A great place to call home
Twilight was quickly fading as we drove south on Highway 95 after crossing the border at Eastport. As we descended down the hill by Brush…
Tag: Natural History
Camouflage a means of survival
I catch a slight movement out of the corner of my eye and stop to scan the brushy slope. After a few seconds I spy…
What’s that protruding from your head?
Often I catch myself using the terms antler and horn interchangeably, such as “I’m going horn hunting”, even though I know they are different. One…
Incredible, edible cattails
A common sight in any shallow water around the Kootenai Valley is stands of cattails. They line irrigation ditches, lake-shores, swamps and the majority of…
Look for spruce grouse on gravel roads this autumn
A frenzy of flapping bursts from the shrubs no more than 10 feet away, quickening my heartbeat until I realize it’s only a spruce grouse.…
Lichens: Like’em or leave’em
I’ve noticed lichens before on rocks, trees and high alpine ridges before but didn’t look closely at them until recently. Peter Nelson, a lichenologist who…
Pondering the puzzle bark of ponderosa pine
One of the first conifers I learned to identify after moving to Boundary County was the majestic ponderosa pine, mainly because of the bark. I…
How can a weed smell so sweet?
Do you remember the first time you smelled the pleasant aroma of alpine fir, labrador tea or cottonwood sap? I won’t forgot the first time…
White-tailed deer a far ranging species
Grazing in fields in early morning, seeking shelter in the woods during mid-day, browsing in city parks in the evening and crossing highways at night,…
Praying mantis captures food with quick reflexes, fatal grip
Insects range from beautiful butterflies to everyday ants to creepy spiders and everything in between. Praying mantises are in between with their strange looks and…
How to Identify a Grizzly Bear versus Black Bear
After spotting a bear in the basin below Goat Mountain on the State Line, I pulled out my binoculars to take a closer look. Even…
No escaping the annoying buzz of mosquitos
Lying under the window at night I can hear the constant buzz of mosquitos swarming on the other side of the window screen. Almost asleep…
Camouflage a means of survival
I catch a slight movement out of the corner of my eye and stop to scan the brushy slope. After a few seconds I spy…
What’s that protruding from your head?
Often I catch myself using the terms antler and horn interchangeably, such as “I’m going horn hunting”, even though I know they are different. One…
Incredible, edible cattails
A common sight in any shallow water around the Kootenai Valley is stands of cattails. They line irrigation ditches, lake-shores, swamps and the majority of…
Look for spruce grouse on gravel roads this autumn
A frenzy of flapping bursts from the shrubs no more than 10 feet away, quickening my heartbeat until I realize it’s only a spruce grouse.…
Lichens: Like’em or leave’em
I’ve noticed lichens before on rocks, trees and high alpine ridges before but didn’t look closely at them until recently. Peter Nelson, a lichenologist who…
Pondering the puzzle bark of ponderosa pine
One of the first conifers I learned to identify after moving to Boundary County was the majestic ponderosa pine, mainly because of the bark. I…
How can a weed smell so sweet?
Do you remember the first time you smelled the pleasant aroma of alpine fir, labrador tea or cottonwood sap? I won’t forgot the first time…
White-tailed deer a far ranging species
Grazing in fields in early morning, seeking shelter in the woods during mid-day, browsing in city parks in the evening and crossing highways at night,…
Praying mantis captures food with quick reflexes, fatal grip
Insects range from beautiful butterflies to everyday ants to creepy spiders and everything in between. Praying mantises are in between with their strange looks and…
How to Identify a Grizzly Bear versus Black Bear
After spotting a bear in the basin below Goat Mountain on the State Line, I pulled out my binoculars to take a closer look. Even…
No escaping the annoying buzz of mosquitos
Lying under the window at night I can hear the constant buzz of mosquitos swarming on the other side of the window screen. Almost asleep…