Betty 
“You will have an interpreter for the hard-of-hearing,” read the email sent by the White Tank Library where we were to present our reptile program in a couple weeks. Strange, Chuck and I thought, we’ve never had that before. We pretty much forgot about the note until the day of the presentation and we were …
“Snakes don’t make good pets for kids,” Chuck advised a couple as their young son ran a finger across our Rosy Boa’s silky body. “They’re not cuddly. They can be difficult to feed. They don’t like to be handled and you can’t play with them. And they can live longer than a dog or cat, …
When I was a kid on Halloween, my main concern was harvesting as much candy as I could. My brother and I canvassed our neighborhood as far as time permitted to fill our bags to the brim. Then we’d head home and begin to gorge. Maybe it’s different these days. No Candy Over the past …
How difficult could it be? Eric, the biologist at the National Elk Refuge, asked if we would map invasive spotted knapweed grass in a remote area on the north end of the Refuge. Last year we mapped cheatgrass on Miller Butte on the south end of the Refuge, and that proved difficult because of its …
People who fear snakes (or spiders, or dogs, or clowns, or needles, or whatever) might add Mylar balloons to their anxieties. In the past, we have written a couple articles about the effects of Mylar balloons on wildlife and their habitats. Not only do these balloons turn up in the most remote areas as they …
Recently, we encountered some wildlife interactions we’d never before observed, although they likely happen daily. Raven on Redtail We’ve often witnessed blackbirds diving at and attacking ravens and hawks in flight to remove them from their territories or nest. In these instances, the larger birds generally appear only slightly bothered, as if buzzed by a …
I’ve always thought of badgers as crabby, ill-tempered little creatures willing to consume anything in sight, including snakes. They are pugnacious little beasts, I assumed after observing a few of them in the wild. They have their place in nature, of course, but are devoid of personality, I believed, and would never display a playful …