I believe it is a chicken bone!

Nature

Focus Illustrated, June 2023

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide I took this HDR panorama just after sundown at a field with a beautiful mixture of Indian paintbrushes and Texas Bluebonnets. I used six individual HDRs and Affinity Photo to make this final panorama. This photo illustrates...

Favorite Focus, June 2023

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide Bald Eagle nest. Photo © Melody Burkholder. Scott's Oriole. Photo © Katherine Hawk. A clouded sulphur butterfly visits a prairie verbena. Photo © Matthew Dzhalovskiy.

Inspiration in a Gerbera Daisy

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide Photo © Timothy Waldner. My sister is so sweet! She gave me a flower—one flower—but she had a special reason. In the summer, when I see a beautiful photo, that just makes me go and take photos myself. I probably can be...

Camp & Cabin Cookin’, June 2023

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Making Good Compost

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide Last month we looked at the limitations of poor quality compost, but don’t think for a minute that compost is something to be avoided. Composting is a natural process that happens all by itself without our intervention....

Bootes

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide M3. Photo © Reinhold Wittich/Dreamstime.com. Bootes lies nearly straight overhead on June evenings in the Northern Hemisphere. This constellation is relatively easy to find, not only because of its distinctive kite-like...

Study Guide Puzzles, June 2023

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Covers, June 2023

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You Can Draw a Redhead

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Pictures & Poems, June 2023

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The Life of a Cheetah

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Cheetah. Photo © Stu Porter/Dreamstime.com. Carefully Mother Cheetah hid her six cubs in a clump of withered savanna grass so no marauding lion or hyena could find and kill them. Since Mother Cheetah had to hunt every day to...

You Can Draw an American Goldfinch Submissions

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Rubies in the Garden

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird preening. Photo © Alva Steury. Bzzzzz. The tiny bird landed on the wire tomato cage, merely 18 inches (45 cm) in front of me, his tiny gorget feathers flashing ruby red in the warm evening...

Oatmeal-Box Planetarium

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Cylindrical cardboard boxes, of the type at least one brand of oatmeal comes in, can be used for projecting beautiful images of star constellations on the wall or ceiling. Copy the constellation you wish to study on a sheet of...

Spring Brings the Birds

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Ladder-backed Woodpecker. Photo © Josephine Dyck. Melodious notes herald the coming of spring at my home in western Texas. Doves, grackles, meadowlarks, Curve-billed Thrashers, mockingbirds, and nighthawks all come back to...

My Careless Little Friends

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Photo © Jason Rich/Dreamstime.com. Exciting things are always happening to other people. They get to hold chickadees, touch grackles, make pets of fawns…the list could go on and on. But these exciting things always happen to...

From the Editor’s Quill, June 2023: My Nature Workshop

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Wondernose: What animal has scarlet and bright blue skin on its face and haunches?

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Mandrill. Photo © Peter Zwitser/iStock.com. This sounds like a very fantastic creature, doesn’t it, Wondernose? It is one of the most brightly colored mammals in the world. The adult male has bare patches of skin on both the...

The Bird in the Thunderstorm

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Black-capped Chickadee and lightning. It was dark and very late at night. The little feathered chickadee had long since fluffed his feathers and gone to sleep. But a storm was coming. The little chickadee sensed this with that...

Mailbox, June 2023

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Favorite Focus, June 2023

Jun 1, 2023

Inspiration in a Gerbera Daisy

Jun 1, 2023

Camp & Cabin Cookin’, June 2023

Jun 1, 2023

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Birds

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Favorite Focus, June 2023

You Can Draw a Redhead

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Rubies in the Garden

End of the Trail, June 2023: Eastern Screech-Owl

View the June 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Red phase Eastern Screech-Owl. Photo © Nathan Leinbach.

Covers, June 2023

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Spring Brings the Birds

Pictures & Poems, June 2023

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The Bird in the Thunderstorm

You Can Draw an American Goldfinch Submissions

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Favorite Focus, May 2023

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Let’s Take a Hike, May 2023: Nightjar

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine See story "Meeting Mrs. Nightjar." Photo © Clement Martin.

Meeting Mrs. Nightjar

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Photos © Clement Martin. Africa’s sun poured all its fury on my head, bleaching my hair whiter still. My three Ugandan friends, my two younger brothers, and I were walking home from church on a trail that wound through scenic...

The Belted Kingfisher

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Belted Kingfisher at nest. Photos © Marlene Burkholder. One sunny May morning, I saw two kingfishers! I assumed they were just flying around and wouldn’t stay long. To my surprise, they seemed to be staying around. They would...

Pictures & Poems, May 2023

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Our Month of March

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide I probably laughed out loud when I saw this foot-in-the-mouth shot. I have no idea where the “foot” comes from. Is it part of the critter? Many of you are sending us your March submissions for the big contest. I’m sure next...

Favorite Focus, April 2023

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Focus Illustrated, April 2023

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Animal Name Puzzles

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Wildflower Art Contest Honorable Mentions

View the April 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Moonflower. Artwork © Emily Hulbert. Red-winged Blackbird on cattails. Artwork © John Mark Ramer. Dogwood Dawn. Artwork © Hannah Stoltzfus.

