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Natural Connections

Natural Connections is a weekly newspaper column created by Emily Stone, the Naturalist/Education Director at the Cable Natural History Museum in Cable, Wisconsin. In each episode, Emily reads her fun and informative weekly column about Northwoods Nature.

science natural sciences

All Episodes

05:25

310 - Friends at our Feeders

Natural Connections ·

2024/02/22

I’ve been hearing a lot of complaints from people who are feeling lonely this winter. For once, they aren’t feeling cooped up by icy roads and constant blizzards. Instead, we miss our feathered friends! A suite of factors, including the nice weather, means that birds are not as abundant as usual at our backyard feeders. One exception, at least at my feeders, are pine siskins.

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06:31

309 - Warm Winter Worries

Natural Connections ·

2024/02/15

What a weird winter! In a region where people love to talk about the weather, the chatter has been constant. Skiers and snowmobilers (and the business they support) are particularly grumpy, but many people are trying to make the best of pleasant temperatures, despite the lack of snow. Humans are lucky. We have temperature-controlled homes and clothing that can be changed at the drop of a hat. But what about non-human beings? How are they faring as temperatures fluctuate from 50 degrees to the teens

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06:00

308 - Snowflake Stories

Natural Connections ·

2024/02/08

“Snowflakes are amazing!” I gushed to the students in a recent “Words for Winter Wonder” writing workshop hosted by the Lake Superior Writers in Duluth, Minn. Water vapor crystalizes around a piece of dust, or dirt, or even a unique bacterium. Then, as puffs and gales of wind toss the nascent snow crystal inside a cloud, they experience varied combinations of temperature and humidity. The crystal grows differently in each new habitat. “Now, we get to try to imitate that beauty that comes with

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06:26

307 - Germinating Seeds and Excitement in Hawaii

Natural Connections ·

2024/02/01

Wings, wind, and humans are three of the most common ways that life has arrived on Hawaii since the volcanoes rose above the ocean. But besides the obvious humpback on a whale watch, I hadn’t noticed many who had arrived on the waves. As I descended the trail back to the black sand beach, a tiny white flower caught my eye. Recognizing it as Beach Naupaka, or Naupaka kahakai from my nature guide Wind, Wings, and Waves by Rick Sohren, I stopped to take photos.

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06:53

306 - Nenes and Blueberries in Hawaii

Natural Connections ·

2024/01/25

Just like the ʻApapane and ʻIʻiwi I wrote about last week, the ancestors of nene geese were blown off course to the Hawaiian Islands and then stayed there, although the geese only arrived about half a million years ago, vs. five million for the honeycreepers. Besides being handsome, with buff-and black diagonally striped necks and black faces, nēnē are the state bird of Hawaii, and one of the most endangered waterfowl in the world.

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06:49

305 - Hawaiian Honeycreepers

Natural Connections ·

2024/01/18

A bright red bird with black wings hopped among the flowers, probing for the 'Ōhi'a’s prolific nectar with a sharp black beak. While the bird looked a lot like the scarlet tanagers who nest in the Northwoods, I knew it was not. ʻApapanes’ scarlet feathers match the red of the blossoms they rely on. A little farther down the trail, we spotted more movement in the trees. Another red bird masqueraded as a flower, but while the red body and black wings looked just like an ʻApapane to me, the beak

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06:39

304 - Lava in Hawaii and at Home

Natural Connections ·

2024/01/11

I’m a big fan of basalt bedrock shorelines. Basalt is the type of dark, igneous rock that forms when lava oozes out of volcanoes and cools quickly near the surface. Hawaii is mostly built from basalt, but then, so is the North Shore of Lake Superior. They don't look quite the same, though. Why?

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06:56

303 - Riding Wings to Hawaii

Natural Connections ·

2024/01/04

Wings are one of the main ways that life gets to Hawaii. From huge frigatebirds, to champion marathoners like Pacific Golden Plovers, and elegant additions like Hawaiian Stilts, they all have a unique story.

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06:45

302 - Lichens and Kipukas in Hawaii

Natural Connections ·

2023/12/28

Whenever I visit the smooth, gray rocks on the North Shore of Lake Superior, I find myself crouching low to examine the colorful patchwork of lichens who have made their home in such a seemingly perilous place. I never expected to do the same thing on Hawaii!

