After an hour's drive from Rapid City on the interstate, we reached Badlands National Park. Bison greeted us first; then the ranger at the park's entrance station did. She gave us a park map, and said, "The first pullout you'll come to is the one for the Pinnacles."
Back yard birdwatchers are very familiar with one of our most common birds: the House Finch. These gregarious finches are easily attracted to all types of bird feeders, and they show up in good numbers all year long, even during the coldest days of winter.
There is a common pest in the Midwest and northeastern United States that causes trouble for gardeners during the summer months. They are small – about the size of a mouse. They are usually black or dark gray in color, and as their name implies they have a very short tail.
Whitetail deer have been known to travel far distances for food or to breed. I have read studies about bucks and how far they roam. Living in Northwest Pennsylvania amongst farmland and large wooded lots, I have seen bucks travel between large parcels. One buck I first saw in the summer of 2018 changed my thoughts about how far deer will roam.
Herons are very interesting birds, and one of the smallest herons is no exception: it is the green heron. Green herons are relatively short and stocky (they stand about 17 inches tall), with a small head and a large, sharp beak.
One of the places I wanted to visit during our trip was the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. Here the Lakota, Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes combined forces in a last-ditch effort to protect their homes and way of life. Pitted against them was the US Army's Seventh Cavalry, led by General George Custer.
Summer is gone, and our friends the monarch butterflies are also gone. They have departed the eastern half of the United States on their annual southern migration, down to their wintering grounds in Mexico. As recently as September they could still be seen visiting the last of our summer flowers.
Just about everyone with a flower garden welcomes the arrival of those colorful visitors we call butterflies. They come to visit the brightly colored flowers, and we are glad to see them. Although there is a wide variety of beautiful butterflies native to the eastern United States, one of the most stunning and attractive species is the red-spotted purple.
One of the side effects of the Covid-19 pandemic is that domestic travel skyrocketed in 2021. After staying home during all of 2020, people wanted to get out. For the most part, international trips were off the table. So finding campsites on Saturday and Sunday was a never-ending chore for us, one that was often unsuccessful.
Have you ever been a part of one of those adventures into the outdoors that left a lasting memory that you’ll never forget? Tanner Kelm, a young man from Wisconsin, had a dream. Tanner always had a passion for the outdoors and frequently visited a family fishing camp in upstate Wisconsin mostly targeting northern pike and muskie.
Frogs are very common around most lakes, ponds, streams and marshy wetlands. But not all frogs are of the same species. There are bullfrogs, green frogs, wood frogs, leopard frogs and several others. One of the most common frogs in the eastern United States is the green frog.
