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It’s official! When the tundra swans show up along the Upper Mississippi, you know that winter is on its way. We delighted in the sights and sounds of a hundred or so swans north of Harpers Ferry on October 27. A few birds loafed in the backwaters along Red Oak Road, while others restlessly circled […]

The long-awaited project to replace the bridge over the Turkey River at Motor Mill has begun! Crews from Minnowa Construction, of Harmony, Minn., started work at the site on October 11. The first phase is to build a temporary cofferdam to protect the century-old center pier during repairs. The historic pier will be used for

Frosty coneflower leaf Lucky that we had enough tarps to cover the peppers and green beans and flowers! The weather forecasters were right when they predicted a COLD first night of autumn. We awoke to birds ice-skating on the bird bath, frost on the exposed kale leaves and the prairie flowers, and the brisk feel

To see a short feature about Larry Stone, go to http://www.iptv.org/iowaoutdoors/story.cfm/full_program/9680/iao_20120713_204/video Be patient! It’s at the end of the Iowa Outdoors public TV show.

It’s not fall yet – but Mother Nature sure is dropping a lot of hints . . . Yellowing leaves already tinge the walnut trees in the valley. Boxelders and elms and cottonwoods also are following the walnuts’ lead and beginning the change from green to yellow. Virginia creepers paint tree trunks with splotches of

SUMMER! Why do I like summer? Let’s count the ways . . . Maybe it’s because I’ve never grown up – so I look forward to the no-school, boyhood joys of mud and water and catching frogs and fish. Or perhaps it’s because spring-into-summer is the season of birth and renewal. We see baby rose-breasted

THE RUSH OF SPRING Waterfowl migrating. Bluebirds nesting. Turkeys gobbling Flowers blooming. Tree buds bursting. Late-frost warnings. First thunderstorms. Morels popping. Farmers planting. Garden needs tilling. It happens every year: We’re so busy trying to savor the arrival of spring that we can get swept away by the avalanche of changes that highlight March, April,

Although this male red-bellied woodpecker somehow lost most of the top half of his beak, the resourceful bird has managed to stay otherwise healthy. Perhaps it’s because he’s learned to gorge himself on chunks of sunflower hearts from our bird feeder. By tipping his head and shooting out that l-o-n-g tongue, the bird scoops seed

Maybe that wasn’t the bluebirds’ intent, when they sat on the branch, sunning themselves on a balmy March afternoon. But I took it upon myself to anthropomorphize. I’d just finished the spring clean-out of our bluebird boxes, prompted by occasional bluebird whistles I’d been hearing from the edge of the woods. Within minutes, the male