Natural Wonders
with Maggie Jones
In the summer of 1972, I wandered out of a newly rented farm house, looked up, and saw 2 red-tailed hawks soaring over woods and pasture. They were so beautiful, so other-worldly, I was overcome with a desire to know everything about them.
Years later I became a wildlife rehabilitator and a falconer and was able to have close hands-on experience with them. Today that desire to learn about the natural world has only broadened and intensified. I’ll read some of my favorite biologists’ writings and occasionally include my own thoughts.
Natural Wonders #62
I’m reading from a “new” book published in 2002, after the Hamerstroms were gone but their many friends, family, colleagues, and former gaboons got together and wrote stories about their time with them, Hamerstrom Stories.
As a 14 year old boy, Dale Gawlik started working on a Harrier research project with Fran and Frederick Hamerstrom. His reflections on his time spent there with them are fascinating. Today Dr. Dale Gawlik is HRI Chair for Conservation and Biodiversity at the Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M in Corpus Christi and a Professor in the Department of Life Sciences. Enjoy-
Natural Wonders #61
A great ‘locally sourced’ reading today, Dave Krier, reflects on part of his work for Valley Stewardship Network, helping people create soil saving and diversity creating prairie strips. The smells and sights and sounds of the diverse plant life fill the senses.
Natural Wonders #60
We travel with a single *atom* within a watershed, becoming part of living things in many forms. Aldo Leopold calls this atom ‘X’ which slowly makes its way, over centuries, to the sea.
Reading from A Sand County Almanac, Sketches Here and There, Wisconsin, The Odyssey.
Natural Wonders #59
Exploring native plant restoration possibilities of your land can make a meaningful difference in increasing the diversity of life around us.
I’ll read The Potential of Pastures and Oak Woods by Dan Carter, PhD. Dan is an ecologist with The Prairie Enthusiasts.
This was published online Oct 4th 2022 on The Prairie Enthusiasts website, theprairieenthusiasts.org.
Natural Wonders #58
We will visit wetlands again today, and some deep history, with Aldo Leopold. His A Sand County Almanac was published in 1949, not many months after his sudden death at age 60. He dedicated this book “To My Estella”. This is Part II, Sketches Here and There; Wisconsin, Marshland Elegy.
I’m so grateful to the Aldo Leopold Foundation for permission to read this timeless book.
Natural Wonders #57
Exploring native plant restoration possibilities of your land can make a meaningful difference in increasing the diversity of life around us.
I’ll read The Potential of Pastures and Oak Woods by Dan Carter, PhD. Dan is an ecologist with The Prairie Enthusiasts.
This was published online Oct 4th 2022 on The Prairie Enthusiasts website, theprairieenthusiasts.org.
Natural Wonders #56
I’ll return one last time, to the book EAGER, the Surprising Secret life of Beavers and Why They Matter, by Ben Goldfarb to read from the 3rd chapter,, Deceive and Exclude.
We’ll learn about problem solvers who have started successful businesses mitigating beaver problems with many types of ingenious devices that lower pond levels and allow coexistence between people and these persistent rodents.The website beaversolutions.com has a wealth of information even if you don’t live in Massachusetts.
Natural Wonders #55
We’ll enjoy more of the introduction to the book Eager, The Secret, Surprising Life of Beavers and Why They Matter by Ben Goldfarb. Imagine our valleys here in The Driftless Area 350 years ago with rich wetlands and bountiful wildlife thriving in the lush ecosystems created by beaver dams.
Natural Wonders #54
The Environmental Protection Agency website says,
Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world, comparable to rain forests and coral reefs. An immense variety of species of microbes, plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, fish and mammals can be part of a wetland ecosystem.
I’ll be reading today from Eager, the Surprising Secret Lives of Beavers and Why they Matter, Ben Goldfarb
Come with me and let’s get our feet wet.
