Renaissance Naturalist
the Latest Sunrise and the Eagle
By Barbi Hayes Earliest sunset early December – shortest day at winter solstice – latest sunrise early January – this is the natural order (northern Hemisphere) – so clearly the latest sunrise does not coincide with the day of least daylight. This is because...
Scarlet Runner
By Barbi Hayes With the new year swiftly coming on, it is that time to fling open the freezer door and rummage through the iced over packets. What a wonderful way to demonstrate “out with the old, in with the new” than by cleaning out the freezer. Although...
Watch for the Treecreeper
Songbirds are gone and our feeders are flocked with sparrows, finches, and juncos. But glance away to the tree trunks and try to catch a glimpse of our winter migrant – the brown creeper (Certhia americana). He/she/it is the only treecreeper in North America and an...
Chocolate Covered Anything Day
By Barbi Hayes I am writing this on Dec 15th, the wackiest day for weather. Start with 70-degrees in morning and morph into a High Winds, tornados, and thunderstorms. This morning I went on the kitchen deck and starting recording wind speed with my Kestrel –...
Pretend to Be a Time Traveler
By Barbi Hayes I am writing this on December 8th which is the official “Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day.” And on this very cold day I am time traveling back via photo to May 5th, a day that was spitting rain by late afternoon and awarded us a spectacular...
The Last Tomatoes
By Barbi Hayes It’s December 1st and we are down to our last tray of ripening tomatoes from our garden. What a bountiful season we had this year. The day before the first pending frost we were out there collecting many 5-gallon buckets of green tomatoes – from grape...
TIDBITS ON TURKEYS and THANKSGIVING
By Barbi Hayes — Not until 1863 did President Abraham Lincoln, embroiled in the Civil War and anxious to promote national unity, proclaim Thanksgiving a national holiday – and to officially fall on the last Thursday of November. –As late as 1847, Walter...
Architecture of Fall Prairie Plants
By Barbi Hayes Architecture of Fall Prairie Plants– But first some tidbits from a rambling mind… While hiking at dusk we heard one coyote barking down to the east. Then another one howled in response up in the Overlook. Tom said he had never heard coyotes...