This time of year, hummingbirds are a highlight of backyards and gardens, darting furiously from feeder to flower. Colorful and feisty, these feathered pollinators are tiny dynamos, known to dive-bomb Bald Eagles, which weigh 1,600 times as much as they do. Here are a few … Read More

The arrival of May in my neighborhood means it’s time for our annual bird walk. My neighbors and I started it five years ago to acquaint ourselves with the birds and other wild things living in our yards and gardens and treetops. Now we’re better acquainted with … Read More

Picture this: six maple trees hanging upside down over your head, an inverted reality strung up over a stretch of green grass in a sea of pavement and industrial buildings. If you’ve ever been to the Storey offices or visited the

Let’s face it: January is tough. Winter tightens its grip; the holidays are over. Snow and ice make the landscape a hard, glazed surface; trees live in skeleton form. This starkness can be hard on the soul, and though the idea of resolutions is nice, … Read More

Do you know what cloudberries are?  I’d never heard of them before I moved to Norway in 1994 to marry one of Garrison Keillor’s famous “Norwegian bachelor farmers.”  No, not even while listening to tales of the little fictional town of Lake Woebegone with its … Read More

Marie Read fell in love with birds as a young girl growing up in England, when a relative showed her a European Robin’s nest that held four tiny blue eggs. Now a skilled wildlife photographer and coauthor of Into the Nest, Marie answers … Read More

As ranchers, we love wildlife and enjoy seeing animals making themselves at home on our ranch. We have a lot of deer — both mule deer and whitetail. The whitetail are not native here; we never saw any in our valley when I was a … Read More

Valentine’s Day is a time when many Americans focus on romantic love and hear frequent mention of “the birds and the bees,” even though bees and most songbirds are months away from engaging in courtship behaviors. Here in northern Minnesota, where I live, the increase in bird songs … Read More

“Meadows are ancient,” says the man at the center of our group, “and our connection to meadows is ancient. Think about the root of the word: mead. Our honey, our sustenance, has always come from the meadow, from the flowers and the bees.” Six of … Read More

I want a kid-summer do-over. When I was growing up, the hot summers in suburban Tennessee meant long days indoors. It didn’t have to be that way — I don’t think I would have suffered heat exhaustion from playing outside — but my parents both … Read More