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.

389 - A Blue -Spotted Vision 08/28/2025

389 - A Blue -Spotted Vision Although the temperature plummeted and rain ran off our jackets, our excitement and determination could not be dampened. Rubber boots tromped over soggy leaf litter, and hands grasped at every fallen log, flipping them over as we searched the forest. The Wild Wonders campers and I were on a mission, seeking out an animal who thrives in rainy conditions–the salamander. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37961630

388 - Unexpected Hope 08/21/2025

388 - Unexpected Hope I was just about ready to round up the group and move on from the old quarry when someone exclaimed over a pretty white flower among the weeds. Five luminous petals, each with translucent lines arcing gracefully toward the nectar reservoir in the center, provided the backdrop for a ring of delicate eyelashes tipped with glossy yellow spheres. I could barely believe my eyes! I first met bog star, or marsh grass-of-Parnassus, during my summer in Alaska while assisting with a snowshoe hare study in the Brooks Range. This little beauty captured my imagination immediately. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37838865

387 - Further Observations of Forked Fungus Beetles 08/14/2025

387 - Further Observations of Forked Fungus Beetles Guest writer Katherine Woolley is about to start her junior year as an environmental education major at Western Colorado University. This summer, as a Summer Naturalist Intern at the Museum, she taught our Junior Naturalist programs and showed a real talent for finding and appreciating the oddest parts of nature. I spotted the male first. He was sitting on the highest point of the mushroom shelf like he was the king of the hill. Then I spotted his mate, who to my surprise, looked like she was sitting up. I knelt down and cocked my head to the side to get a better look. For beetles who usually crawl on all six legs, this was an unusual position. Was she laying eggs? /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37722750

386 - Finding Forked Fungus Beetles 08/07/2025

386 - Finding Forked Fungus Beetles Guest writer Katherine Woolley is about to start her junior year as an environmental education major at Western Colorado University. This summer, as a Summer Naturalist Intern at the Museum, she taught our Junior Naturalist programs and showed a real talent for finding and appreciating the oddest parts of nature. A walk along the Forest Lodge Nature Trail is never boring. I was reveling in this fact as I took my evening meander through the large trunks of towering trees. To my left, I spotted a shelf fungus clinging to the bark of a half-decayed paper birch stump. Creeping closer to investigate, I squealed with delight. There they were! Two forked fungus beetles were nestled in the corner of their polypore home. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37646700

385 - Seeds on the Move 07/31/2025

385 - Seeds on the Move Guest writer Kylie Tatarka is about to start her senior year as an environmental science major at Rochester Institute of Technology. This summer, as a Summer Naturalist Intern at the Museum, she taught our Junior Naturalist programs and spearheaded the creation of the online “Becoming the Northwoods” exhibit. Seeing the aspen-covered ground reminded me of a tree that is more common in my home state of New York, the eastern cottonwood tree, which is a relative of the aspen with similar cotton-tufted seeds. I grew an affection for these trees while leading a seed dispersal hike. With the kids, we discovered examples of seeds that are dispersed by wind, water, animals, gravity, and bursting. Now I’m always on the lookout for plants with interesting methods of seed dispersal. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37547150

384 - Boundary Waters Beauty 07/24/2025

384 - Boundary Waters Beauty The Boundary Waters is beautiful, but that’s only part of it. What really keeps people coming back, I believe, is the way this place helps us to challenge ourselves. When you cut out the excess, the superfluous, and the mess, and fit everything necessary for a week or two of life into a single, green pack, life becomes simple. There is an incredible sense of freedom in this knowledge of self-sufficiency. This freedom feels all the more sweet when it comes with manageable challenges and a means to test our mettle. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37466965

383- Looking Into the Lives of Dragonflies 07/17/2025

383- Looking Into the Lives of Dragonflies Upon spotting the green dragonfly resting close enough for me to capture, I knew I had to try. With my kayak nestled into the grassy bank of the Namekagon River, I snapped a few photos of my target and began to reach my hand out slowly. But when my fingers gently grasped the dragonfly, I was horrified to find that it was squishy rather than the typical hard feeling of an exoskeleton. My hand shot back to my side in an instant, repulsed. My first thought was that the dragonfly was dead and waterlogged. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37383760

