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Cable Natural History Museum

Connecting People to Northwoods Nature

science natural sciences

All Episodes

5:04

386 – Finding Forked Fungus Beetles

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/08/07

Guest writer Katherine Woolley is about to start her junior year as an environmental education major at Western Colorado University. This summer, as a Summer Naturalist Intern at the Museum, she taught our Junior Naturalist programs and showed a real talent for finding and appreciating the oddest parts of nature. A walk along the Forest Lodge Nature Trail is never boring. I was reveling in this fact as I took my evening meander through the large trunks of towering trees. To my left, I spotted a

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4:52

385 – Seeds on the Move

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/07/31

Guest writer Kylie Tatarka is about to start her senior year as an environmental science major at Rochester Institute of Technology. This summer, as a Summer Naturalist Intern at the Museum, she taught our Junior Naturalist programs and spearheaded the creation of the online “Becoming the Northwoods” exhibit. Seeing the aspen-covered ground reminded me of a tree that is more common in my home state of New York, the eastern cottonwood tree, which is a relative of the aspen with similar

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5:59

384 – Boundary Waters Beauty

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/07/24

The Boundary Waters is beautiful, but that’s only part of it. What really keeps people coming back, I believe, is the way this place helps us to challenge ourselves. When you cut out the excess, the superfluous, and the mess, and fit everything necessary for a week or two of life into a single, green pack, life becomes simple. There is an incredible sense of freedom in this knowledge of self-sufficiency. This freedom feels all the more sweet when it comes with manageable challenges and a means to

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5:43

383- Looking Into the Lives of Dragonflies

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/07/17

Upon spotting the green dragonfly resting close enough for me to capture, I knew I had to try. With my kayak nestled into the grassy bank of the Namekagon River, I snapped a few photos of my target and began to reach my hand out slowly. But when my fingers gently grasped the dragonfly, I was horrified to find that it was squishy rather than the typical hard feeling of an exoskeleton. My hand shot back to my side in an instant, repulsed. My first thought was that the dragonfly was dead and

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6:31

382 – Treasures of the Big Bay Lagoon

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/07/10

The calm waters of Lake Superior glimmered in midday sunshine, and dozens of families enjoyed the sandy beach of Big Bay Town Park on Madeline Island. I hiked past them all, my steps echoing slightly on the boardwalk that winds through pine forest behind the beach. In the lagoon where decomposition has slowed and organic matter has accumulated over time, a floating mat of Sphagnum moss and sedges holds numerous treasures in a type of wetland called a fen. Treasures I was hunting! The post 382 –

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6:53

381 – Hunting For Elk

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/07/03

If an elk calf can make it through their first year, they have a 92 percent chance of surviving each year after that. The DNR is in year two of a three-year effort to understand the survival rates and mortality factors of that first perilous year. Do the young do better where there’s been a recent timber harvest or other disturbance? How important is it for the maternity habitat to have a view? To answer these and other questions, they attempt to locate and deploy a GPS collar on 25 calves as soon

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5:57

380 – Canadian Tiger Swallowtails

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/06/26

Something small and bright caught my eye. Stopping mid-stride and mid-conversation, I bent down to look at a small jumble of legs and exoskeletons in the tread of the Ice Age Trail. The yellow mantle behind the head of a black carrion beetle is what I’d noticed first. They are quite striking, even when rooting around in the decaying flesh of a recently dead animal, looking for a place to lay their eggs. The adults eat dead stuff, too, hence the bear hug this one was giving a shiny brown, but

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5:58

379 – Junebugs and Beetles

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/06/19

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4:53

378 – Skydancing the Night Away

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/06/12

Excitement and nerves were at an all time high as my car crept down the gravel road, the sun having just slipped below the horizon. I was on the hunt, following clues to lead me to my prize. My treasure was the somewhat elusive American woodcock, and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of their infamous skydance.The post 378 – Skydancing the Night Away first appeared on Cable Natural History Museum.

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6:39

376 – The Teachings of Ghost Pipe

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/06/05

Although I often hear their rattling bugle calls echoing across the lake and through my open windows, having cranes nest where I could see them was a new treat. For a few weeks, every warm afternoon found me biking along that stretch of road with my camera at the ready. Each time, the evening sunlight spotlighted the face of a crane on the nest.The post 376 – The Teachings of Ghost Pipe first appeared on Cable Natural History Museum.

