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Historically, Trumpeter Swans covered much of North America, but by 1932, a National Park Service survey found only 69 trumpeters in the entire contiguous United States. This spurred a conservation effort that included a feeding program in the Red Rocks National Wildlife Refuge near Dillon, Montana.

The change in my cat’s fur reminds me of a larger-scale transition undergone by the snowshoe hare. This hare sheds her brown summer coat at the end of autumn while growing new fur that is not only thicker, but another color altogether to help stay aligned with the change in seasons.

An international team of researchers at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic found a species of termite that takes the act of self-sacrifice to the extreme.

A flutter of striking black, white, and grey outside the window caught my attention, and as I walked closer I saw a dozen large-bodied, sharp-beaked birds hopping around on the treed hillside. The Clark’s Nutcrackers are here again!

I am always surprised to see moss exposed in wintertime. Hiking on trails or backcountry roads, I encounter moss-covered rocks, or mossy ledges that crop out on the slope, like a bed where the quilt has been pulled back part way and you can see the sheets peeking out underneath.

Called the “Snail Shell Spider”, this species of huntsman spider has devised a unique strategy to secure a room with a view.

When the queen-to-be hatches, worker bees will feed her a strict diet of rich royal jelly. After another five and a half days the larva changes into a pupa, and seven days later the new queen's cell is sealed shut to hide her from my prying eyes.

The chemistry professor in me can’t watch that shift from wood to ash without asking questions. Why is heat leaving the burning wood? Was the heat there all along, just waiting for me to strike a match?

Bright red berries. Glossy red berries that gleamed like a beacon in the shade. Berries that whispered “eat me” in a hue of red so vivid it promised death. I stopped and stared. That red. Into my mind, suddenly blank of everything except those berries, a word dropped like a pebble into a still pool: tantalizing.

Recently, I have been thinking about the food chain that sustains the wildlife here. Where does it begin? When did it begin? What if I looked more deeply than what I can see with my eye? I want to learn about the microbiome of this wonderful area.