Natural Wonders #53
We will go with Fran Hamerstrom and her 2 children and Walk When the Moon is Full on 2 cold winter nights and hear foxes in the distance, and see a weasel up close.
Natural Wonders #52- Tuesday January 24, 2023
Maggie reads from the introduction to Vesper Flights, a collection of essays by Helen Macdonald, and then discusses the winter breeding habits of great horned owls and bald eagles.(This is a re-broadcast of the very first episode from January 2022).
Natural Wonders #51
We take a winter trek on a “January Thaw” day tracking a skunk with Aldo Leopold in the first chapter of A Sand County Almanac. I then take a hint from Leopold and expand on a hawk he sees that day, the Rough-legged Hawk, a winter visitor from the Arctic tundra summering grounds.
Natural Wonders #50
We climb to the top of a huge maple tree with Kass Urban-Mead to study forest bees that come to forage for pollen,. In spring, many species of trees flower and produce billions of protein rich pollen grains.
Thanks to the Xerces Society for their permission to read from their Fall 2022 publication “Wings” and their dedication to saving insects and other invertebrates.
Natural Wonders #49
As well as the myriad of things The Professor did, Aldo Leopold was a bird bander. The December chapter of
his book A Sand County Almanac ends with a part called 65290, the band number of a chickadee.
I will then talk about the first bird I thought of when reading about bird banding, an ocean traveler with a seven foot wingspan. She has amazed people for decades; a banded bird called Wisdom.
Natural Wonders #48
We will again enjoy Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. I’ll read his December chapter segments called Home Range and Pines Above the Snow.
“Like people, my animals frequently disclose by their actions what they decline to divulge in words.”
and about his pines, “There is much small talk and gossip among pines. By paying heed to this chatter, I learn what has transpired during the week when I am absent in town.”
Natural Wonders #47
Fran Hamerstrom’s story about the caper involving secretly moving Aldo Leopold’s office, led me to reading about one of the other Leopold grad students, Art Hawkins, which led me to a great dog story and thence to The Aldo Leopold Foundation’s blogs, where I found more thoughts on dogs and their role in
Leopold’s life, in an essay by Sarah Woody. Enjoy!
Natural Wonders #46
“Every farm woodland, in addition to yielding lumber, fuel, and posts should provide its owner a liberal education. This crop of wisdom never fails but it is not always harvested. I here record some of the lessons I have learned in my own woods.” Aldo Leopold
Natural Wonders #45
Again we will enjoy a Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold published in 1949.
This part of the November chapter called Axe in Hand, delves into our biases when we walk into the woods with our axe, or more often now, our chainsaw. We choose what to cut and what to leave, what we favor and what we do not. Why do we make the decisions we do, working on the land?
What I love about this chapter, and Leopold generally, is that he reveals his own thought processes. We are privy to his inner self, weighing many different ideas and perspectives.
My thanks to the Aldo Leopold Foundation for permission to read this wonderful book. Please visit their website, Aldoleopold.org for some treats. They have a blog with many contributors that you will enjoy reading and the Phenology Calendar for 2023 is ready for mailing and packed with wisdom and observations for the whole year.
Natural Wonders #44
But It’s Already Done
I’m reading again from My Double Life; Memoirs of a Naturalist. Fran Hamerstrom tells a story that reveals the love and respect Aldo Leopold’s students had for him. They used the dark of night to pull off a youthful student stunt that would make all their lives much better on the UW Madison campus.
Natural Wonders #43
We hear more from Fran Hamerstrom, born in 1907, from her book, My Double Life, Memoirs of a Naturalist.
This chapter is called A Letter from My Mother-in-Law, and finds her in the beginning of her time as a field biologist, with her life long partner Fredrick, moving into a farmhouse that their professor, Aldo Leopold, had arranged for them to live in. This is in Waushara County in the middle of winter, with no running water, no heat except the wood stove, no electricity and no phone.
Natural Wonders #38
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold continues to delight.