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6:39

376 – The Teachings of Ghost Pipe

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/05/29

Last Sunday I was asked to give the message for the Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Flower Ceremony. Everyone brought a flower, they were admired in a bouquet, and each person left with a different flower. This symbolized the unique value of each person and the way we came together to create a beautiful bouquet. To illustrate this idea, I chose to talk about ghost pipe (previously named Indian pipe), a plant whom I’ve been puzzling over for a while. In preparing the talk, I realized that I’d

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6:33

375 – Wilson’s Warblers on Their Way

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/05/22

Scientist E.O. Wilson’s book Biophilia hypothesized that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. He wrote, “To an extent still undervalued in philosophy and religion, our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hope rises on its currents."I watched as the Wilson’s Warbler bounced like popcorn through the narrow, willow-ish leaves of an unknown desert shrub. While this bird was named for a different Wilson, he certainly

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6:21

374 – Networking

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/05/15

I apologize for the weird audio quality this week! I'm traveling -- as you'll hear -- and my audio editing program did an update that takes out breath noises, etc, automatically. But that also changes how my voice sounds and seems to reduce enunciation. If it's too annoying to listen to, you can read the article at: https://cablemuseumnaturalconnections.blogspot.com/ The post 374 – Networking first appeared on Cable Natural History Museum.

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5:30

373 – Adventures in Porcupine Lake Wilderness

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/05/08

At the trailhead, the woods were set alight by the sunshine reflecting off the melting snow. While my boots crunched down the trail, my eyes wandered to the trees where life was starting to awaken. Lichens, mosses, and mushrooms decorated the bark in a burst of bright greens, yellows and oranges–a welcome sight against the backdrop of the forest.The post 373 – Adventures in Porcupine Lake Wilderness first appeared on Cable Natural History Museum.

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6:47

372 – Lois Nestel’s Sweet Ode to Spring

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/05/01

“What sweet ode shall we write to spring? Soft and tremulous one minute, tempestuous the next, she proffers her gifts with one fair hand and with the other snatches them away.”–Lois Nestel, Wayside Wanderings II The post 372 – Lois Nestel’s Sweet Ode to Spring first appeared on Cable Natural History Museum.

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6:27

371 – The Sparrow’s Songs

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/04/24

A faint string of birdsong filtered through closed windows on a recent morning. It was well after dawn, but thick gray clouds made it feel like the Sun had yet to rise. “Song sparrow!” I exclaimed. “They must have arrived overnight!”The post 371 – The Sparrow’s Songs first appeared on Cable Natural History Museum.

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5:48

370 – The Pulse of a Waking Forest

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/04/17

The grouse drummed again; thumping slowly at first, and then crescendoing into a rapid-fire blur. As his last vibrations dissipated into the still air, another grouse answered from a neighboring territory. The low-frequency sounds are audible from up to a quarter mile away. I’m always amazed by how much I feel their sound instead of hearing it.The post 370 – The Pulse of a Waking Forest first appeared on Cable Natural History Museum.

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6:03

369 – Snowshoe Hares Eat Dirt

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/04/10

For three days in the summer of 2018 we worked on this mark-recapture survey along a pipeline access road in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska, gathering data that would help scientists at the nearby Gates of the Arctic National Park estimate snowshoe hare population numbers for this year. Our opinion? The population was high. Almost every trap was full, which meant a delayed lunch, and that sense of relief to find an empty trap.The post 369 – Snowshoe Hares Eat Dirt first appeared on Cable

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6:04

368 – A Home for Wood Ducks

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/04/03

Listening to a pair of wood ducks explode from a tiny patch of open water in a woodland pond and woo-eek through the woods is a distinctly springtime experience. Wood ducks are uniquely adapted for life in the forest, with strong claws on their webbed toes that allow them to perch on tree branches. Scaring up a pair of wood ducks together is common, because these ducks find a mate on their wintering grounds and arrive home together.The post 368 – A Home for Wood Ducks first appeared on Cable

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5:21

367 – Icy Wonders of Chequamegon Bay

Cable Natural History Museum ·

2025/03/27

The first ice cave was a wonder to behold. Crouching low, we shuffled into the crack that was the cave entrance. The light from our headlamps danced across the cave walls and highlighted the mass of clear ice that extended from the ceiling to the surface of the lake. As other tour guests took pictures with the glowing ice, I was marveling at the cave formation. Sitting under a low-hanging section of the cave, I began to think about how these caves along Chequamegon Bay are formed.The post 367 – Icy

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