2021, 03, March

Covers, March 2021

Covers, March 2021

Front Cover: Wolf in snow. Photo © Holly Kuchera/Dreamstime.com. Back cover: Caption This Black Bear. Photo © Dreamstime.com.

In Our Skies, March 2021, Lyrid Meteor Shower

As long as the sky is clear, there’s rarely a bad time to be out under the stars. A telescope or even a binocular can reveal scores of galaxies, nebulas, and star clusters, if you know just where to...

The Great Conjunction: Saturn and Jupiter

The Great Conjunction: Saturn and Jupiter

Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. Photo © Morris Yoder. Jupiter and Saturn appear to pass each other in the sky about once every twenty years. When this happens, astronomers call it a great...

Showered With Seeds

Showered With Seeds

Photo © Guppyss/Dreamstime.com As I sat in my garden, watching bumblebees hard at work, I felt a spray on my back. It didn’t feel like water, more like grains of rice. I turned around and was...

Fascinating Frogs

Fascinating Frogs

Abundance of young tadpole in pond water. Photo © Hanbr/iStockPhoto.com “What is that?” questioned one of my students. In an instant, more students were crowded around my desk, staring at a shallow...

Exploring Nature, Spring

Exploring Nature, Spring

Photo © Kevin Shank Skunk cabbage is in bloom late winter and early spring.Woodcocks begin doing their courtship displays.Mid-to-late March grizzlies come out of hibernation.400,000-600,000 Sandhill...

Birding Bounties

Birding Bounties

American Kestrel. Photo © Brian Kushner/Dreamstime.com As I drove home from doing my uncle’s chores, I kept noticing less-than-ordinary birds winging overhead. The day already promised to be warmer...

Our Christmas Bird Count…and a Thousand Cranes!

Our Christmas Bird Count…and a Thousand Cranes!

My fingers tingled in the ten-degree wind as I pointed and counted rapidly. “Sixty-nine, seventy, seventy-one!” I calculated quickly and whispered in amazement, “That makes six hundred one in less...

Any New Birds?

Any New Birds?

It just feels like snow out here, I thought. Low-hanging gray clouds filled the sky like an oppressive blanket. Not a breath of air stirred the few maple leaves scattered on the ground. Even the...