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Category: Door to Nature

  • Door to Nature: America’s Best Known Weed

    The blow ball, lion’s tooth, peasant’s cloak, Priest’s crown, Irish daisy and monk’s head have all been nicknames through the years of one of the more successful plants to inhabit most land masses in the northern hemisphere during the past century. Today it is the scourge of especially those who labor so hard to maintain […]

  • Door to Nature: Spring Peepers

    When the temperature finally reaches the 50s and 60s and April’s cold rains are a fading memory, spring finally takes command and there will emanate from the wetlands the sweetest most jubilant “jingle bells” music in this land. The spring peepers will have begun their singing. If animals are capable of expressing happiness, then each […]

  • Door to Nature: Flowers of the Buttercup Family

    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.   […]

  • Door to Nature: Trailing Arbutus

    Search the world over and you will find only two species of trailing arbutus, one in Japan and the other in North America. Botanists, in their search for appropriate scientific names for flowers, chose Epigaea repens (ep-i-JEE-a REE-pens) for this favorite of favorites. Epigaea is Greek meaning “upon the earth,” while repens means “running on […]

  • Door to Nature: National Arbor Day

    I’m not sure what motivated my dad to be a tree planter and to enjoy trees so much, and perhaps he didn’t know either. But he still had a genuine love of trees to his 90th year of life. There were three trees on the original home property in Kewaunee which he planted about 1935 […]

  • Door to Nature: Earth Day and John Muir Day

    There are few people whose ideas and beliefs I would be quicker to defend, whose daring adventures many wish they could have duplicated during the prime of their lives and whose nature writings should be read and taken to heart by every American – young and old – than those of John Muir. His many […]

  • Door to Nature: Seldom Seen Salamanders

    I have heard a muddy puppy give out a yelp or two, but have you ever heard a mudpuppy bark? Supposedly it was thought years ago that these, the largest of Wisconsin’s salamanders, could actually bark. I know some of you have handled mudpuppies while you were ice fishing and that upon removing them from […]

  • Door to Nature: The European Starling

    A friend recently asked me about some birds producing weird songs comprised of a rapid succession of squeaks, wheezes, chatters, chips and other strange sounds. What else could they possibly be at this season but starlings? This black songbird, about the size of a robin, having a long pointed beak, short swept-back wings and a […]

  • Door to Nature: The Wary Fisher

    Which two wild animals would you guess bring about the most complaints in northern Wisconsin? Deer undoubtedly represent the number one problem in central and southern Wisconsin. The number one and two animals of concern in the northernmost counties are the bear – number one, and the fisher – number two. Black bears as potential […]

  • Roy Lukes

    Door to Nature: Buffaloberry and Moosewood Shrubs

    Every now and then, through pure luck, you accidentally stumble across what may be one of the largest trees or shrubs of its kind in the county. It happened as I was watching my friend, Max Martin, work on making a small cherrywood box in his workshop. It was late in the afternoon when I […]

  • Door to Nature: Kestrels Need Nest Boxes, Too

    The American kestrel is one of our nesting species and will migrate to the south, but in milder winters a few may be seen throughout the cold months along roadsides, especially in southern Door County. This month is a good time to build nest boxes for these falcons of the open countryside. So much emphasis […]

  • Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Helping Bluebirds

    One of our most favorite signs of spring laced the air in our woods early on a recent morning. A male cardinal, perched near the very tip of a tall basswood tree sang his heart out – “CHEERrr, CHEERrr, WHITcheer, WHITcheer” – trying to impress his lady love nearby. A few days earlier a male […]

  • Roy Lukes

    Door to Nature: The Lady of the Woods

    The tree that really impressed us on our brisk early March hike had us looking up at its white beauty against a crystal clear azure blue sky. It was the paper birch. The manner in which this tree’s whippy, supple branches and twigs angle so sharply skyward tends to indicate the great flexibility the trees […]

  • Balsam Poplar Buds, Roy Lukes

    Door to Nature: Trees in the Poplar Clan

    Late February is not complete without several bouquets of fragrant balsam poplar and the intricately flowered Canada buffaloberry and moosewood (or leatherwood) twigs decorating our kitchen or living room. Our very favorite is the balsam poplar, better known to old-timers as either tacamahac or Balm of Gilead. It was our friend, Miss Emma Toft, master […]

  • Roy Lukes

    Door to Nature: Goldenrod Galls

    The conspicuous remains of many plants poking their heads above the late winter snow are a pleasant reminder of their forthcoming descendants and much-awaited green of spring. Diverse forms of dozens of plants are readily identifiable, some even when viewed from a moving vehicle. Every time we drive south of Sturgeon Bay on the main […]

  • Door to Nature: A Winter Butterfly

    Years ago we received a lovely “troll” postcard from a dear Chicago area Swedish friend who was traveling in her homeland. What immediately caught our eye was the beautiful, colored butterfly stamp featuring what to the Swedes is the “Sorgmantel.” In small print below the butterfly on the stamp is its scientific name, Nymphalic antropa, […]

  • Swale, Roy Lukes

    Door to Nature: Boreal Forests

    One of the great joys in life is being able to explore various plant habitats during the four seasons. I realize there are people who prefer the edges of a cool cedar swamp or the interior of a shady maple-beech-hemlock woodland during the summer, then come winter their one and only joy is basking in […]

  • Roy Lukes, Common Merganser

    Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Common Merganser

    A large duck-like waterfowl that we young boys exploring the Kewaunee River years ago called the fish duck is being seen along the Lake Michigan side of Door County now in large numbers. My tally earlier this month totaled close to 700, with 500-plus seen at North Bay and the rest at Moonlight Bay. Interestingly, […]

  • Roy and Charlotte Lukes: Red-osier Dogwood

    Few native shrubs in northeastern Wisconsin are as easy to identify in the winter landscape, even from a distance, as the red dogwood. Their crimson red stems visually announce their beauty along practically every lake shore, in moist thickets, in marshes and along the edges of swamps. The name red-osier dogwood is what many people […]

  • Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Niagara Escarpment Lessons

    The thought of viewing planet Earth from outer space eons ago, before life existed on this 8,000-mile-wide sphere, boggles the mind. Undoubtedly one of the potentially visible landmarks was a feature that today is called the Niagara Escarpment. Appearing like a gigantic bull’s-eye, measuring approximately 300 miles from its west edge to its east edge, […]