We will hear the August and September chapters, each with a view into a world we may have never been aware of, if it wasn’t for our perceptive sensitive author who guides us on such sweet trips afield.
Natural Wonders #42
We learn from Aldo Leopold about the bur oak and its history on the southern Wisconsin landscape from the April chapter of a Sand County Almanac.
“Thus, he who owns a veteran bur oak owns more than a tree. He owns a reserved seat in the theater of evolution.”
I add some things I’ve learned about our forest ecology today and how forest succession has changed in the 80 years since Leopold wrote his deep historical picture of the oaks.
Natural Wonders #41
Sand County Almanac, Soundscapes and Wildlife
This week, soundscapes, specifically the sounds that Aldo Leopold heard, sitting outside the Shack, watching and listening in the early dark hours. The sounds that he heard have changed dramatically since he was listening and scientists have reconstructed them. And because sounds of wildlife are often directly related tolight intensity, both topics are intertwined. I will also talk about sounds that sturgeon make here in Wisconsin, and the Sound Forest Lab at the University of Wi at Madison, studying sounds of tropical forests.
two links:
https://news.wisc.edu/aldo-
https:// www.soundforestlab.org
Natural Wonders #40
We take another walk into the sand country with Aldo Leopold, celebrating the glory of October. We read from A Sand County Almanac the last part of the October chapter, Too Early and Red Lanterns. “Getting up too early is a vice habitual in horned owls, stars, geese and freight trains”, then wander from one red lantern to another, “the lanterns are blackberry leaves, red in the October sun”
Natural Wonders #39
Smokey Gold
Today the memorable introduction Aldo Leopold wrote in 1948 for “A Sand County Almanac” after we slip into a chapter called Smokey Gold.
We travel afoot with Aldo Leopold in Adams county on a grouse hunt, but more to the point, we observe in detail the trails and tracks, smells and colors of many dwellers of the scrub wetlands in Fall.
“The Tamaracks change from green to yellow when frosts have brought woodcock, fox sparrows out of the north.”
Natural Wonders #37
Drifting Down the Yellow
Another gem of a short story from Fran Hamerstrom’s book, Is She Coming Too? Memoirs of a Lady Hunter ; the chapter called “Drifting Down the Yellow”. The book is illustrated by Jonothan Wilde who was a close friend of the Hamerstroms and he is my very favorite artist. His pen and ink drawings are charming, so beautifully rendered, a perfect compliment to the stories.
Natural Wonders #36
It’s Fall and many of us yearn to get out and hunt. We venture out with Fran Hamerstrom, who always tells delightful stories; these are about two outings, each a dog story with a twist. This chapter, Dog Days, is from her book Is She Coming Too? Memoirs of a Lady Hunter. My sincere thanks to Elva Hamerstrom Paulson for permission to read from Fran’s books.
Natural Wonders #35
We hear the third and final reading from the Sigurd Olson chapter in Sumner Matteson’s book Afield. Olson describes the difficult work preserving the wilderness areas north of Lake Superior. We owe so much to so many for what we may take for granted when we plan a canoe trip into the Quetico or the Boundary Waters. We anticipate the peaceful serenity, seeing moose, hearing wolves, swimming in the clear water and having great fish meals. Without the work done over so many decades by people like Sigurd Olson we would not have those wild places to cherish. I hope this story is an inspiration to you. The book Afield is full of first person stories of naturalists and biologists who have helped preserve the beauty and biodiversity of Wisconsin. It’s published by Little Creek Press, available on Amazon
Natural Wonders #34
We get a special window into the friendship between wilderness writer, guide and advocate, Sigurd Olson, and Sumner Matteson and his family, in part 2 of this chapter in Matteson’s book Afield.
