The oak didn’t look as large as I’d remembered. I came upon it while visiting some of my old haunts. This was one of the trees my brother and sister and I used to frequently climb when we were kids.…
Author Archive for Dale Goodner
Thanksgiving Thought Food
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
A couple years ago I returned to my great grandparents’ farm after half a century, and barely recognized the place. The log barn was gone, the chicken coop gone, as was the machine shed. Pastures, garden, windmill … all gone.…
All Who Wander Are Not Lost
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
It was a question I’d heard before. In August I was presenting a bird program when a lady asked, “Is it true that humming birds migrate south by hitching a ride on the backs of Canada geese?” This is a…
Tiny Terrorists?!
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
It was a vision from a horror movie. The kids had formed a wide circle, backing away in disbelief as a growing gang of bee-sized yellow jacket wasps crowded over a can of soda. Screams and shrieks from fifth graders…
Every day should be Earth Day
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
It boiled down to cleanliness. That was the consensus from a class of 4th graders, to the question, “What is Earth Day all about?” Their experience reflects a common impression that it’s about picking up litter; cleaning up our towns,…
SuperPACs not so super
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
From my vantage point at the curb, in front of Green Bay West High School, I could see the approach of the police escort followed closely by a large black car. All of us students crowded to the road and started waving and…
Going North … Or South?
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
There was something new at the Jake Wolf Fish Hatchery in Sand Ridge. At least new to me. At the side of one of the fish ponds, basking in the sun, were over a dozen huge, dark, bald headed turkey…
Goose Music or ‘Sky Carp’
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
Irene Cull was a botanist, but her enthusiasm for all things natural was contagious. It was March, just over 30 years ago, and my wife, Mary, and I were on our way to a prairie conference in Chicago. Irene was scheduled…
A Mole by Any Other Name
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
In the summer of 1988 there was a terrible drought in Peoria. That fall, I received an interesting phone call at the Nature Center. A nurse wanted to know if I could explain why there had been a 500 percent…
A Look Back at Science in 2011
by Dale Goodner • • 0 Comments
The news, as most of us know it, can seem to be a study in redundancy, a repetitive procession of murders, wars, bombings, deaths, thefts, floods and fires, with a few tornadoes and earthquakes thrown in. But when you review…