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06:18

301 - Riding the Wind to Hawaii

Natural Connections ·

2023/12/21

From out of a vast, dark sea, a small area of lights appeared below. The landing went smoothly. As my parents and I descended the stairs onto the tarmac, steamy air made us regret our long pants and sleeves. With almost magical speed, we’d just arrived on the most isolated populated landmass in the world: Hawaii. As different as this tropical paradise is from the Northwoods, I still found plenty of natural connections.

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07:20

300 - Iron and Life

Natural Connections ·

2023/12/14

Continuing past the concrete ruins, my friend and I followed the scar of the old road to the top of a cliff. Smooth, dark rock peeked out from beneath dry leaves and grass. Kneeling for a better look, we found stripes of red, black, and gray with smooth, waxy, and sparkling surfaces. Crustose lichens had found toeholds in each tiny crack, so the surface was also decorated with little blobs in shades of brown, white, and yellow. These lichens may be much younger than the outcrop, but the rock itself

en

05:50

299 - Birch Polypore

Natural Connections ·

2023/12/07

From laughter, to curiosity, to other forms of internal medicine, birch polypore is a common fungus with a lot to offer.

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06:46

298 - Orion, An Old Friend

Natural Connections ·

2023/11/30

Orion has been my favorite winter constellation for many years. Sometimes subtitled “The Hunter,” it seems apt that Orion is lying on his side these days, perhaps resting up from early mornings of deer hunting. Traditionally, of course, his quarry was more mythical—chasing the beautiful seven sisters of Pleiades, doing battle with Taurus the Bull, fighting a scorpion sent to tame his ego, or hunting the constellation Lepus the Hare.

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06:21

297 - A Lingering Loon

Natural Connections ·

2023/11/23

Out in the middle of Sugar Bay, a small shape interrupted the glimmering ripples. Even in the poor light at a fair distance from a moving car, I could tell that this was a loon by their distinctive silhouette. The loon’s gray-brown back, full white throat, and pale cheeks confirmed them as a juvenile, a young of this year. While this loon is on the late end of migration, I wasn’t worried for their safety. Juvenile loons have been navigating their fall migrations alone for millennia.

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06:53

296 - November is a Sigh with Lois Nestel

Natural Connections ·

2023/11/16

“November is a sigh; a sigh of weariness after the tumult of summer, a sigh of resignation over projects yet undone, a sigh of regret for hopes unfulfilled. It is a sigh of frustration that no matter how we try, the world seems to be sinking deeper into the morass, and a sigh of sadness that neither we nor those around us seem to live up to our expectations.” So wrote Lois Nestel, the Museum’s founding director and naturalist, over three decades ago. It is a gray sentiment, to match the gray clouds

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06:41

295 - Snow Buntings and Needle Ice Foretell Winter

Natural Connections ·

2023/11/09

The icy hike was beautiful, and “snowflake birds” swirled ahead of my car all the way home. Real snowflakes chased me from behind, and soon accumulated six inches of the white stuff. Snow buntings and needle ice foretold the coming winter, and as I write this, it has arrived!

en

08:01

294 - Fall Colors and Caribou

Natural Connections ·

2023/11/02

Autumn on the Alaskan tundra was a whole new spectacle. With ground-hugging shrubs—all of them circumpolar species who grow around the top of the globe—instead of tall trees, it looked like the land itself was drenched in a rainbow swirl of melted crayon. But caribou were the official reason I’d come here, to the Toolik Field Station on the North Slope of the Brooks Range in 2018.

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06:21

293 - The Weird Ones

Natural Connections ·

2023/10/26

As with humans, the weirdest organisms are often the most interesting.

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06:43

292 - Lovely Slugs

Natural Connections ·

2023/10/19

Dampness cooled my fingers as I lifted softened wood out of the limp maple leaves. In order to make sense of the small log, I assumed the hunched posture of nearsighted people everywhere. My field of vision narrowed, and I became immersed in an alien world. The variety of shapes and colors colonizing this stick were dazzling! Suddenly, something wet and shining loomed ahead. As I watched, the slug extended their beige-colored form and undulated across the lichen field on their single,

en

05:53

291 - Midnight Mystery Sound

Natural Connections ·

2023/10/12

This week we’ll discover the origin of a mysterious sound in the night.

en

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