Natural Wonders #33
From the book Afield, we get a close personal view into the life of Sigurd Olson, writer, environmentalist, and tireless advocate for the protection of wilderness. Whether you have enjoyed a canoe voyage into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area or the Quetico-Superior wilderness in Canada, or not, we all benefit from wilderness preservation. Olson devoted 60 years of effort to “keep massive road building projects, hydro electric schemes, intensive logging and aircraft out of the Quetico-Superior.” Counted together, the BWCA and the Quetico, comprise more than 2,700,000 acres of wilderness preserved. We join Sumner Matteson, author of the book Afield, and learn about Olson’s life, and we hear his memories of his family’s close friendship with the Olsons. This is part one of 2 parts.
Natural Wonders #32
Join me, take a break, go out into the back yard, and look up to the sky to search for migrating hawks during this time of great fall southward movement. For Broadwing hawks especially, September is the time they move through our state on their way to Central and South America. I describe visiting Duluth MN, and have some tips on visiting the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, a very special unique place there, where you can see large concentrations of many species of hawks, eagles, falcons and vultures on passage. No matter where you are, I hope you will take time to look up and enjoy the migration.
Natural Wonders #31
Dr Stanly Temple writes about his early life learning about birds and wildlife from mentor Rachel Carson. He writes,
“I didn’t know it at the time but the kindly woman (on birding field trips), who took me under her wing on those outings would eventually become one of my personal inspirations and professional heros.” We will hear Stan’s essay about Rachel Carson.
Natural Wonders #30
One can never Walk When the Moon is Full too often.
We join Fran Hamerstrom and her children on 2 hot summer nights; we hear the July and August chapters of her wonderful book.
Natural Wonders #29
Wisconsin’s Greenfire; Voices for Conservation, is an organization of retired natural resource professionals who have banded together to lend their considerable skills toward
promoting science-based management of natural resources; this, rather than politically expedient and short-term policies.We then hear Greenfire Science Council member Curt Meine’s essay,The Prehn Decision; Backdrop to a Breakdown about the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and its governing board of directors, and its history. The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently handed down a decision allowing Fred Prehn to remain on the seven-member Wisconsin Natural Resources Board that oversees the state Department of Natural Resources. His 6 year term expired in May of 2021. The case came before the court because of Prehn’s unwillingness to step down, and the state senate’s refusal to hold hearings on Governor Evers’ nomination of a successor
Natural Wonders #28
I love our cuckoos, the yellow-billed and the black-billed, and I hope you will too, after hearing about their surprising lives. Today the amazing sounds and habits of our 2 beautiful and distinctive cuckoos.
Natural Wonders #27
What a gift to future generations this book is; Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac, contains images and feelings that live in our hearts. Today the July chapter, with 2 parts, Great Possessions and Prairie Birthday;
“…it is a fact, patent both to my dog and myself, that at daybreak I am the sole owner of all the acres I can walk over. It is not only boundaries that disappear but also the thought of being bounded.” Thank you again to the Aldo Leopold Foundation for permission to read this book
Natural Wonders #26
We get a rare look at the pre-settlement Blue Mounds landscape and
the thoughts of a Tory in the Wisconsin Wilderness as he must re-enter society approaching Dubuque after long travels along the river courses. “I should soon be in the vortex of a white frontier population, must abandon my canoe, exchange the peaceful tent, pitched on the clean bank of an interesting river, for dirty accomodation at some filthy tavern, and make up my account to pay in money for every act of civility I might receive.”
We finish Mike Mossman’s essay about an Englishman geologist’s travels, published in the quarterly journal of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology, The Passenger Pigeon, Vol. 50 no. 4, Winter 1988.
Natural Wonders #25
Another historical perspective takes us along the old Wisconsin river routes in the 1830s. Along the Fox, the Wisconsin and the Mississippi Rivers, we travel with the first geologist hired by the federal government, a British Tory, to explore parts of our new country. We are in what was then, part of the Michigan Territory which will become Wisconsin, with George Featherstonhaugh (pronounced fen-shaw!). This essay is part one of A Tory in the Wisconsin Wilderness by Mike Mossman, published in the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology quarterly journal the Passenger Pigeon Vol. 50, no. 4, Winter 1988.