You Can Draw a Yellow Warbler

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Favorite Focus, June 2023

Jun 1, 2023

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Insects & Arachnids

Favorite Focus, June 2023

Jun 1, 2023

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Water Life

Covers, March 2023

Mar 1, 2023

View the March 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Fairy shrimp. Photo © Dogwood Ridge. Ruby-crowned Kinglet eating dogwood berry. Photo © Dogwood Ridge.

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Plants & Fungi

Making Good Compost

Jun 1, 2023

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Reptiles & Amphibians

Our Month of March

May 1, 2023

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Astronomy

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Bootes

Oatmeal-Box Planetarium

My “Star”

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Meteor. Photo © Dreamstime.com. It was late in the day when I remembered. Weeks before, I had checked our November Nature Friend. The Geminid meteor shower was tonight.I had never seen a “shooting star,” and I didn’t really...

The Enlightenment of Light

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Double slit experiment—see article below. We often tend to think of our vision as reaching out to observe things. However, in reality, views flow the other direction—to us, at the speed of light. Light is essentially...

In Our Skies, May 2023: Eta Aquarids

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine The Eta Aquarid meteor shower will peak on the night of May 5–6. Unfortunately, that’s also the night of Full Moon, so any faint meteors will be washed out by moonlight. On a year without moonlight interference, the Eta Aquarid...

Coma Berenices

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide M64 On May evenings, our planet is turned so that we are looking out the side of the Milky Way instead of looking edgewise through its arms. This orientation means that there are few star clusters and nebulae in the evening...

Mailbox, May 2023: Venus & Jupiter Conjunction

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Leo

View the April 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide Leo Triplet. Clockwise from left: NGC 3628, M65, M66. Photo © Shaphan Shank. Leo, the Lion, is high in the evening sky during April. Leo lies about 40° south of the Big Dipper, which puts it high in the southern sky near...

The False Dawn

View the March 2023 Nature Friend Magazine False dawn. Photo CC-SA 4-0. We consider air to be invisible, but, in reality, it is filled with molecules of air and vapor that fog our vision. When we were in Alaska, we were able to see Mt. Denali from the Kashwitna River...

Canis Major

View the March 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide Canis Major, the Great Dog, lies in the southern sky just southeast of Orion. Like Orion, many of the stars that make up Canis Major are bright. The constellation’s brightest star, Sirius, is the brightest star in our...

Favorite Focus, March 2023

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In Our Skies, March 2023: Hybrid Solar Eclipse

View the March 2023 Nature Friend Magazine One of the closest planetary conjunctions of the year will occur on the first evening of March. On this evening, the two brightest planets, Jupiter and Venus, will approach to about 0.5° from each other. The brilliant pair...

Mailbox, February 2023: Poetry Contest

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Stargazing Chills

View the February 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Bubble Nebula and open star cluster M52. Photo © Shaphan Shank. Oh, no, I thought as I stepped out the door. Supper was over and darkness was falling. An hour or two earlier it had been snowing quite hard, but now the sky...

Taurus

View the February 2023 Nature Friend Study Guide The Pleiades. Photo © Shaphan Shank. Taurus, the Bull, is a distinctive constellation that lies just northwest of Orion, high in the evening sky in late winter. A V-shaped group of stars forms the bull’s head, and two...

Backyard Stargazing

View the January Nature Friend Magazine Andromeda Galaxy. Photo © Shaphan Shank. “Good night, Dad and Mom,” I said as I strode to the door, clad in a winter coat, hat, and boots.“Good night,” they replied—Mom with a sigh, glad she wasn’t so consumed with a desire to...

Mailbox, January 2023: Astronomy Question

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In Our Skies, January 2023: Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)

View the January Nature Friend Magazine Comet Neowise 2020. Photo © Cheryl Shank. If you look over a list of the year’s best meteor showers, the Quadrantid meteor shower will likely catch your attention. First, the Quadrantid shower sits at the top of virtually every...

The Rosette Nebula

View the January Nature Friend Magazine Rosette Nebula. Photo © Morris Yoder. For most observers in the United States at this time of the year, the Rosette Nebula rises in the east at sunset and crosses high in the southern sky, then sets in the west at sunrise. It’s...

Triangulum and Aries

View the January Nature Friend Study Guide Triangulum and Aries are a pair of small constellations that lie south of Andromeda, between the Great Square of Pegasus and the Pleiades. Triangulum, the Triangle, is the more northerly of the pair, lying just south of the...

Wondernose: What animal has teeth like triangular bread knives?

May 1, 2023

View the May 2023 Nature Friend Magazine Bull shark. Photo © Willyambradberry/Dreamstime.com. Sounds like the kind of teeth you’d like to avoid, doesn’t it, ? Triangular, razor-sharp, with serrated...

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Exploring Nature

Exploring Nature, April 2022

Apr 5, 2022

In April and May, wildebeest herds move northwest to central Serengeti. They follow the new grass growth.April and May are times to hunt morel mushrooms in the mid-South and Midwest.Check vernal...

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