Winter is survival and distribution time for many species of wildlife, not only a time for most wildlife that wander and migrate the season to survive, but also the time for seeing new country—some of which may turn out to be their new home. The short-eared owl is a good example. The one seen in […]
Natural World
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Natural World: All White‚ but Not Quite
It’s tough enough to come up with the correct ID for the varied finches that gang up around my feeder every day, so when you have a leucistic one show up, the whole day gets disrupted. My pal Brent McGregor happened to run into one in his backyard the other day. The first thing that […]
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Natural World: Why Coyotes like it in Town
(Hint: There are cats there)
A recent television report about coyotes living in Bend surprised some people. It shouldn’t, since there are coyotes living all over North America today, eating mule deer fawns, chickens and cats—thanks to the actions of the government trappers that started killing coyotes over 100 years ago. They thought they could kill coyotes as easily as […]
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Natural World: Who’s In Your Wood Shed?
One of the things I enjoy about burning wood to keep my home warm is the added enjoyment I have watching who and what falls out as I put the wood in the wheelbarrow. When I’m burning mixed conifer, wood-boring beetles seem to be the most abundant insects that fall out of the firewood, and […]
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Making Indian Ford Creek healthy again: Youth ChalleNGe cadets join the restoration fight
As he digs up another shovelful of rock from an illegal dam on Indian Ford Creek, 17-year-old Jason McCabe says, “Im glad to be out here, this is my favorite part of the program, a chance to give back to the community.” The Damascus resident is a cadet in the Oregon National Guard Youth ChallenNGe […]
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Don’t Forget the Water!
All summer long the farmers, gardeners, anglers, water skiers, swimmers and just about every insect and other animal on this beautiful Earth are using water to stay alive and enjoy life. In winter, the robins who pig out on juniper berries and other fruit must have water to go with their veggies or they will […]
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A Story of Hope
Shooters target one beautiful bird—but a Sisters rehab facility is nursing it back to health
In late October, the staff of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Summer Lake Wildlife Management Area found a severely wounded adult Trumpeter swan and transported it to Broken Top Veterinarian Clinic between Bend and Sisters. The staff of Broken Top contacted Elise Wolf of Native Bird Care, a Sisters wildlife rehab center. From […]
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Moulton Alexander Rockefeller
Somewhere along life’s trail one of my ancestors told me that my wonderful old great uncle, Moulton Alexander Rockefeller, my grandfather’s brother, was a graduate of Columbia University with a degree in journalism. Be that as it may, I knew him as a quiet, peaceable alcoholic who leaned on a shovel for the city of […]
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Killing Wildlife for Fun
A case against sport killing
When I was a kid growin’ up on the farm in Connecticut during the Great Depression, my grandfather and uncles had a Thanksgiving tradition of going waterfowl hunting early that morning. I usually went along. When we had our limit of black ducks—the East Coast equivalent of the mallard—we’d come home, clean our ducks and […]
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Bigfoot and the Late Great Chief Lelooska
The mystery of the Big Men of the Mountains
My old pal and fellow eagle researcher, Frank Isaacs, recently sent me a Bigfoot news release that reminded me of that fabled beast of mountains and forest, and an experience worth sharing. Back in the '60s my young family and I often were a presence in the life and home of Chief Lelooska, a man […]
