By Liz Sheppard, Naturalist On Saturday December 20th we held our 29th Annual Winter Bird Count! It was a wonderfully sunny day, unlike the previous 2 years. While we were not plagued by decreased visibility from fog, we did have high winds. During the day they were averaging at 18 mph, so most of the Read more »
With the cold temps this week, and the forecast showing warmer temps in the coming days, We are seeing all sorts of things in our winter birds. We know that some people participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count this past weekend, and we of course hosted a Winter Bird Count here at the nature Read more »
I want to talk about zoos today. They were a standard of my childhood, and I continued this tradition with my children. Zoos come in a variety of different kinds, and span a surprising amount of our history. Let’s go ahead and dive right into it. Zoos started out as private menageries of the wealthy Read more »
We are settling into the season with our annual Ney Winter Bird Count. This will be our 28th year counting birds as part of the larger National Audubon Society’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The CBC is the longest running citizen science project in the world, with this winter’s count being the 125th CBC. Our Winter Read more »
Welcome to the end of Spooky Season! With all of the Halloween decorations that have bats in them, I thought that this would be a great time to talk about these amazing creatures. While all of the species of bats that live in MN are insectivores, bats are also excellent pollinators and seed dispersers world Read more »
This month at our Lifelong Learner Lunch we talked about volcanoes. We covered how they formed, the differences between various kinds of volcanoes, some famous eruptions, and how scientists predict eruption. This is a fun topic, as it helps us to understand more of the processes of plate tectonics as well as the landscapes we Read more »
Hello! I wanted to take a moment today to talk about one of my favorite groups of birds, the Corvids. Corvids are birds that are members of the crow family, and are renowned for their intelligence. Myths and stories about corvids can be found in nearly all cultures. Only 3 species of Corvids nest in Read more »
To celebrate the drier weather we’ve been enjoying, I took a walk through the front prairie today. It’s been so much fun to see what plants are coming up, and where, after the burn this spring. Prairie plants thrive with disturbances, and the composition of our prairie changes depending on how recently it has been Read more »
