Musings On Natural History, Science, And The North Woods
It had been a good trip to and from the Twin Cities, ornithologically speaking. We saw seven bald eagles and a dozen turkeys, along with many dozen great blue herons at their rookery on the bank of the Snake River near Pine City. But the best came last as we were returning home and nearing … Continue reading North with the Spring and the Swans
The Hudson River begins its journey to the Atlantic at Lake Tear of the Clouds, a small glacial lake in the North Woods of the Adirondack Mountains. Approximately 70 miles south, the river emerges from the Adirondacks near the small village of Greenfield. It was here, on July 10, 1823, that Sanford Gifford was born. … Continue reading Thoreau, Marsh, Pinchot, and the North Woods
Old Mother Goose, When she wanted to wander, Would ride through the air [With] a very fine gander. The honking of Canada Geese and the wailing of Loons are the sounds of the spring returning to the North. A wedge of geese – some days two or four birds, some days many more – often … Continue reading Mother Goose and the Evolution of Canada Geese
We have plenty of ice here in Minnesota. It is the most common form of much of the water here for most of the year. Ice is bad when it’s on roads but good when it’s on lakes. We drive on it, skate on it, and drill holes through it to fish beneath it. People … Continue reading Ice
At a first glance, the natural world appears messy and arbitrary. A pile of data about trees, moose, or any other organism often looks as random as a phone book. And yet, we almost always find some very simple and beautiful mathematical relationships which underlie such messiness. Finding such simple and beautiful mathematics beneath our … Continue reading The beauty of ballerinas and equations, spirals and snails
They are small plants that look like pine seedlings. No, perhaps they look like little cedars. But then again, maybe they are a weird kind of moss, or perhaps a fern. These are just some of the reactions people have to these plants which are commonly found in the pine and spruce-fir forests of the … Continue reading Ancient Plants of the North Woods
Although Minnesotans pride themselves on their Scandinavian heritage, the biological connections between Minnesota and Scandinavia precede European immigration of humans by many centuries. One of the intriguing features of the boreal forest is that its occupants are circumpolar. Thus, moose, wolves, and lynx are found not only in Minnesota, Canada and Alaska, but also in … Continue reading Linnaeus’s Favorite Flower