344 stories
There’s a myth that Iceland got its name because Viking settlers didn’t want people flocking to their verdant island. They wanted to make sure that their descriptor for the place would deter interlopers and visitors.
Big ice. Big mountains. Big whales. Everything about Greenland is enormous. On the ground in East Greenland, a sense of awe bowled us over with each encounter, every single day. We counted our infinite blessings to have feet planted on that remote, ice-bound island.
Common in the wild as well as in urban and suburban settings, Anna’s hummingbirds seem to have figured out the secret to expanding their ranges and how to thrive in what can sometimes be a hostile world for anything wild.
Proud, powerful and the national symbol of the United States, bald eagles are birds of prey that are extremely territorial during nesting season but highly social at other times.
“Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature’s darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
I’m not a big fan of experiencing high places, as most of you who follow this column know! But I do love being in the outdoors in natural places, especially in our national parks, so I appreciate the ability to carry out such a feat vicariously—and virtually.
Next Monday, April 22, 2019, the world will mark its 49th Earth Day. The first Earth Day, held on April 22, 1970, was inspired by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson, who modeled it on the antiwar protests of the late 1960s. The original Earth Day began on university campuses as a national “teach-in” on environmental issues.
The silent flight of owls is pure beauty and grace in motion. In fact, in order to lessen the noise levels of airplanes, aeronautics designers are studying owl feathers for potential applications. But that’s not the only thing that is truly amazing about these birds. Their hearing is exceptional.
I count glaciers among my favorite things. They come in beautiful shades of blue, they’re cold and they’re ephemeral. But how can I describe something as old and massive as a glacier as short-lived and momentary? Because you really won’t see any one glacier twice in its same state.
Last week, here in the Midwest in mid-March, I spotted my first robin of the year. My mother used to say that seeing a robin was a sure sign that spring couldn’t be far behind. We now know that such a notion isn’t exactly accurate.
Sparsely populated, with several rugged mountain ranges that are speckled with forests of Scots pines, the Highlands of Scotland are the only areas in the British Isles that lie within the taiga biome. The Highlands are often portrayed as the romantic part of Scotland.
Well into this very cold winter—though still far from its end—I like to dream about the summer that’s happening some other place now, down at the bottom of the world. And two of those places where summer still holds sway in March are the Falkland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.
