It’s common for naturalists to draw connections between places they visit. Think of John Muir, for example, reflecting in his Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, on the plants he found along the way and their similarities to plants he’d left back in Wisconsin. In the May/June issue of Omaha Magazine, I examine similarities between two places I’ve come to know, as well as the ways that sandhill cranes connect people to both places.
To read, open the link to the full issue and click to page 66.
The land along Prairie Lane near the Crawfish River was a cornfield for as long as I could remember. In March, 1999, I joined a volunteer work crew to help begin the process of restoring wetland and prairie habitat at Faville Grove Sanctuary. It was my first experience with habitat restoration and it changed the course of my life. This article in Wisconsin Natural Resources Magazine explains a little bit about why Faville Grove is important to me: “Rooted in the Past, a Sanctuary Grows.”
A few days ago I drove west, as I do every spring, to join thousands of people who converge annually on the Platte River and the Rainwater Basin wetlands of south-central Nebraska. Nearly everybody who comes here comes to see some of the millions of migrating birds that congregate in this narrow stretch of the Central Flyway in March: sandhill cranes, ducks, geese, and more.
Some of us are also here to see people.
Not a birdwatcher? You could monitor turtles!
When a pair of cyclists rode past me on the bike trail recently, I was staring intently into a shrub. Maybe I looked a little bit deranged, standing there with my notebook. I was watching a baby warbler and, frankly, was having too much fun to care what anybody thought. That’s what a citizen science project can do to you. Continue reading
Bloodroot
Any naturalist afoot in Wisconsin this month is looking for wildflowers and finding plenty. Every week brings another “birthday,” as Aldo Leopold called a species’ first blossoming of the year. Along the Baraboo River, I can look forward to a changing array of woodland, wetland, and prairie plants flowering from spring through summer.
And this spring and summer, as I do every year, I will look up and try to memorize the names of all the plants I don’t yet know. Continue reading