Attribution: John Gerrard Keulemans , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to stop the keeper from taking on impossible missions and so it was that when he—the keeper heard about Peter Kaestner traveling to the Philippines to see an orange tufted spider hunter to become the 10,000th bird he …
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Category:Nature
Kickass and Bear Hounders
Attribution: Michelle Buntin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in all seriousness and outrageousness to point out how Wisconsin, once a national leader in conservation matters, has sunk to be THE ONLY state where bear hounders from all over the country come to “train” their hounds …
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Kickass and the Seagulls
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, ever anxious to demonstrate that he is just another of the varied life forms cluttering up the planet, joined a thousand seagulls in Sauk City to “feed.” The gulls gathered up and down the Wisconsin River in sandbar reunions to …
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Kickass Dials Up Dreams
Attribution: Ziga, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is cooperating with the keeper to refine his dial-a-dream technology on the heels of waking up from a lengthy session on the Wolf River with the likes of companions John Lawton, Carl Lee and Art Jensen, and Claude from the garage …
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Kickass and the Thunderstorm
Attribution: Photo by Michelle McEwen on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in celebrating the magnificent thunderstorm that flashed and boomed over west Madison last evening. Its spectacular jagged slashing and eching rumbles as it dominated the landscape was a rare sensory embrace as the unseasonal storm moved in and over …
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Kickass in The Deeryard Overnight
Attribution: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, comments that it is not as if the keeper runs so short on memories that he must constantly recycle them, it is that some of those memories seem to somehow gain status with the passage of time and demand repeated …
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Kickass and Leopold’s Dog
Attribution: Pacific Southwest Region 5, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, agrees with the keeper’s plan to spend this stormy day inside with Phyllis, doing a post birthday party for Aldo Leopold who was born on Jan. 11, 1887 and died Apr. 21, 1948 at the age of 60 …
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Oh, Christmas Tree
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter (Originally posted in December, 2019) Each year, in the family holiday tradition, my wife and I venture out to buy our Christmas tree. We’re lucky enough to live across the street from a big tree lot so we don’t have very far to go—we can walk right over. …
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Kickass and the Call of the Sandhill Crane
Attribution: Andrew C, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper and Phyllis will be unavailable for social and business contacts as they closet themselves in their Audubon unsanctioned work to perfect the “unison cough” as in the mode of the sandhill cranes unison call. While the …
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Kickass and Lovesick Elk
Attribution: Photo by David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper and Phyllis in drawing useful lessons from the love-sick Wisconsin elk that left its comfortable Black River Forest home, stopped briefly in McFarland and then crossed over into Illinois only to be struck and …
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Kickass and Hummingbirds
Attribution: Paul Harrison, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the information that it was apparently not enough to up the alcoholic content of the nectar in the balcony hummingbird feeder to the degree that some hummingbirds might opt to winter in Wisconsin. It might have helped keep …
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Kickass and Gerrymandered Geese
Attribution: Jocelyn Anderson, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s observation that during the close-to-a-century that he has been alive his relationship with the Canada geese has gone from farm-boy fascination with the high-flying V formations that signaled distant other-worlds of romantic wildness and mystery, to …
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