Shows / Natural Connections
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.
Episodes
Natural Connections450 - Seeing Through a Forester's Eyes
A crisp fall breeze floated through our group as we stomped through the forest, our shoes crunching on fallen leaves and frost. Fall had arrived in the…
Natural Connections449 - Winding Our Way Toward Winter
Nosing between two rocks, the snake seemed to be searching for something. But no, that wasn't the place. They swung around and moved along the base of the rock…
Natural Connections448 - Woodland Walks with Lois Nestel
"Autumn has trailed light fingers across the byways and in the wake of that cool touch, the leaves flush or blanch and sink earthward in a silent swoon…The…
Natural Connections447 - Fall Food and Fellowship
The mini-bear darted close, then scurried off, posing motionless for brief moments to survey the area for danger. From the top of a lichen-covered rock, they…
- Natural Connections
Into the Boundary Waters
The crystal clear waters splashed against the pebbled shore as we gathered up our gear. Conifers of every size crowded the distant banks, beckoning us into the…
Natural Connections445 - Modes of Misery
"Here is where the journey is," philosophized Doug Wood when I finally picked the book back up. "…why do I go through it? Because no one else can go through it…
Natural Connections444 - The Sweetness of Death in Autumn
"Something smells nice right here," commented my fiancé as we hiked over a rock outcrop strewn with sun-warmed, yellowed birch leaves. The sweet aroma of…
Natural Connections443 - Holy Moly Roly Poly
"Holy Moly Roly Poly!" This enthusiastic shout came from an adorable, towheaded 4-year old, standing on the far side of a log I'd just rolled toward me…
Natural Connections442 - Second Grade Tracking Stories
Last week I attended the Outdoor Writers Association of America's annual conference in Madison, Wisconsin. At the conference, it was announced that my third…
- Natural Connections
441 - Gems of Lake Superior
My hands moved slowly over the pebbled beach as the waves of Lake Superior gently lapped the shoreline. I had found myself a nice spot to sit on the beach…
Natural Connections440 - Turtle Travels
Rosie Wollums is about to start her Junior year as an Environmental Studies and Creative Writing major at Coe College. Being in the Northwoods for the first…
Natural Connections439 - Weirdos in the Kaleidoscope
Late summer days are a kaleidoscope of vibrant flowers in all colors of the rainbow. Some of the blossoms have their perfect petals neatly arranged while their…
Natural Connections438 - Front Yard Safari
The flower head looked odd. Pearly everlasting—with their beautiful flat-topped cluster of white flowers with yellow centers—had finally bloomed. And now the…
Natural Connections437 - House Finches Get a New Coat of Paint
Katherine Woolley is about to start her senior year as an environmental education major at Western Colorado University. When Katherine arrived for her second…
- Natural Connections
436 - A Yellow-bellied Surprise
The Wild Wonders Summer Camp kids chattered away as they dug into their lunches, oblivious to the yellow-bellied sapsucker who skirted up and down the bark of…
Natural Connections435 - Who's Hiding in the Tapestry?
