a healthy looking shrub beneath a pair of spruce trees east of the house.  Never...

Trapped in a Trough

Over the past week, an atmospheric trough has enveloped the Front Range region and much of the Intermountain West.  Reinforced by a series o...

The Lonesome Towhee

Along the Colorado Front Range, both spotted towhees (permanent residents) and green-tailed towhees (summer residents) prefer the open shrub...

Axial Seamount, Iceland & Hawaii

Oceanic volcanic islands develop above mantle hotspots or along mid oceanic ridges where the sea floor is spreading.  The Hawaiian Ridge i...

Transition in the Valley

Over the past week, there has been a significant transition in the South Platte Valley.  The last of the winter birds have departed for nort...

A Handsome Visitor

Over the past few days, a chipping sparrow has visited our Littleton, Colorado, farm.  Easily identified by their slender form, bright rusty...

Reassurance from SeaWorld

Facing a public backlash arising from a trainer's tragic death and accusations stemming from a highly publicized documentary, SeaWorld h...

Flycatcher Days on the Farm

Flycatchers generally arrive on our Littleton, Colorado, farm in late April or early May.  Western wood pewees (summer residents) and willow...