If you’re like me and have ordered plants or seeds from mail-order nurseries in the past, you’ve probably received several plant catalogs in the mail recently.
Nature is red in tooth and claw. That paraphrase of the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson came to mind when I saw the sharp-shinned hawk make a pass at the birds around my feeders. The hawk’s presence can usually be assumed when the smaller birds scatter wildly, some of them taking refuge in the dense, multi-stemmed deutzia shrub near the feeders.
I just checked the tally for the ongoing Antlerless Portion of Firearms Deer Season and found that hunters have checked a little more than 13,600 deer since Nov. 25.
It’s easy to focus too much on negative changes to our natural world, be it increasing urban sprawl, threats from invasive exotic species or natural disasters like flooding and ice storms.
It was one of the warm, sunny weekends in November, and I was happily going from new bluebird box to bluebird box, brushing a coat of water sealant on the wooden top of each.
A recent e-mailer wanted to know why this department doesn’t pay for deer damage to vehicles but will collect fines for the wildlife code violations pertaining to deer.
Firewood looks harmless, but it can harbor the emerald ash borer, a devastating forest pest. Hunters are urged not to move firewood to and from their camps. Instead, buy firewood locally and burn it all before returning home.
The Missouri Conservation Commission named Bob Ziehmer as the new director who will replace John Hoskins when John retires Jan. 15, 2010. Bob is currently one of our assistant directors.
The literary naturalist Loren Eiseley described the way vegetation reveals its secrets in the fall and winter, when the lush growth of summer is reduced to the freeze-tolerant mechanical parts of stems, bark, wood, leaves, fruits and seeds.
A horror story was the last thing I expected when I recently picked up "By a Thousand Fires," an antique book about Ernest Thompson Seaton. But there it was, creepy and gross enough for a Hollywood thriller.