• WUNDERQUEST by April Holladay. This regular feature of the national newspaper USA Today has now been discontinued. Another commentary on the stupidity of contemporary editors and publishers. The archive remains worthwhile.

• FABRE is a website about the remarkable 19th Century French observer of insects, Jean-Henri Fabre. Included is a biography as well as references to full texts (in English as well as other languages) of many of his works.

• Physicist Bob Park's WHAT'S NEW was a response to silliness and stupidity mainly coming out of our nation's capitol. An extension of his excellent book Voodoo Science: From Foolishness to Fraud. Sadly, Bob was hospitalized with aphasia resulting from a hemorrhagic stroke in early 2013; however, his collection of columns remains accessible at this site.

• John Cooley and Dave Marshall's University of Michigan PERIODICAL CICADA PAGE is another example of how much individuals can tell us about our world. This site provides remarkably detailed information (together with maps) about cicada outbreaks across the country.

• French doctoral student Guilliume Chapron maintains a remarkably up-to-date website on CARNIVORE ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION. Among the many things included (all but a very few in English) are links to news items, older issues of the journal Cat News, an index to Canid News and many files sorted by species suitable for downloading.

• Bill Hilton, Jr.'s HILTON POND CENTER FOR PIEDMONT NATURAL HISTORY includes both informal and serious content. Of special interest is his HUMMINGBIRD PROJECT.

• For the great mass of data and information (including such things as bird and butterfly checklists by state and even county), the NORTHERN PRAIRIE WILDLIFE RESEARCH CENTER is very hard to beat.

• RADIO PROGRAMS
  • QUIRKS & QUARKS Bob McDonald now hosts this weekly 54 minute show from CBC (Canada) Radio One. Audio archives are available here. Former hosts include David Suzuki. Sprightly and good humored but richly informative interviews. Many topics briefly covered but McDonald and his interviewees get to the heart of the matter quickly.

  • National Public Radio Talk of the Nation'sSCIENCE FRIDAY with host Ira Flato is another outstanding weekly science show, despite now having been reduced from two hours to one. More liesurely than Quirks & Quarks (q.v.)but with more time devoted to each topic. Another top notch show with audio archives available from the site.

  • National Public Radio's LIVING ON EARTH is Steve Curwood's weekly hour science show. More scripted and polished than the two proceeding, it is less spontaneous but every bit as good. For past shows transcripts may be downloaded and audio versions are available for those more recent.

• NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALS
  • The NEW YORK TIMES Life Sciences Section is gone but this newspaper at least continues to provide both a regional and national perspective on natural history.

• URBAN LEGENDS takes us from the sublime to the ridiculous. Although I generally stick with the Critter Country entries, many of the legends are fun to read. My favorite is Lucky, the seeing eye dog who has led several of his blind masters to their deaths. When his trainers are asked if they are going to tell the next owner of these problems, they say that they won't because they don't want to make the new owner nervous. Although many of the examples, like this one, are indeed silly, others represent the standard fare passed off on unsuspecting citizens. This site has become more generally important given the claims - some wildly exaggerated, others simply false, many of them politically motivated - that today saturate the media.

• A useful set of general biological links listed by topic is to be found in the Biology directory of THE SCIENCE-LAB.

The Trumpeter Swan Controversy

Natural History Books

    Some of the books that have been reviewed are:

