birding

If ever there was a creature that seems to enjoy life more, relishes playtime and roughhousing as much, or takes more pleasure in spending time with family just lying around...

The bills of birds come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Primarily used to find and gather food, bills are used to probe mud, to peck wood, to tear flesh,...

While standing outdoors on a cold winter day or night bundled from head to toe in your warmest winter wardrobe, have you ever wondered how resident wildlife survive? How is...

Woody the Woodpecker, a famous cartoon character first created in the 1940s, is thought to have come about through an experience that the character's creator had with a real-life Woody...

Near a large marsh in northwestern Minnesota, I recently stumbled upon a small, yet significant aspen clear-cut. Over the years I have often explored this area while hunting for ruffed...

I will never forget the first time I saw a jackrabbit. At the time I was no more than 8 or 9 years old. It happened during my first squirrel...

On a lazy summer afternoon a few years ago while I was strolling through a jack pine woodland, a large furry animal leapt from a thickly limbed nearby pine. The...

Much of the enjoyment in traveling to other parts of the country is observing resident flora and fauna and trying to identify the newly encountered species. I recently experienced once...

Of the northern goshawk, which was formerly called "eastern goshawk," Arthur Cleveland Bent wrote: "From the heavily forested regions of Canada, the main summer home of the goshawk, this bold...

At one time, mountain lions were one of the most widely distributed terrestrial mammals in the Western Hemisphere. From coast to coast, north across Canada and to Alaska, and south...

White-tailed deer, or any deer for that matter, be they mule or black-tailed deer, elk, moose or caribou, are equipped with amazing senses. These animals' abilities to detect the faintest...

For the past two years a pair of trumpeter swans have been spending considerable time on the tiny, shallow lake I live beside southwest of Bemidji. I believe the pair...

My grandfather, Max Klemek, used to call them "pa'tridge." And for many years I called them partridge too. The ruffed grouse, their rightful common name, is also called many other...

Author and ornithologist Arthur Cleveland Bent, whose words I have quoted in the past, wrote an interesting passage in his book, "Life Histories of North American Birds of Prey," about...