From a distance, the forests of July look like a lush tapestry of green. But when you step into the loosely woven strands and take a closer look, the leaves…
Natural Connections434 - Stalking Wonder
I barely caught the flash of brown out of the corner of my eye, but Kevin had a clear view. He followed the flight path of the bird until they landed on the…
Natural Connections433 - Heartbeats and Birds
My heart raced as I reached my hand into the bag. What if I broke them? What if I let them escape? Then my fingers found a familiar grip, and before I knew it…
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432 - The Making of a Master Naturalist
The sound of boots crunching on sandy sediments and excited chatter filled the air. The first day of our Wisconsin Master Naturalist training had begun, and…
Natural Connections431 - Preserving the Legacy of Black Ash
Dappled light, mosquitoes, and the roar of a chainsaw filled the humid air on a morning in early June. Guided by skilled hands, the blade sliced through pale…
Natural Connections430 - Summer Blooms with Lois Nestel
While staying in Boulder Junction, Wis. to take a Wilderness First Responder course last week, I made time for a bike ride on the Heart of Vilas County Bike…
- Natural Connections
429 - Fossil Explorations
I sat on the tan, dusty ground of the quarry in north central Iowa, fingers grasping at the shell that lay halfway buried in the chalky clay and limestone…
Natural Connections428 - Spring Explodes in the Northwoods
In just the last week or two, new life has exploded in the Northwoods. To my brain, it feels like a burst of fireworks. Instead of embers sparkling in the…
Natural Connections427 - Balsam Poplar-Tree of the Far North
The shiny resin on balsam poplar buds turns to airborne molecules during spring leaf-out. Those molecules contain a myriad of chemicals that are useful to the…
Natural Connections426 - A Prairie-Dweller Moves North
426 - A Prairie-Dweller Moves North A lump of gray fur in the middle of the trail pulled us up short. The small mammal was about the size of a gray squirrel…
Natural Connections425 - The Trill of a Pine Warbler
My companion gasped in the middle of a sentence as a pine warbler darted over my head and landed on rough spruce bark a few feet way. Then he swooped to a rock…
- Natural Connections
424 - A Torrent of Mis-Named Birds
First, we squinted, then we peered through binoculars, and finally I zoomed in with my camera to make sense of the dark shapes. The ducks had a funny conehead…
- Natural Connections
423 - A Shorebird in the Forest
Just having returned from a week of birdwatching on the Atlantic coast, the plump-bodied, long-billed silhouette of this "hokumpoke" reminded us of the…
- Natural Connections
422 - The Heron's Plan
The fish appeared to be a striped mullet, a common species of coastal waters. At first, the mullet appeared to be winning. They flopped and slipped father…
- Natural Connections
421 - Sunrise Dancers
It was well before sunrise as we drove into the Namekagon Barrens Wildlife Area and parked the truck. Moving as silently as possible, we grabbed our chairs, a…
- Natural Connections
420 - Spring Cleaning with Turkey Vultures
On the inside, turkey vultures' intense stomach acids can kill the microbes that cause botulism, anthrax, cholera, tuberculosis, salmonella, and rabies. How…
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419 - Thrasher Concert
From the top of a leafless oak tree commenced a steady stream of whistles and warbles that sounded as if an entire flock of flickers, vireos, titmice…
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418 - The Loons of Lake Jocassee
Scientists used to think that almost all our Common Loons spend the winter on salt water. From across the northern lakes, loons migrate to both coasts and the…
- Natural Connections
417 - Mushroom Munching Slugs
As mother nature slowly begins to tease us with the occasional warm day, and longer periods of sunlight, I can't help but dream of warmer days spent exploring…
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416 - "Whooo" will we see?
Seeing a moth seemed to signal that evening was coming, and our thoughts turned to owls. Sax-Zim Bog is famous for hosting rare owls. Last year was an…
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415 - Peanut Butter Saves the Jay
The Canada jays swooped from the feeding station, back over my head, and disappeared into the forest behind me. Were they taking peanut butter to their chicks?…
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414 - Fishers Looking For Love
Early spring is when male fishers travel widely in search of mating opportunities. I often see their tracks in the softening snow as they tour their 9-15…
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413 - The Elusive Lynx
I stared open-mouthed in disbelief at the cat crossing the neighborhood street in front of my new house in Silver Bay, MN (I'll be moving up full time in…
- Natural Connections
412 - Is the Sun Setting on Evening Grosbeaks?