• Michael Allin, Zarafa: A Giraffe's True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris
• David Backes, The Wilderness Within: The Life of Sigurd F. Olson
• Angela Barrett, Ship Fever and Other Stories
• Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
• Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabham, The Forgotten Pollinators
• William and Valerie Chapman, Alan and Arleen Bessette and Douglas Pens, Wildflowers of New York in Color
• John Cody, Wings of Paradise: The Great Saturniid Moths
• Richard Conniff, Spineless Wonders
• Christopher Densmore, Red Jacket:Iroquois Diplomat and Orator
• Steven Drury, Stepping Stones: The Making of Our Home World
• Gary Dunn, Insects of the Great Lakes Region
• Pete Dunn, 'Small-headed Flycatcher: Seen Yesterday. He Didn't Leave His Name' and Other Stories
• Arthur V. Evans and Charles L. Bellamy, An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles
• Kathleen A. Foster, ed., Captain Watson's Travels in America
• Harry W. Greene, Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature
• Gary Hartman, The Campgrounds of New York
• Bernd Heinrich, The Trees in My Forest
• George Hudler, Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds
• Christoph Irmscher, ed., John James Audubon: Writings and Drawings
• Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm
• Seth Kantner, Ordinary Wolves
• John King, Reaching for the Sun: How Plants Work
• Jerry Kobalenko, Forest Cats of North America
• Maryjo Koch, Dragonfly Beetle Butterfly Bee
• Linda Lear, Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
• Emanuel Levine, ed., Bull's Birds of New York State
• Robert McNamara, et al.,editors, Tug Hill: A Four Season Guide to the Natural Side
• William J. McShea, H. Brian Underwood and John H. Rappole, eds., The Science of Overabundance: Deer Ecology and Population Management
• John Hanson Mitchell, Trespassing: An Inquiry Into the Private Ownership of Land
• Bill Neal, Gardener's Latin: A Lexicon
• Karl J. Niklas, The Evolutionary Biology of Plants
• Claud Nuridsany and Marie Perennou, Microcosmos
• Sadahiro Ohmomo and Koyo Akiyama, Jewel Beetles
• Klaus Olsen and Hans Larsson,Gulls of North America, Europe, and Asia
• Richard Panek, Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens
• Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber, Mad Cow U.S.A.: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?
• Andrew N. Rowan and Joan C. Weer, Living with Wildlife Report: Analysis of the Biology, Sociology and Ethics of the Beaver and Deer Issues
• Jack Sanders, Internet Guide to Birds and Birding
• Phil Schappert, A World of Butterflies: Their Lives, Behavior and Future
• Elio Schaechter, In the Company of Mushrooms
• Knut Schmidt-Nielsen, The Camel's Nose: Memoirs of a Curious Scientist
• John Sillick, Alps Road Journal
• Curt Stager, Field Notes from the Northern Forest
• Sara Stein, Planting Noah's Garden: Further Adventures in Backyard Ecology
• Philip G. Terrie, Contested Terrain: A New History of Nature and People in the Adirondacks
• Gilbert Waldbauer, The Birder's Bug Book
• Susan J. Wernert, ed, Reader's Digest North American Wildlife
• John O. Whitaker, Jr. and William J. Hamilton, Jr., Mammals of the Eastern United States
• David S. Wilcove, The Condor's Shadow: The Loss and Recovery of Wildlife in America
• Douglas Yanega, Field Guide to Northeastern Longhorned Beetles

    An extended essay on Natural History in Contemporary Fiction including excerpts from Charles Frazier, Cold Mountain; Angela Barret, Ship Fever and Other Stories; and A. S. Byatt, Angels and Insects.

    Excerpts from unexpected sources include:

• Cormac McCarthy, Cities of the Plain

    The lovely painting of the winter cardinals is by my artist friend, Len Rusin. For more information about him and a small gallery of additional wildlife paintings, see his website. The photograph of the flying squirrel was taken by Marjorie Hilger of Lockport. She wrote, "If I gently tapped on his tree trunk home, he would come out of his hole and pose for a few seconds.... Going from never having even seen a flying squirrel to actually having one living in my back yard and posing for pictures was truly a remarkable experience." The picture of me looking out over the Minnesota Boundary Waters was taken by my long-time canoeing and hiking companion, Bob Bugenstein of Minneapolis.

    The comet is Hale-Bopp. The photo was taken by Denis DiCicco for Sky & Telescope Magazine. It, many other images, and much more information about this visitor from outer space may be found at the JPL Hale-Bopp site. Information about and pictures of the more recent Martian visit may be found at the NASA Mars site. The photos of the eagle and fox were downloaded from the net. I apologize to the originators from whom I have borrowed them without attribution, because no source was given on the original posting. The only photographs I have contributed to this page are those of the wildflowers: the rare yellow-green form of sessile trillium or toadshade and the Indian pipes. I have, however, taken many of the photos that accompany recent columns.

Personal Comments

    Perhaps I should add -- defensively -- that natural history has been an avocation and not a vocation for me. I spent my professional life as a mathematics teacher and have returned to a lifelong hobby of bird watching in my dotage. When the opportunity came up to take over this "Nature Watch" column, I asked the then editor of The Buffalo News, Murray Light, if I couldn't restrict my writing to birds. His answer was straightforward -- "No." I have come to thank him for that response as it has forced me to extend my interests in many directions. Happily, I have found the professional scientists to whom I have turned regularly for assistance to be forthcoming far beyond what their duties should require and an outsider should expect.