Blog

This year’s Great River Rumble will paddle 106 miles in seven days, departing Elkader on the Turkey River on July 26, and arriving at Savanna, Ill., on the Mississippi, on Aug. 1. We greeted the paddlers in Elkader, and will follow them part-way down the Turkey River, posting occasional photos and comments. Official registration numbers […]

It’s not just the Independence Day fireworks that set early July ablaze. Our prairie glows in the morning light. Dew sparkles on the drooping petals of purple coneflowers. Bumblebees probe the golden blossoms of St. John’s wort. Clusters of butterfly milkweeds wave their orange greeting to the sky, attempting to lure an increasingly rare monarch

  With temperatures in the 80s and the dew point pushing 70, we wimpy humans may retreat to the cool of an air-conditioned house. But birds have a better way.   A steady stream of feathered bathers took dips and drinks in our backyard pool on a recent sweltering afternoon. And what entertainment for us,

Sylvan Runkel State Preserve   “The Hills.” When you see those undulating ridges, accented with dark-green trees and lighter green grassland, you know you’re back in Iowa’s Loess Hills. The annual Loess Hills Prairie Seminar provides an unparalleled opportunity to get in touch with some of Iowa’s wildest land. You can hike steep trails, enjoy

The waning moon hangs in the haze just above the treetops, and a thin band of gray creeps above the eastern horizon. A robin has already begun its merry “chir-up, chur-eep, cher-ip” carols and warbles – even though sunup is still an hour away. It seemed pitch black when the alarm clock jolted you awake

Despite the snow, and ice, and cold – spring MUST be here! Our goldfinches are turning GOLD! OK, so the males look more motley than golden today – but they are molting their drab winter feathers, and bit-by-bit becoming the brilliant-yellow birds that my Dad appropriately called “wild canaries.” They have been with us all

After three more deer from Allamakee County have tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD), Iowa DNR officials hope to use “a surgical approach” to head off a more widespread outbreak of the always-fatal disease that affects deer, elk, and moose. The three animals were among 309 tested in Allamakee County after the 2014 hunting

The birds didn’t need the TV meteorologists’ hype – or the legendary ground hog’s prognostication – to tell them a storm was coming. Sensing the snow and cold and wind that were approaching, the goldfinches crowded onto the tray of sunflower hearts to stoke up. Juncos and tree sparrows anxiously gathered on the ground under

Heat wave! That was the first thought when the thermometer crept back above zero. But, in retrospect, why the surprise? January? Iowa? Did we expect T-shirt weather? We tossed another log into the wood stove, savored the sunshine streaming through the south windows, and occasionally made a quick trip outside to feed the birds. The