flight lines

Imagine you are a bird. You've spent the spring and summer somewhere up north, raising young while safely avoiding predators and other dangers, but generally enjoying the warmth and nutritional...

"These 'silverbacks' are the largest jackrabbits in the country," Carson said as we headed west out of Tucson and into mesquite desert habitat. He had carefully loaded his two Harris's...

Tempo and pacing, two words we run across in just about everything we do. Golfers understand it, as do baseball pitchers and runners. Musicians are keenly aware of these terms...

The red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) is about as common an airborne predator as there is. During the breeding season, this large soaring hawk can be found in just about any...

February, 1980, marked a moment of some significance among the state's birders. This was a milestone. In Bismarck, North Dakota, the first official sighting of a house finch was recorded...

A recent stroll at an out-of-state park helped me realize just how fast the summer is coming to an end. While most tree leaves still hold their green color, somehow...

It began with a fellow named Joe who wondered, along with some of his neighbors in Petersburg, N. D., whether the owls they were seeing every night in town were...

If Macklin Smith made the pilgrimage to the Black Hills of South Dakota you know it's something special. Really special. Mr. Smith, for those unaware, teaches poetry at the U...

Matt is a friend who lives on a nearby rural farmstead. He's not a farmer, mind you, but he and his wife prefer the quieter atmosphere of country living. It...

You'd think by now this whole flying thing would be figured out. It's not. Credit to the first great thinkers to ponder the possibility of manned flight goes to the...

The explosion and subsequent leaking of the deep-water oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico is a tragedy on every level, beginning with the deaths of the workers on day...

There is much yet to know about bird migration. Oh sure, we've come a long way since the days of faulty beliefs such as swallows hibernating underground or hummingbirds riding...

Early one morning last week I walked up the steps of a neighbor's house. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement. A moment later there was an...

As a species, humans are far-and-away the most capable organisms with reference to the ability to modify the environment. After us, the impact of other organisms falls off pretty fast...

Right off the top of my head, I can think of five avian species that have become extinct north of Mexico since Europeans first stepped ashore in the New World...