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...

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...

Exotic Bird of the Southern Plains

Birders who travel across the Southern Plains will usually observe a wide variety of raptors and grassland songbirds; in spring and fall, th...

Travel by Radar

Heading east on the High Plains yesterday afternoon, we knew that our journey involved some risk.  After all, the massive spring storm that ...

Reunion on the Platte

By mid February, migrant sandhill cranes begin to gather along an 80-mile stretch of the Platte River, in south-central Nebraska.  They are ...

Toward an Arctic Wall

Heading east on the Great Plains yesterday afternoon, we encountered a dense cloud bank that stretched across the eastern horizon.  It had t...

Snowstorms: Boston vs. Denver

Boston and Denver are known to be snowy cities; the annual average snowfall in Boston is 44 inches while Denver's average exceeds 57 inc...

West of Salina

Driving west through Kansas on Interstate 70, one enters the Flint Hills west of Topeka.  The highway undulates across this uplifted plateau...

Early Snows over Kansas

Driving back to Missouri over the past two days, I encountered the usual mix of winter wildlife, including rough-legged and red-tailed hawks...

Mild Air, Frozen Ground

Heading back to Colorado this morning, I left Columbia under clear, cold skies; the temperature was 26 degrees F.  Before long, I encountere...

America's Lucrative Pheasant

Native to Asia, ring-necked pheasants were introduced to North America in 1881; initially bred in captivity and released on private hunting ...

River of Floods

Near the end of the Pleistocene Epoch, as the last of the Continental Ice Sheets was retreating into Canada, a massive lake of meltwater for...

Orange is the new Green

Crossing the Great Plains in mid October, one finds that the verdant grasslands and cropfields have given way to a scenic landscape of orang...

A Damp August Chill

With plenty of monsoon moisture in place, a cold front dropped through Colorado overnight and its low pressure center moved into the High Pl...

A Day for Dust Devils

As I crossed the Great Plains yesterday, intense heat, bright sunshine and calm conditions set the stage for dust devil formation and I enco...

Sorghum Season

Driving across the Great Plains today, I noticed that sorghum covered most of the crop fields, especially in central Kansas.  Native to nort...

A Kansan Deluge

Heading back to Missouri today, I left Denver under sunny skies and enveloped in cool, dry air.  East of Oakley, Kansas, the air acquired a ...

Blast Furnace on the Plains

As I traveled back to Colorado today, strong southerly winds raked the Great Plains, sweeping hot air into the Heartland and fueling tornadi...

Mountain Plovers

The only thing "mountain" about mountain plovers is that they summer and breed in the Mountain Time Zone.  Preferring short-grass ...

Southern Plains Monsoon

The annual Southwest Monsoon, which develops during the summer months, results from low pressure over the northern Baja and high pressure ov...