Natural Wonders #24
Part 2 of Mike Mossman’s essay on John Muir’s years growing up in Wisconsin is continued today. We hear selections of Muir’s book “The Story of my Boyhood and Youth” written just a few years before his death. It’s an eloquent portrait of Wisconsin in the 1850s. This is from the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology’s quarterly journal, the Passenger Pigeon, Volume 50, No.2, Summer 1988.
Natural Wonders #23
In 1988 The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology introduced a series of essays called “In the Words of Ornithologists Past” in their quarterly journal, The Passenger Pigeon. We will hear the introduction to the series, and first part of Mike Mossman’s essay- John Muir: Reveling in the Wisconsin Frontier.
Muir arrived here from Scotland at age 11 in 1849 and reveled in our wonderful state for his formative years.
Natural Wonders #22
From Afield, we hear A Gathering of the Voices, written by Curt Meine. It’s the forward to the book
Afield.
Curt is a conservation biologist, environmental historian, and writer. It is an honor for me to read his part of Sumner Matteson’s book.
Natural Wonders #21
In a reading from Sumner Matteson’s Afield, Jim Zimmerman talks further about his great teachers, and the wide ranging positive impact they had, and his own methods of reaching people’s minds and hearts. And we learn of Jim’s creative work to save the unique canyons of the Kickapoo River from being damed and becoming a lake. “Regarding the land ethic, there’s one fight to preserve land I’d like to mention. In the early 70s there was a proposed dam impoundment in the Kickapoo River Canyon of west-central Wi Driftless Area.”
Natural Wonders #20
From Sumner Matteson’s book Afield we hear more from his interview with botanist Jim Zimmerman, about his life as a student and his teachers, among them Aldo Leopold. He discusses four teachers who had a profound influence on his life and his approach as a teacher.
“Jim Zimmerman was a master at inspiring people, in leading his students to be better stewards of their land. Wisconsin today is a much better state because of all the things Jim did during his lifetime”
Roy Lukes
Natural Wonders #19
Scott Weidensaul is an eloquent writer who many birders love to read. We hear the preface to his classic book published in 1999, Living on the Wind , Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds, and the introduction to his new book A World on the Wing, The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds.
published by WW Norton in 2021.
Natural Wonders #18
Helen Macdonald takes us to the top of the Empire State Building to meet a leading ornithologist and give us new insight into the fascinating vertical environment; “a tumultuous world teeming with unexpected biological abundance.” The chapter is called High Rise from her book of essays, Vesper Flights.
Natural Wonders #17
The Passenger Pigeon Monument at Wyalusing State Park was dedicated in 1947. We hear Aldo Leoplod’s speech from that day at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. “Today the laden oaks still flaunt their burden at the sky, but the feathered lightning is no more.” And we hear Dr. Stanley Temple’s introduction to the reprinted booklet, Silent Wings, A Memorial to the Passenger Pigeon published by the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology.
Natural Wonders #16
Aldo Leopold writes about the ultimate bird of the grasslands ; the upland sandpiper, another reading from The Sand County Almanac, Back from the Argentine.
Natural Wonders #15
Venture out with Fran Hamerstrom and her children in a very different habitat. Let’s take A Walk in the City; from Walk When the Moon is Full . What do they find?
Natural Wonders #14
From Afield, Botanist Jim Zimmerman is featured today. Maggie remembers co-workers at Willy Street Coop who walked with him afield every chance they got. His influence was strong even on people he never met; and some personal thoughts (after discussions with many botanists) about leaving ramps in the woods.
Natural Wonders #13
Today an essay, Exquisite Hours by Ken Lange, retired naturalist from Devil’s Lake State Park. He touches on the moments in our lives, and reveals his love of poets and other writers about the natural world. Thanks to Ken and The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology for permission to read this essay.