Antonio, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in his fascination with the fact that, according to ornithologists, 340 million birds will migrate across the skies of the US tonight. The incredible timeless night migration of birds is now being negatively affected by human …
Read
Category:Nature
Kickass and Attenborough
David AttenboroughDepartment of Foreign Affairs and Trade website – www.dfat.gov.au, CC BY 3.0 AU, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, passes along the keeper’s assessment that watching the PBS “Climate Change” program hosted by David Attenborough produced the sensation of being aboard a doomed airliner. The program’s take-away for the keeper was …
Read
Kickass and the Trees
Maud Newton, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in noting the trees, huddled now in late April on the hills in skeletal nudity, but beginning to offer tender buds to buy the leafy/lace green gowns to take them dancing extravagantly through the long …
Read
Kickass and A Walk in the Woods
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper, fresh from reading The Overstory, where Richard Powers relates trees to humans, walked in the woods with son Larry to assess the kill of ash trees by the invasive emerald ash borer. The walk included pauses at many of the …
Read
Kickass and Talking Trees
Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has been working with the keeper in the burgeoning field of other life forms—like trees and other plants, having here-to-fore unknown abilities to communicate with each other, and with humans: if you are of a certain mindset and you take a walk in the woods—the …
Read
In Nebraska
Artwork by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter I recently had occasion to take a long cross-country road trip, spanning the Midwest, Colorado, and New Mexico. It’s a grueling ride, taking over twenty hours, but the pain is worth it. Driving through the plains and rolling hills and sometimes bleak plains offers the opportunity to get …
Read
Kickass and Bird Photos
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, has pretty much given up on assisting the keeper with his “bird” issues, including, of course, his place in the unstated sandhill crane photo competition that is ongoing as the big birds return to the state in droves. Prior to the most recent snow …
Read
Kickass and the Dead Beaver
Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, assists the keeper in making something of his—the keeper’s memory of the March afternoon when most of the student body of the country school trudged across the deep melting snow of Becker’s woods to see the bloated body of the beaver that had been trapped …
Read
Kickass and Driftless Tour
Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons / “Dülmen, Hausdülmen, Sonnenaufgang — 2015 — 4952” / CC BY-SA 4.0 By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, stayed home and rested as the keeper and Phyllis had an afternoon windshield lunch with the eagles and the crows in the snow-frosted Driftless hills of southwest Wisconsin. Aged venison was on the menu for the birds as they …
Read
Kickass and DNR Board Outrage
kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in reporting on the recent unbelievable DNR Board meeting at which Walker appointees, one of whom—Wausau tooth-jerker Fred Prehn, refuses to step down from his expired term, voted in favor of continuing to allow the poisoning of surface water …
Read
Dialogues on Nature Gone Wild/Letters from the Killing Fields
Photo by Francesco Ungaro from Pexels Featuring the Fabulous Dadbots Mark Mamerow, Dave. S., Mark O., Dennis Curley, and Geoff Carter Hello Bots, I found this article fascinating in an almost schadenfreude sort of way… (taking pleasure in other’s woes…usually an enemy or excessively privileged one…but not always—no one in our respective purviews is immune from schadenfreude). So many animals…and …
Read
Kickass Talks to Wolves
Fool4myCanon, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, under the heading of “Talks to Wolves,” passes along the keeper’s message concerning the latest judicial decision that at least delays the advent of another unconscionable wolf slaughter as occurred last year in Wisconsin: “Wolves! “Listen up! “Don’t get all howling happy …
Read