Is that a clay colored sparrow I hear? Or is it a field sparrow? — Hiking and bird photography fit together perfectly for me. I rarely set foot on a trail without seven pounds of camera gear strapped around my neck.

It’s also the Year of the Cat. In both cases, it pays to be prepared — In 1975, I bought my first road bike. It was a “ten speed,” which is what people called bikes with drop handlebars back then. When I hear some songs from the mid-seventies, they make me want to ride my current road bike, which has twenty-two speeds. Examples include “Benny and…

To me, the sounds of the bobolink and R2-D2 seem one-half natural, and one-half synthesized — “Some keep the Sabbath going to church, I keep it staying at home, with a bobolink for a chorister, and an orchard for a dome.” — Emily Dickinson On a recent hike, as I watched birds fly around at a local prairie, I was happy to spot a bobolink while…

Walking is one of the best and most accessible forms of exercise for many people. It can be part of a healthy lifestyle, too — “Movement is the best medicine.” — The author My Exercise Lifestyle My wife and I work out for 75 minutes at our local gym after lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. When the weather permits, we also walk between 2.5 and 3.5 miles around our neighborhood on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Wright’s designs for the Dr. G.C. Stockman House, the Park Inn Hotel, and the City National Bank Building led to the largest concentration of Prairie School style buildings in Iowa — In April 1907, the Ladies’ Home Journal magazine published the plans for a house designed by Chicago-based architect Frank Lloyd Wright in an article entitled “A Fireproof House for $5000.” Wright envisioned the house, in the Prairie School style, as a reinforced concrete structure for middle class homeowners.

Could this bird know more songs than you do? — “I want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think.” ― Rumi When my wife and I sing karaoke at home, the number of lyrics I know by heart surprises her. I could sing (or croak) hundreds of songs without reading the words…

Even during bleak springtime weather, migrating birds return to their breeding grounds — “April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain.” ― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land Ah, spring. It is a time of transition. Frigid air gives way to less frigid air. Ice melts from lakes. Farmers sow…

This article provides instructions to make a scratch pad with about an hour of labor and with basic supplies and tools — My wife and I recently adopted a kitten named Little Miss Muffin. Or she might have adopted us. As with all family members, human or pet, Muffin needs and deserves certain items. In Muffin’s case, this includes nutritious food, fresh water, veterinary care, a place to sleep, a clean litter…

The Board of the Directors of the National Audubon Society has voted to retain its name, despite its namesake’s role as an enslaver and slave trader — On March 15, 2023, the National Audubon Society (NAS) announced that its Board of Directors had voted to keep its name. They did so despite the fraught legacy of its namesake, John James Audubon.