Category: Door to Nature
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Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Hummingbirds Will Soon Head South
Those tiny winged jewels, the ruby-throated hummingbirds, apparently have done quite well this summer, judging by the reports we have been receiving. Two adult males sparred over feeder rights most of the season and now several females and youngsters try to get in a few sips. The month of August found the hummers making […]
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Door to Nature: The White-tailed Deer
Editor’s note: While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, 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. Everyone […]
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Roy & Charlotte Lukes: The Distelfink
Editor’s note: While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, his nature columns will continue to live on in the Pulse with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the column includes both their names. The golden wanderers are finally […]
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Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Leaping Leopard Frogs
Editor’s note: While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, his nature columns will continue to live on in the Pulse with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the column includes both their names. There is an amphibian in […]
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Roy & Charlotte Lukes: The Whining Cicada
Editor’s note: While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, his nature columns will continue to live on in the Pulse with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the column will include both their names. […]
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Roy & Charlotte Lukes: Hawkmoths and Hornworms
While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, his nature columns will continue to live on in the Pulse with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the column will include both their names. Late July and August […]
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Roy Lukes: Queen Anne’s Lace and Wild Parsnip
A wildflower that is beginning its triumphal march across this region belongs to a large and difficult family of plants containing some interesting and widely used flavorings. Anise, caraway and dill belong to the Parsley Family that also includes a plant, which to some people is a beautiful wildflower, yet to others is a wretched […]
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Roy Lukes: Mysterious White Flowers
Two native plants should be blooming in the upland hardwoods this month and many people will wonder what they are. A nine- to 10-inch tall stem with an umbel (a short wide cluster of flowers with stalks originating from the same spot) will decorate many woodlands but there are no leaves associated with the […]
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Door to Nature: Wildflowers of the Wetlands
My first introduction to a quaking bog occurred 74 years ago. That’s when the boys’ seventh and eighth grade Sunday school teacher took our small group on one of our “after church” hikes to Seidel Lake southwest of Kewaunee. Not only did we see our first Ruffed Grouse there but also the amazing carnivorous […]
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Editor’s note: While Roy Lukes died at the age of 86 on June 26, his nature columns will continue to live on in the Pulse with the help of Roy’s wife, Charlotte, who has agreed to continue providing work from Roy’s extensive archives. For that reason, the column will include both their names. An interesting […]
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It’s when wild plants and animals, along with vegetable and flower gardens, have reached their peaks of perfection that we know we are steeped in the magical month of July. The young of many species of birds are now on the wing, bringing their total population to its highest point of the year. One reason […]
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There is a native plant now coming into flower that is highly unusual and especially beautiful. If we owned property on which they grow we would guard them jealously, watching over them like a hen chicken looks after her chicks. Surely some of you will be surprised to learn that this prized and state-threatened […]
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Roy Lukes: Great Crested Flycatcher
Some of the most valuable standing trees in the natural undisturbed woods are the dead ones. Follow the daily activities of certain birds and you’ll soon discover why this is true. Nuthatches, chickadees, woodpeckers, wrens, some owls, kestrels and crested flycatchers depend largely upon nesting cavities found in dead or dying trees. Remove the standing […]
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Sixty-four years ago this month I had an experience that triggered my interest in fossils. I was working during my college summer vacation for the Kewaunee Highway Department. My job was driving the old #5 Oshkosh truck hauling fill to a road-building site north of Luxemburg. It was during a lunch break that, while looking […]
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Door to Nature: Spring Wildflower Names
This has been a spring to remember for the wildflowers. Generally cool, barely adequate moisture and few strong winds and storms resulted in an incredibly long blossoming season for many of the native flowers. Giant trilliums, for example, will have been in excellent blossom for at least four weeks. Most have turned into their delicate […]
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Roy Lukes: The Thrush Family of Birds
It surprises many people to learn that two of their favorite birds, the American robin and the eastern bluebird, belong to the thrush family. Upon hearing the word “thrush,” many automatically think of several of the other thrushes that nest in Wisconsin including the hermit, wood, Swainson’s and veery. The gray-cheeked is seen in our […]
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A very authoritative bird book states simply and to the point that, “Gulls nest on the ground…” This is not entirely true. The black-headed Bonaparte’s gulls nearly always nest in small fir or spruce trees in the boreal (far northern) forest. Indeed they are an exception to the rule. Let’s say that most gulls nest […]
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Letter to the Editor: Thankful for “Door to Nature” Columns
Seconds ago I turned the pages of the Pulse to read that Roy Lukes is at home battling cancer. Mr. Lukes, I thoroughly enjoy reading your column and am so thankful for the way you highlight aspects of nature that otherwise may be overlooked by a lot of us. Thank you for your gifts of […]
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When but in the middle of the merry month of May can you expect to see dazzling male indigo buntings, Baltimore orioles, rose-breasted grosbeaks, scarlet tanagers and brilliant yellow American goldfinches at your feeders and birdbaths all at the same time? Trilliums carpet the woods, blossoming serviceberry trees decorate many roadsides and almost overnight the […]
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Roy Lukes: Attracting Bluebirds
Growing up during the 1930s and ‘40s and spending a lot of time on my grandparents’ farm, I never once saw an eastern bluebird there. My dad was born and raised on that farm west of Slovan and he could recall that, as a boy, at least one family of bluebirds nested each summer in […]