I’ve visited Montana only once and have been dreaming of returning ever since. Montana is enormous and blessed with over 400 species of birds spread across a surprisingly diverse landscape. Wings Across the Big Sky is an annual birding festival hosted by Montana Audubon and this year marks the 20th for the festival. American Prairie
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My grandfather and namesake was a prolific writer and outdoors enthusiast. He had numerous published articles in many different periodicals, some of which I recently discovered in my parent’s basement. Outdoors appreciation was passed down from my grandfather, a man I never met, to my father who taught me through countless camping trips and nature
AllTrails is a website/app that features mapped hiking trails created through the power of crowdsourcing. This review is in no way affiliated with AllTrails. But it is a vital resource to birders and hikers. Let’s get started! First impressions of AllTrails is a great big wow! After creating an account you enter a digital map
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It is not all that often that a book teaches so much in such a beautiful way. Every essay in Braiding Sweetgrass is enjoyable, overflowing with insight and information not only about plants, but of life, love, and the interconnection of everything. Written by Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass blends indigenous wisdom with science
American Wolf, written by Nate Blakeslee, is an action-packed story that reads like a novel. This true story follows the lives of some of Yellowstone National Park’s well-known wolves, including O-Six, a particularly popular alpha female. The lives of wolves are as complex and dynamic as they are misunderstood. Most wolf studies prior to reintroduction
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To kick off our second session of the Wee Naturalist program, my elder son and I headed to Russell Woods Forest Preserve on Groundhog’s Day to listen about, you guessed it, woodchucks. We learned that the Delaware Indians called the ground squirrel “wuchak” or “wojak” (didn’t get the spelling) and that they were important to
I recently enrolled my 5-year old in the Wee Naturalist Program for the next four months. This is a recap of our first session, Winter Animals. January thus far has been unseasonably warm so there is zero snow on the ground. Temperatures have been in the 40s and even 50s although we are scheduled for
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Published in 2009, Lenore Skenazy’s book Free Range Kids is still highly relevant and recommended. Kids not only spend less time outdoors than they did a generation ago, they also have more fears. The culprits: television, society, and mostly parents. Parenting is always evolving, but with on-demand news, tweets, and Facebook over-sharers, we parents are
