Category: Door to Nature
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Door to Nature: Mice, Voles and Shrews
It’s been a lackluster winter for outdoor sports and snow enthusiasts. We have had very few good snowfalls and rain turning everything to ice in between, making conditions poor for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. However the white-footed deer mice, meadow voles and short-tailed shrews are doing well. Some of the more recent snows of an […]
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Door to Nature: Gray Squirrel Mating Season
Every early morning under the bird feeders there is a congregation of gray squirrels. Lately the high number is seven and they seem to have their own “territory.” They will tolerate each other within about two feet, but if one inches closer then there is a quick fight to protect each creature’s food supply. Years […]
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Door to Nature: Common Redpolls
Another substantial snowfall has been cleared from the driveway and bird feeders as frigid Canadian air covers Wisconsin. When possible it is nice to just stay indoors and watch the wildlife in the yard and see which birds are enjoying the daily handout. The Wisconsin Birding Network indicates widespread reports of common redpolls. This is […]
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Door to Nature: Ice and American Tree Sparrows
The snowstorm of mid-January brought 17 to 18 inches of dry powdery flakes that were easily shoveled away from the feeders. I was not concerned with the seven gray squirrels being able to jump from the piles to the feeders because the snow was so soft and non-supportive. Then Jan. 22 brought eight hours of […]
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Door to Nature: Flying Squirrels
The morning of Tuesday, Jan. 16 dawned a bright clear 5 degrees. Everything in the yard and woods was covered in pure white after the 17 inches of snow that fell from late Sunday night to the wee hours of Tuesday morning. I went out and shoveled the path to the bird feeders, cleaned off […]
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Door to Nature: The Northern Saw-whet Owl
There exists a bird of prey in eastern North America so lovely and dainty on the one hand yet such a fearless little dynamo when it comes to killing rats and mice – the saw-whet owl. Even though it ranges throughout much of the northern United States and temperate Canada, relatively few people ever see […]
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Door to Nature: A Red Fur Coat
The official proprietors of our outdoor bird feeders and brush piles have finally attained their true color. All summer long those pugnacious, loquacious, sassy “pirates” were quite brown. Now the red fur of these impudent little squirrels marks them well. Their seasonal change of color is due to the gradual replacement twice a year of […]
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Door to Nature: The Christmas Bird Count
An old advertising phrase, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” could apply to the Christmas Bird Counts (CBC) that have become so popular throughout this continent. These annual early winter events are sponsored by the National Audubon Society and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and were started by a group of interested and concerned […]
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Door to Nature: Cheerful Chickadees
Few wild creatures that I have studied, observed and photographed during the past 50 years have prompted me to write about them as often as the black-capped chickadee. These friendly appearing, trusting, beady-eyed, acrobatic spitfires have become favorites of millions of people throughout our country and Canada. The states of Maine and Massachusetts have honored […]
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Door to Nature: Mistletoes of Europe and America
A custom with ancient pagan connections that was frowned upon by the church for many years, then used secretly in homes for a long time, has finally become a common holiday practice. Nevertheless, the very nature of mistletoe and its uses are poorly understood by many people today. So rigid were the beliefs of some […]
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Door to Nature: The Symmetry of Norway Spruce Cones
As long as I can remember evergreen tree cones have been a traditional part of the decorations for the holiday season. Most people don’t think of a flower when they pick up a pine cone any more than they do when they eat an apple. The intricate shapes of cones fascinate people, while the lip-smacking […]
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Door to Nature: Confusing House and Purple Finches
My Grandma Skala saw eye-to-eye, in a sense, with Roger Tory Peterson, famous ornithologist, artist and writer. Grandma, not influenced by prior reading or ornithological study, provided my mother and me with a perfect description of the male purple finch’s color in 1941. We were relaxing on lawn chairs in the shade of the McIntosh […]
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Do you enjoy eating Cucurbita pepo pie (kew-CUR-bi-ta PEEP-o) as much as we do? I’m speaking of that famous Thanksgiving treat, pumpkin pie. Our annual Thanksgiving feast enjoyed with good friends would be incomplete without a scrumptious homemade pumpkin pie. In thinking back to my childhood in Kewaunee, I do recall having pumpkin pie for […]
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Door to Nature: The Scrappy Weasel
Which native Wisconsin mammal that remains active throughout the winter could be described with the following set of words: beady-eyed, agile, bold, persistent, energetic, curious, eager, inquisitive, bloodthirsty, mass murderer, fearless, courageous, terrorist, serpentine-like, game hog, assassin, excitable and secretive? I saw the tracks of one of these small carnivores in the soft, newly fallen […]
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Door to Nature: How Birds Survive Winter
Editor’s note: While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, 2016, his nature articles will continue to live on in Door County Living with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the article includes both their names. Biting, […]
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Door to Nature: Sedges Have Edges
One of the great joys of owning a piece of property is to get to know the plants intimately and to enjoy them often during all seasons. Our recent hikes along the glacial moraine east of our house revealed several of the largest and most beautiful patches of one of the widest-leaved sedges in Wisconsin […]
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Door to Nature: Aspens Make Their Own Music
This time of year we enjoy lingering at the top of the Hibbard’s Creek valley near our home and drinking in the brilliant yellows of the trembling aspens that do so well in the creek bottom. We look at their beautiful late fall show as the quiet subtle “afterglow” following the more vibrant mid-October colors […]
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Door to Nature: The Trusting Ruffed Grouse
The very first ruffed grouse I ever saw brings back pleasant memories. One of my all-time favorite teachers and friends was Walter Kacer, who taught our seventh and eighth grade boys Sunday school class at Kewaunee Congregational Church. He and the other teachers at church were far ahead of their time in realizing that by […]
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Door to Nature: Playing Possum
An automobile trip at this time of year, no matter how short it may be, does not begin without thinking, “Watch out for deer!” We drive a little more slowly in certain areas so as not to end up with “grilled venison.” As downright impossible as it is at times to avoid automobile-animal collisions, simply […]
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Door to Nature: Plain, Honest and Upright Sunflower
United States history tells us that a symposium was established in the 1890s for the purpose of choosing the most suitable blossom to become our national flower. Two recommendations that rated highly in the study were the cardinal flower and the columbine. The sunflower was also included on the list. What do you suppose ever […]