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My Favorite Springtime Magazine

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As spring rolls around I look forward to one of my favorite sporting magazines filled with colorful photos of some of the cutest subjects in the whole world and reminding us of one of the coming seasons most wonderful activities. I’m talking, of course, about the March issue of Gun Dog—the puppy edition. That issue is always filled with pages of puppy photos from around the country and lots of advice on choosing, raising, and training a puppy with an emphasis on the sporting breeds. Ain't nothing cuter than a puppy, especially when one is recovering from the winter doldrums.

Photo by Renee V FCC

Landscape Ecology: To Build a Home

Landscape Ecology: To Build a Home

Finding and making a home is one of the most intimate and telling jobs a bird will do. For a frenzied month or so, many birds make their way from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America, all for the long daylight hours and plump caterpillars of the north. A nest, and the course of that nest, can tell us all sorts of things about the life of a bird. Birds are among the best animals for teaching landscape ecology; responding to area and structure, the bird community of an area is a reliable indication of grass versus trees and shrubs, and small versus large areas.

Photo by Carolyn Byers

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Thank God for Mississippi

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Thank God for Mississippi

Growing up in Arkansas, we had several informal state mottos. "Quid Pro Quo" for example—pretty self explanatory. Another, "Thank God for Mississippi" requires context. Whenever national rankings came out with measures of human well being in the realms of health, education, welfare, etc., Arkansas was always ranked 49th, saved from the bottom by Mississippi always being ranked 50th. I thought of that phrase upon hearing the report of last week's meeting of the DNR Board.

Photo by Arlene Koziol

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The wolf is not at this door?

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The wolf is not at this door?

Monday was a fun day at Goose Pond, one of the first days of seed collecting. The target species was wild lupine. Volunteers collected at Goose Pond and the Erstad Prairie, Madison Audubon’s land adjacent to the Schoenberg Waterfowl Production Area, north and east of Goose Pond.

Photo by Joshua Mayer