To celebrate our one-year anniversary of dating, my boyfriend and I planned a camping trip to southern Illinois. We wanted to visit locations like Snake Road, Heron Pond, and Trillium Trail, all within the massive Shawnee National Forest. Here is how our trip went. Arrival We left at 5:40 in the morning and drove the
Enjoying the Sun with Golden-crowned Kinglets and Other Wildlife
The weather was finally nice again this past weekend, so to enjoy the sun and the wildlife it brought with it, we went hiking in our local area and photographed what we saw. Birds were not especially active when we went, although we did see two Red-tailed Hawks, some Turkey Vultures, some woodpeckers, and many,
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5 Methods for Finding New and Interesting Birds
I have been a birder for my entire life. I would often go birding with my aunt, my uncle, my mom, or my grandparents. As I got older, however, we all had less and less time to go birding. Now, as an adult, I have been getting back into birds and nature in general, and
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In Search of Spring – Harbinger of Spring
Spring is at our doorstep, and with the nice weather comes a plethora of new birding opportunities. To make the most of the dawn of spring, Michael Ostrowski, a botanist and photographer, and I, the newest writer for the Birdfreak team, made our way to Will County in search of spring. While there, we saw
Welcome S. J. Callaway, New Birdfreak Writer
S. J. Callaway will be providing content for Birdfreak including her experiences out in nature. S. J. has always been an outdoors lover, so these articles will be a welcome addition to Birdfreak.com. Learn more about S. J. Callaway and her writing projects here.
American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains
Dan Flores’s American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains is a natural history of six iconic animals species. These include bison, pronghorn, grizzlies, coyotes, wolves, and wild horses. Each chapter goes into great detail about the history and importance of each of these animals. Flores also persuades the reader why we must
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Encounters With the Archdruid by John McPhee
For an environmental book published in the 1970s, Encounters With the Archdruid by John McPhee still is extremely relevant today. Conservationists, preservationists, or environmentalists; whatever term you want to use, people who want to protect the earth will always face opponents. And like any complex issue involving millions of people’s lives, there are no simple
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Leave It As It Is A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness
Leave It As It Is: A Journey Through Theodore Roosevelt’s American Wilderness is a duel adventure of the author, David Gessner, into the past and present. The book is part biography, part travelogue, and all conservation-focused. David Gessner is the author of many books but the only one I read of his prior to this
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