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.…
Tag: Outdoor Column
Brooks Range not on the map until 1911
Two-hundred miles of flying and we only crossed one road 15 minutes into the flight. The rest of the flight was ridge after ridge of…
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…
Autumn arrives early in the Arctic
As I walked towards the water-filled gravel pit early one morning last week, a sound filled the air that I hadn’t heard since spring–the honking…
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…
Looking upstream to Libby Dam and Lake Koocanusa
Forty years after being completed (1972), Libby Dam is still fulfilling its mission of flood control on the Kootenai River. The Kootenai River is the…
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…
Orchids aren’t just tropical flowers, they also grow in Idaho and Alaska
Wandering through the woods looking for spring flowers a few years ago, I stumbled across a small pinkish-purple flower on a stem no more than…
Brooks Range not on the map until 1911
Two-hundred miles of flying and we only crossed one road 15 minutes into the flight. The rest of the flight was ridge after ridge of…
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…
Autumn arrives early in the Arctic
As I walked towards the water-filled gravel pit early one morning last week, a sound filled the air that I hadn’t heard since spring–the honking…
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…
Looking upstream to Libby Dam and Lake Koocanusa
Forty years after being completed (1972), Libby Dam is still fulfilling its mission of flood control on the Kootenai River. The Kootenai River is the…
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…
Orchids aren’t just tropical flowers, they also grow in Idaho and Alaska
Wandering through the woods looking for spring flowers a few years ago, I stumbled across a small pinkish-purple flower on a stem no more than…