Category: Door to Nature
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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, […]