Discovering the world around me.
One of the best things about spring and summer is waking up to the morning chorus. Since I’ve been paying close attention, I’m even getting better at identifying its members. I still have a long way to go, but one loud and persistent singer has my attention this summer. It’s the northern house wren, (Troglodytes […]
Continue reading Fierce Defender: Northern House Wren
Have you ever watched a bird crash into your window? It’s heartbreaking to see it happen. There’s that thunk against the glass, and then the bird falls to the ground. Maybe it gets up again and flies away, and maybe it doesn’t. 60% of the birds that survive the collision die from it sooner or […]
Continue reading Lethal Hazard: Window Glass
On May 14, 2025, a little olive-gray bird with a big voice joined the chorus on Owl Acres. It’s a voice that’s relatively easy to identify. It features a clear, bright, sliding whistle. It slides down and then up sounding like “pee’a’wee.” He’ll sing to us all summer while he guards his territory, and courts […]
Continue reading Flycatcher: Eastern Wood Pewee
May is the busiest month for spring migration. Here on Owl Acres, we’ve been keeping track of our visitors using the Cornell Lab’s Merlin ID. Each morning I stand on the deck overlooking the back yard and woods and let Merlin capture the soundscape and name the birds. A second session from the front porch […]
Continue reading Warblers: American Redstart
Most every morning now that it’s spring, I’ve been taking my Merlin ID app out to a couple places around the yard to see who’s out there. Migration has begun for some birds, and Merlin, created by Cornell Labs, is good at capturing and identifying their songs. One recent new arrival is the song sparrow […]
Continue reading Lessons Learned: Song Sparrow
There’s a place in southwest Iowa where a most unusual display occurs each year between March and May. It’s the mating dance of the greater prairie chicken (AKA pinnated grouse (Tympanuchus cupido). Rather than pair-bonding like many birds do, prairie chickens have a lek form of mating. The females choose who to breed with, and […]
Continue reading Lek Dancers: Prairie Chickens
When I think of gulls, I think of standing on the beach in North Carolina tossing bread to the seagulls and watching them compete for it. I don’t think of gulls on Owl Acres. In fact, there are 17 species of gulls that visit Iowa, the most common being the ring-billed gull (Larus delawarensis). They […]
Continue reading Population Explosion: Ring-Billed Gulls
About a week ago, the wind was howling at up to 60 miles an hour, blowing snow and causing hundreds of car accidents. The juncos who usually hold forth under the bird feeder scurried to the porch where they sheltered out of the wind. An opossum found a protected corner of the porch and curled […]
Continue reading Migration
It’s cold outside! The dark-eyed juncos shelter on the porch when they’re not cleaning up under the bird feeder. They flap and flutter in consternation and fly away when I step out on the porch. Out there in the quiet day, sparrows and chickadees send their occasional calls into the winter air. They flit from […]
Continue reading Icarus Envy: Wings
By Dr. Jessica LaPrice Dr. LaPrice teaches biology at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. Recently I visited her at her university where she showed me a goat skeleton once used in a comparative anatomy class. It reminded me just how similar our skeletons are to Dave’s and Clancy’s, and even to that goat. […]
Continue reading Bones: Comparative Anatomy