Exploring Nature by Sheila Newenham
Wonderment I often get distracted walking past my patio doors by the sights outside; songbirds eating, bluejays demanding their peanuts, ducks waddling in the lawn, a swimming muskrat, a foraging beaver, hunting herons, coyotes passing through, deer, geese, anything and everything. My camera sits on … Continue readingBackyard Drama: Coyote versus Geese
e·phem·er·al (əˈfem(ə)rəl): lasting for a very short time. They brighten the dull brown forest floors even before winter has really left. Spring ephemerals put all of their energy into carpeting the woodland in color and then fade away under the shade of the full canopy. … Continue readingWoodland Ephemerals: Hope Springs Eternal
If you find yourself on a human trail in the woods, look off to the side to find a wildlife trail. This is where the riches are. Treasures in the woods can be found off the beaten path just about anywhere. Here are the things … Continue readingTreasures Found in the Woods
It’s November 21, 2019, day 252 of the Flood of 2019. The flooding began on March 15th with a late winter “bomb cyclone” snow and rainstorm. Four days later, on March 17, the Missouri River at Nebraska City, Nebraska reached a record high of 30.1 … Continue readingThe Power of Nature: the 2019 Missouri River Flood
Waubonsie State Park is not what I expected. I didn’t expect to fall in love with a 2000 acre park in the southwest corner of Iowa. But that’s what happened during my first ever Artist-in-Residency. From the moment I entered the park and saw its … Continue readingWaubonsie Artist-in-Residence
A single, high-pitched yelp pierced the silence. I spun around. A wild coyote stood next to my 80 pound Labrador, Tybee. They were inches apart. Both were frozen, each seemingly unsure of what the next move should be. The coyote’s posture was non-threatening; head down, … Continue readingPolite Suburban Coyote
This is literally a hidden gem. Bluff Spring Fen in South Elgin is tucked between a cemetery, the Metra train tracks, a gravel pit/industrial park and a well-traveled road. Even as I tell you about it, driving up on it, it seems unreal – dump … Continue readingConeflower Explosion
I turn off Hwy 31 in Dundee onto Country School Road and immediately all the stress and chaos of suburbia falls away. I am heading to the Spring Bird Cottage, a retreat on fourteen acres of oak, hickory and maple woodlands with a network of … Continue readingAn Oasis of Nature
Spring woodland wildflowers are fleeting. They decorate the sunny forest floor before the trees leaf out and shade them for the summer. Two weeks ago the blood root bloomed, last week the trout lilies stole the show. This week, the ground here at Johnson’s Mound … Continue readingA Spring Woodland
I arrive before dawn on a cold, cloudless morning. As I gear up and start down the crushed limestone trail, the eastern horizon is beginning to lighten. At the footbridge near a beaver lodge, I slow down taking soft, deliberate steps. I think I might … Continue readingCounting Cranes