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Category: Door to Nature

  • Door to Nature: Barred Owls and Barn Owls

    The Christmas bird counts that were conducted on Dec. 14 in the Sturgeon Bay circle and Dec. 15 in the Brussels circle found some owls. The two species that can be found in Door County all year are the great horned owl and the barred owl, and Eastern screech owls have been showing up on […]

  • Door to Nature: Blue Jays

    The Alarm Sirens of the Forest I was reading in my quiet study at sunset when I heard the call of a great horned owl. I stepped onto the front porch in the dimming twilight and waited for it to call again. The voice came from the southern section of my 20 acres of woods. […]

  • Honkers in the Autumn Sky

    The Vs of migrating geese heading south on brisk, north winds is a sure sign of fall. One of my favorite stories is the essay about wild geese in Aldo Leopold’s famous book, A Sand County Almanac. Leopold told of seeing the geese returning in the spring to his southern Wisconsin marshland and the wonderful […]

  • Door to Nature: Brooming, not Blooming, Trees

    This is the season when writing about nature becomes a bit difficult because no flowers are blossoming, no insects are flitting about and the colorful nesting birds have fled south. Some animal species have gone into hibernation or a modified winter residence underground. It’s the quiet season. The bleak winter landscape of leafless shrubs and […]

  • Door to Nature: Upcoming Christmas Bird Counts

    Each year, groups of birders organize to conduct 24-hour-long Christmas bird counts. The standard nationwide dates run Dec. 14 – Jan. 5, and they must be run within a designated 15-mile-diameter circle. Adrian Freitag had been doing the Sturgeon Bay count for many years but could no longer get out to conduct the one-day survey. After […]

  • Door to Nature: Doves and Pigeons

    As I write this, there’s a two-inch snow cover on the ground, and more mourning doves are coming into my front yard in search of food. They are gleaners of fallen seeds and bits of suet that drop from the feeders, but they also enjoy getting sunflower seeds that I scatter on the large platform […]

  • Door to Nature: American Coots, Clowns of the Bird World

    It’s time to organize our Sturgeon Bay and Southern Door Christmas bird counts and look at the forecast for winter finch migration into Wisconsin. The news from Canada is that cone production on the spruce and pine trees has been very good, and many birch trees have a great quantity of seeds.  That means we […]

  • Door to Nature: Late-Fall Landscapes

    Now that we are halfway through November, most of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves. That’s why, when driving down any county road with forest edges, you can quickly pick out the northern red oaks: Many of them hang on to most of their leaves, which have now turned a dark red-brown color. American […]

  • Door to Nature: Nuthatches Are Really Nuthacks

    The breeding season is over for the native birds, and with the approach of winter, more species are coming to my feeders. The black-capped chickadees are some of the most frequent visitors to get sunflower seeds, and with every cold front, more seem to be in the yard and at the feeders.  Another native small […]

  • Door to Nature: Melanism and Albinism

    I was driving along County Q in Ephraim recently when a black gray squirrel ran across the road in front of me. It made me look twice to be sure I was seeing straight. We had one of these unusual animals in our yard in the spring of 1995 and again in the winter of […]

  • Door to Nature: Colorful Autumn Leaves

    The cold wind and rain of Pumpkin Patch weekend blew the last leaves off the tall basswoods in my front yard. They’re usually the earliest species of our native broad-leaved trees to lose their leaves. My late husband, Roy, and I kept phenology records for most of our married lives. Phenology is the study of […]

  • Door to Nature: Abundant Tree Seeds

    Native trees have produced incredible numbers of seeds this summer. My front yard has a large sugar maple, and with each windy day, thousands of maple seeds fall. I can’t remember another recent year when this has happened. It may be that trees are reacting to the last two severe winters and are ensuring their […]

  • Door to Nature: Mushrooms Galore

    The rains have been abundant this fall, and that’s making wild mushrooms grow in many places in great numbers and varieties. I’ve been keeping records of fungi in 15 areas of the county for the past 45 years, and the area with the highest total is Whitefish Dunes State Park, with about 250 species. Many […]

  • Door to Nature: Walking Sticks

    Camouflage at its best A friend recently showed me a photo she took of a walking stick near her home. No, it’s not a cane to help one navigate rough terrain – it’s an insect. These delicate-looking creatures are not easy to find because their bodies act as camouflage against tree branches and twigs. We had […]

  • Door to Nature: Distinctive Sparrows in Fall Migration

    Birding friends of mine report warblers that they see passing through on their way south, and many were keeping track of the last hummingbirds to visit their feeders. Birdwatching at this time of year is a bit more challenging because, unlike during spring migrations, birds don’t usually have bright plumage, among other factors. Most people […]

  • Door to Nature: Eye-Catching Seeds of Autumn

    A good friend sent me a picture of a very unusual plant that she saw while walking on a trail in a northern Wisconsin bog. I had seen it years ago, so I remembered its identity. It was a plume of cotton grass. For my late husband, Roy, it was a favorite northern-area plant in […]

  • Door to Nature: Harmless Snakes Need Protection

    Just the mention of snakes can make some people writhe in fear or disgust. A bad experience may have made them feel this way, but the snakes that are native to Door County are all nonpoisonous and need to be protected and appreciated. I found a dead red-bellied snake on the brick path in my […]

  • Door to Nature: The Large Moths and Butterflies of Door County

    Few creatures are as gentle, harmless and beautiful as butterflies. They don’t chase, bite or sting you, and they cannot transmit diseases. I look at butterflies as winged flowers — radiant patches with golden freckles, lazily flying, fluttering, frolicking, basking in the sunshine. They are perfect examples of peace and tranquility. Indeed, butterflies are insects […]

  • Door to Nature: Tent Caterpillar versus Fall Webworm

    Some springs, like this year’s, had many small trees and shrubs partly covered with the dense webs of tent caterpillars, but recently I noticed different types of webs on some much larger trees along country roads. My good friend Dick Smythe, an insect expert, informed me that there are two different creatures constructing and living […]

  • Door to Nature: Spiders of September

    September is a great month to search for, photograph, learn more about and increase your admiration for spiders in the great outdoors. On a recent early-morning walk, I saw a lot of dew-covered spider webs suspended between tall grasses along the side of the road. They looked like a fairyland. Arise at dawn and venture […]