Karen Keninger, Author at Heartland Safari

Hard to choose between gruesome roadside dining or sublime, soaring magnificence. But, here’s the magnificence. Large bird with small red head, black body and arms, and broad-spread wings with white trailing edges, soars in a blue sky. Sunlight edges its wings in gold. Turkey Vulture.

The Clean-Up Crew: Turkey Vulture

Updated December 18, 2023

One day recently we were driving along a gravel road near Owl Acres when a wild turkey flew out of the ditch and hit the car, breaking off the mirror and killing the bird. Almost before the dead turkey hit the ground, a big dark bird with a naked red head plummeted from the sky, […]

Birds

Photo of a sculpture by Wendy Taylor on a masonry base at the London Zoo. One broad, disc-shaped beetle handles a ball of dung 10 times its size, while another perches on top. This public installation follows modern accessibility practice, common in cities in Europe. They’re becoming more so in the US.

Rolling the Sun: Dung Beetles

Updated December 14, 2023

The Ancient Egyptians have given us a lot of symbols to wonder about. I could never understand, for example, why the Israelites worshiped a golden calf until I learned while traveling in Egypt that a particular bull was worshiped by the Egyptians, and the Israelites were just copycats. Another symbol that needs explanation is the […]

Insects and Spiders

Snowflake with six strong, hexagon-based arms. It’s suspended in mid-air, caught on the gossamer strand of a barely visible spider web.

Art in Motion: Snowflakes

Updated December 11, 2023

Snowflakes arrived on Owl Acres to welcome winter on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. They piled up to about three inches of fluffy white snow. Each one of those trillions of snowflakes was a unique work of art. In spite of the fact that they all formed in the same cloud, at the same time and […]

Weather

Dark green leaf of Virginia Creeper. Also called Five Leaf Ivy, the hand-shaped leaves are made up from 5 smaller, sawtooth-edged leaflets attached to a common petiole.

A Banquet for All: Virginia Creeper

Updated December 7, 2023

There’s a pile of it in the southeast corner of the yard. It’s growing on the fences and climbing the barn. We knock it back, ruthlessly severing it with the weed eater. And it comes back with a vengeance. It could be mistaken for poison ivy—we have plenty of that around here. But a careful […]

Bird with bright blue wings and a feather crest perches atop a feeder attached to a tree trunk. Black-edged, light grey face with round black eye. The blue jay grips a seed in its black beak.

A Trick of the Light: Blue Jays

Updated December 4, 2023

Blue. A primary color. One of the most beloved colors. And, speaking of Owl Acres, a rare color indeed, if you don’t count the sky and the blue jays. The sky is blue. But not really. That is, it looks blue because of the way the air molecules in the atmosphere scatter the short blue […]

Birds

A small, grey song bird with a feathery crest sits on a twig, staring down a pretender. Tufted titmouse.

Peter-Peter-Peter: Tufted Titmouse

Updated November 30, 2023

Some 25 songbirds overwinter here on Owl Acres and surroundings. Sturdy little fellows that they are, they have figured out how to find food and survive in subzero temperatures. One food source that gets their attention is backyard bird feeders like the one we enjoy on Owl Acres. These little birds tend to flock together […]

Birds

Chomp. Thirteen line ground squirrel scores a graham cracker.

Squinnies: Thirteen-line Ground Squirrels

Updated November 29, 2023

One sunny day in mid-October, we watched a little critter sitting up in the yard inspecting its domain. When it noticed us, it scurried through the grass to disappear under a washed-out section of the sidewalk. It was about eight inches long not counting its two and a half-inch tail, and sported black and tan […]

Mammals

Closeup of the Meadow Vole in the talons of the namesake tree sculpture at Owl Acres.

Not Mice: Meadow Voles

Updated November 23, 2023

On Owl Acres, we have a chainsaw carving of a barred owl. Captured in her talons is a mouse-sized critter whose short tail suggests a vole rather than a mouse. Mother Nature seems to have several niches for little mammals like mice whose main job is to convert plant material to meat for a whole […]

Mammals

Bird with red crown (indicating male), tight white and black stripes in back and fluffy light grey breast, clings to a tree trunk, inspecting the suet feeder overhead. Red Bellied Woodpecker.

How Do They Do That?: Red-Bellied Woodpecker

Updated November 30, 2023

There’s a lot of drumming going on at all seasons on Owl Acres. Our band consists of seven of the 23 species of woodpeckers native to North America. When we put up our birdfeeder this winter, one of our first visitors was a red-bellied woodpecker come to investigate the new food. He didn’t stay long […]

Birds

A grey, mouse-size critter with pointy snout, brush-like whiskers and a short tail, rests in Karen's hands. It's dead, possibly mauled or road killed. It's tiny eyes are not visible, buried in the soft fur covering its head. Northern short-tailed shrew.

Untamable: Northern Short-Tailed Shrew

Updated November 16, 2023

There’s nothing better than a personal, physical experience to help me see something new. That’s why, on our walk the other day with both Dave and Clancy, Bryan put a dead, but intact, northern short-tailed shrew (Blarina brevicauda) into the palm of my hand. The soft furry body of the tiny mammal just covered my […]

Mammals