View the full issue in the Magazine Archive After a snowfall, look for fresh animal tracks to identify. Hunt for shed antlers. Maintain bird feeding stations with seeds and suet treats. In late...
Articles & Stories
Spunky Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl. Photo © Allen Shank. Midnight on a spring night, only a sliver of moon overhead, the forest is dark. A small bird of prey, a Northern Saw-whet Owl, perches on a tree limb,...
Orion
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Horsehead Nebula. Photo © Kevin & Adrian Shank. Orion, the Hunter, is one of the most well-known constellations in the night sky. Most of its...
Growing Blueberries
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive With a sly grin, Phil poked a stick through the leaves, trying to make me think it was a rattlesnake.That was thirty-five-plus years ago, and I still have...
The Three Pieces of Perfect Exposure: F/stops, Speed, ISO
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive F/stops sound high tech, and might even sound like something that will take all the fun out of photography. Stick with me, though, and you will learn they...
Photographing Snowflakes—Computer Time
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Editor's note: For background to this lesson, you may recall that last month I mentioned how my interest in learning snowflake photography led me to the...
Perseus
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Double Cluster, NGC 869 & NGC 884. Photo © Boris Stromar|Dreamstime.com. To the ancient Greeks, the stars of Perseus represented a hero. To me, this...
Rainbow of Flowers
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Flower Bed Contest First Place Photo © Joyce Tschetter. We recently had an opportunity to visit the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky, and my idea...
In Our Skies, January 2024
View the January 2024 Nature Friend Magazine January starts off with a bang. The Quadrantid meteor shower, often considered one of the best showers of the year, peaks the night of 3/4. The best...
High-flying, Dirty Snowballs
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Comet NEOWISE II. Photo © Morris Yoder. Comets are nicknamed “dirty snowballs.” That nickname should give you a pretty good idea of what they are—big...
Exploring Nature, January 2024
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Find frost flowers or ice needles. These occur when the air is icy cold yet the soil is still above freezing and plant roots are active. In mid-January...
Our Flower Bed
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Flower Bed Contest Third Place Photo © Solomon Blair. This is our first year having a raised flower bed. My dad built it with treated 2x8 lumber and...
Bubbling Rock Flower Bed
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Flower Bed Contest Second Place Photo © Kristina Zimmerman. We had a patch of grass between our retaining wall and our walkway that was too small to mow...
To Make a Flower Arbor
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Flower Bed Contest Third Place April June September I decided to create my flower bed around an arbor. To make it, we bent a hog panel into an upside-down...
Flower Beds Designed to Delight
View the full issue in the Magazine Archive Flower Bed Contest Grand Prize Tiger swallowtail on lantana. Photo © Regina Eby. Flower beds are the prettiest right after you’ve made all your flower...