It was April in Alaska, when steel-gray skies weigh upon the heart, and birch trees seem to dress in mourning attire. About mid-month we hadn’t packed away knit caps yet, and underfoot my wife and I crunched traction sand on pavement that finally replaced black ice. As we ambled along, we desperately searched for…
Like a frantic typist, a woodpecker can hammer a tree trunk up to 100 times per minute–and nothing in his appearance reveals what gives him that ability. The woodpecker’s skull is padded with an inner “football helmet” made of cartilage that prevents multiple concussions. After drilling a hole in a tree trunk, his retractable tongue—twice…
The black-capped chickadee handles Alaska’s subzero temperatures due to its ability to convert seeds to fat quickly. Their plumage acts as insulation and they can gain eight percent of their body weight every day. At night they drop their body temperature to conserve fuel needed for foraging the next day. What a memory! A chickadee…
We heard them before we saw them–two majestic sandhill cranes. Mom and Pop Crane dodged a car that braked wildly. Then Mom Crane launched upward, and Pop followed her, all the while frantically trilling loudly to… whom? Crane Baby One! Crane Baby One could have passed for a lively plucked chicken. In the middle of…
Cache of Grace 