Evening grosbeaks are colorful members of the finch family. These bright birds travel widely toward the best food sources in movements known as "irruptions."…
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411 - Stories in the Hemlocks
As my boots crunched and sunk into the snow, the trees were shedding bits of snow that littered their branches, dispatched by the wind. In my attempts to avoid…
- Natural Connections
410 - How Do We Know the Moon
"'I know the moon,' said the fox" My colleague read this title line aloud from a children's book recently, as part of a staff training. At first, I was just as…
- Natural Connections
409 - Why Woodpeckers Don't Get Concussions
The idea that a woodpecker's tongue provides cushioning for their brain as it wraps around their skull has come into question. The newest calculations, made…
- Natural Connections
408 - Cute Bits of Camouflage
Brown creepers are cute little bits of camouflage with white bellies. This one moved upward in staccato motions, a bit to the side, around to the back, back to…
- Natural Connections
407 - My Friend the Muskrat
As snow continues to blanket the ground, and the plummeting temperatures cause the air to bite at exposed skin, I can't help but reminisce on warm summer day…
- Natural Connections
406 - Mulling over Mullein
This is the season for lists highlighting our most-listened-to or best-of-whatevers at the end of the year, so I decided to dig into the stats on my Natural…
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405 - The Bohemian Bird
Bohemian waxwings are known for their ability to find a tree full of berries in the middle of nowhere, descend on it en masse, strip every edible fruit from…
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404 - Wintertime Porcupine
Heading north on Highway 63, the beautiful scenery never fails to keep me entertained as I drive through the picturesque nature of the Northwoods. While my…
- Natural Connections
403 - The Subnivean Zone Returns
As winter's first snowflakes drifted through the dark, some landed on top of dead plants, fallen leaves, twigs, and other detritus of the forest floor. In many…
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402 - The Bright Red Warning of Barberry
The arching stems, decorative berries, and warmly hued, persistent fall foliage of barberry, plus the complete lack of deer browse on their twigs, are why they…
- Natural Connections
401 - Southward Migration
The shallow water in Northwoods marshes and bays began to crackle with a skim of ice recently, gently reminding everyone that winter is on the way. Ice-up is a…
- Natural Connections
400 - Dowsing for Witch-hazel
Beside the trail stood a spreading shrub with a few rays of sunlight illuminating tiny yellow flowers that looked just like sunbursts themselves. Witch-hazel!…
- Natural Connections
399 - Watching Cranes at Crex Meadows
"Turn here, they're heading north!" I directed my fiancé as we navigated the gravel roads of Crex Meadows Wildlife Area near Grantsburg, WI. We'd spotted a…
- Natural Connections
398 - Fantastic Fungi
The air shimmered as I walked through the forest, the heavy mists encompassing me in a damp blanket. As my shoes trod on soggy leaves, I took in the quiet…
- Natural Connections
397 - Butterfly Breezes of Fall
At first, a flutter at the edge of my vision made me think that an autumn leaf had somehow managed to fall half a mile to the middle of the lake. A closer look…
- Natural Connections
396 - Flying Kittens
"Just hold her like this," Kurt told me. So I carefully nestled my first two fingers into the soft, warm feathers around the neck of this tiny northern…
- Natural Connections
395 - Green Frogs Prepare for Winter
Finally, within sight of the next lake, movement near the toe of my boot startled me almost to the point of disaster. Big black eyes with golden rims stared up…
- Natural Connections
394 - The Mystery of Mast Years
Last week I wrote about acorns clattering across my roof. As it turns out, nuts are raining down on many of your roofs, too! Commiserating over the loud…
- Natural Connections
393 - A Summer of Loon Discovery
The pontoon bobbed in the water as I stepped onto the deck, clutching binoculars and trying to contain my excitement. Since moving to the Northwoods in the…
- Natural Connections
392 - Attack of the Acorns
Crack! Rumble, rumble, rumble. Crack! The sound of hard objects pelting my metal roof shot through my open bedroom window, rousing me from the last wisps of…
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391 - Shades of Rot and Life
Shades of Rot and Life (This essay is a chapter from Emily's third book, Natural Connections3: A Web Endlessly Woven, which will arrive in November 2025!) In…