Navigation

Category: Door to Nature

  • Door to Nature: Towhees of North America

    By ,

    I remember the early morning bird outings that Roy and I would lead for The Ridges Sanctuary back in the 1970s and hearing my first rufous-sided towhee. Its “drink your tea” song emanating from a shrubby field out in the country was so distinctive. Many birds have a song and a call, often quite different […]

  • Door to Nature: The Red-eyed Vireo

    By ,

    There is a bird whose unusual persistence at singing is only outdone by its exquisite and wonderful nest building. If more people would learn its repetitive song and nesting area, this very well could be one of the best known birds of eastern North America. Unfortunately there are only a relatively small number of birdwatchers […]

  • What is Causing Evergreens to Turn Brown?

    By ,

    From driving around the county, there is no other way to put it:  some trees just look bad. In actuality, the number of damaged trees is much less than the healthy ones, but those are the ones that catch our eye. There are various reasons for dying trees. Currently, emerald ash borer is wreaking havoc […]

  • Door to Nature: Mosses and Liverworts

    By ,

    I’ve been interested in mushrooms for many years, ever since finding a blue one on the first Saturday of October, 1972, during our members’ hike for the Ridges Sanctuary Annual Meeting. The variety and colors are simply astounding. They reproduce by spores and are in the group of plants that are called “non-flowering.” The large […]

  • Door to Nature: Our Gorgeous Wild Columbine

    By ,

    Quite a few years ago, perhaps in the late 1930s, a nationwide attempt was made to establish a national flower. For a while the top votes went to the rather uncommon dazzling red cardinal flower. Close behind it was a widespread, easily recognized and well-loved flower – the columbine. Unfortunately the federal project fizzled before […]

  • Door to Nature: Chipmunks and Gophers

    By ,

    One of the most favored foods I put out for the birds and animals is hulled peanut halves. A 20-pound bag is expensive but I put out just one big handful per day and it can last a long time. The blue jays will snarf up as many as possible in one visit so I […]

  • Door to Nature: The Intensely Blue Indigo Bunting

    By ,

    My feeders in the front yard have been well populated with indigo buntings this spring. You can tell them apart by the brilliance of their plumage, at least the young males from the mature. Male indigos that hatched last year will still have some brown in their body and head feathers. Older birds are entirely […]

  • Door to Nature: Canada ‘Juneflower’

    By ,

    Wildflowers are appearing throughout the Door County landscape now and one family is well represented. There are 18 species of plants in the lily family. All are recognized by the flowers being in parts of threes or sixes. All except one – the Canada mayflower. The tender young leaves in spring are a favorite for […]

  • Door to Nature: The Musical Baltimore Oriole

    By ,

    Spring truly arrived at my home on Tuesday, May 1. The high temperature reached 82 degrees briefly in the afternoon and the first Baltimore oriole arrived at my feeders. It meant that it was time to install the orange holders on the platform feeders for these gorgeous birds with the clear melodic song to enjoy […]

  • Door to Nature: Garlic Mustard

    By ,

    Strong southwest winds are blowing today and this first day of May is the warmest one of spring, a season we thought would never arrive. I’ve lived up here in northern Door County for nearly 46 years and this was the coldest, snowiest and latest spring I ever experienced. The dry brown woodlands are finally […]

  • Colorful Singing Warblers of Spring

    By ,

    Many Door County people are enjoying migratory birds, either as they pause to rest or feed during their journey northward, or as they arrive and settle in to nest and raise their young. Gradually their numbers will increase to the point of exhilaration. Soon indigo buntings, rose-breasted grosbeaks, Baltimore orioles, ruby-throated hummingbirds and at least […]

  • Door to Nature: January Weather in April

    By ,

    The story I intended to write for the last Friday in April would have reveled in the glories of bloodroot flowers. As I sit at the computer during our second snowstorm of the weekend on April 15 it makes me think differently. Perhaps the ground will still be covered with snow in late April. Here […]

  • Lukes’ to be Inducted into Conservation Hall of Fame

    By ,

    The Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame induction ceremony and dinner, originally scheduled for April 14, has been rescheduled for May 5 at The Atrium at SentryWorld in Stevens Point. Door County naturalists and “partners in nature” Charlotte and Roy Lukes will be inducted into the Hall of Fame along with former Wisconsin Department of Natural […]

  • Door to Nature: The Corvid Family of Birds

    By ,

    Do you know what a chrysanthemum or delphinium or a trillium is? Most would reply that they are flowers and those are the actual scientific genus names. Could you identify a Corvus brachyrhynchos? It is the scientific name for the American crow. Many people are familiar with some of the taxonomic genus names of flowers, […]

  • Door to Nature: American Beech Trees

    By ,

    Can you think of a tree native to eastern Wisconsin (besides the paper birch) that is easier to identify, even from a distance, in winter as well as in summer, than the American beech? You can hardly incorrectly distinguish this wonderful tree with its big raw-boned, muscle-bound appearance and smooth ashy-gray, elephant leg-like trunks. I […]

  • Roy and Charlotte Lukes, Partners in Nature, to be Honored

    By ,

    On Saturday, April 14, Roy and Charlotte Lukes will join the ranks of John Muir, Increase Lapham, Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olson, Gaylord Nelson and 87 other past inductees of the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame. “It’s amazing,” Charlotte Lukes said of the honor being bestowed on her and her late husband. Roy died at the […]

  • Door to Nature: Whistling Tundra Swans

    By ,

    Few native bird species have provided us with more exciting watching and adventures during the past 45 years than the tundra swan, formerly called the whistling swan because of the whistling sounds made by their wings when the birds were in flight. Fortunately the rather wide migratory zone through much of Wisconsin allows many people […]

  • Door to Nature: The Uncommon Common Loon

    By ,

    A favorite bird of many people living in the North Country rides the toes of oncoming winter south as the lakes freeze up. Come late March these same magnificent divers follow closely on the heels of spring as it advances through our state, leaving melted openings on the ice-covered bodies of water. Loons, like most […]

  • Door to Nature: Red-winged Blackbirds Are Back

    By ,

    Some ornithologists say the most abundant bird species in North America is the red-winged blackbird. This was stated a number of years ago and perhaps it is still true, but the European starling, seen recently in great masses along county roads, may come in as a close second. I subscribe to Wisbirdn, which is a […]

  • Door to Nature: Raccoons on the Move

    By ,

    There is a wild animal, described as being a generalist with a cast iron stomach, that is here to stay, primarily because it has become so highly adaptive to humans. In fact, it is thought to be an excellent example of a synanthrope, an animal able or even preferring, to live with humans. One look […]