382 - Treasures of the Big Bay Lagoon 07/10/2025

382 - Treasures of the Big Bay Lagoon The calm waters of Lake Superior glimmered in midday sunshine, and dozens of families enjoyed the sandy beach of Big Bay Town Park on Madeline Island. I hiked past them all, my steps echoing slightly on the boardwalk that winds through pine forest behind the beach. In the lagoon where decomposition has slowed and organic matter has accumulated over time, a floating mat of Sphagnum moss and sedges holds numerous treasures in a type of wetland called a fen. Treasures I was hunting! /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37289265

381 - Hunting For Elk 07/03/2025

381 - Hunting For Elk If an elk calf can make it through their first year, they have a 92 percent chance of surviving each year after that. The DNR is in year two of a three-year effort to understand the survival rates and mortality factors of that first perilous year. Do the young do better where there’s been a recent timber harvest or other disturbance? How important is it for the maternity habitat to have a view? To answer these and other questions, they attempt to locate and deploy a GPS collar on 25 calves as soon as possible each spring. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37178520

380 - Canadian Tiger Swallowtails 06/26/2025

380 - Canadian Tiger Swallowtails Something small and bright caught my eye. Stopping mid-stride and mid-conversation, I bent down to look at a small jumble of legs and exoskeletons in the tread of the Ice Age Trail. The yellow mantle behind the head of a black carrion beetle is what I’d noticed first. They are quite striking, even when rooting around in the decaying flesh of a recently dead animal, looking for a place to lay their eggs. The adults eat dead stuff, too, hence the bear hug this one was giving a shiny brown, but unmoving, carcass of a Junebug. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/37098430

379 - Junebugs and Beetles 06/19/2025

379 - Junebugs and Beetles Something small and bright caught my eye. Stopping mid-stride and mid-conversation, I bent down to look at a small jumble of legs and exoskeletons in the tread of the Ice Age Trail. The yellow mantle behind the head of a black carrion beetle is what I’d noticed first. They are quite striking, even when rooting around in the decaying flesh of a recently dead animal, looking for a place to lay their eggs. The adults eat dead stuff, too, hence the bear hug this one was giving a shiny brown, but unmoving, carcass of a Junebug. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36965430

378 - Skydancing the Night Away 06/12/2025

378 - Skydancing the Night Away Excitement and nerves were at an all time high as my car crept down the gravel road, the sun having just slipped below the horizon. I was on the hunt, following clues to lead me to my prize. My treasure was the somewhat elusive American woodcock, and I was hoping to catch a glimpse of their infamous skydance. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36871850

377 - Baby Food 06/05/2025

377 - Baby Food Although I often hear their rattling bugle calls echoing across the lake and through my open windows, having cranes nest where I could see them was a new treat. For a few weeks, every warm afternoon found me biking along that stretch of road with my camera at the ready. Each time, the evening sunlight spotlighted the face of a crane on the nest. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36791445

376 - The Teachings of Ghost Pipe 05/29/2025

376 - The Teachings of Ghost Pipe Last Sunday I was asked to give the message for the Chequamegon Unitarian Universalist Flower Ceremony. Everyone brought a flower, they were admired in a bouquet, and each person left with a different flower. This symbolized the unique value of each person and the way we came together to create a beautiful bouquet. To illustrate this idea, I chose to talk about ghost pipe (previously named Indian pipe), a plant whom I’ve been puzzling over for a while. In preparing the talk, I realized that I’d learned a lot from ghost pipe. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36694020

375 - Wilson's Warblers on Their Way 05/22/2025

375 - Wilson's Warblers on Their Way Scientist E.O. Wilson’s book Biophilia hypothesized that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. He wrote, “To an extent still undervalued in philosophy and religion, our existence depends on this propensity, our spirit is woven from it, hope rises on its currents." I watched as the Wilson’s Warbler bounced like popcorn through the narrow, willow-ish leaves of an unknown desert shrub. While this bird was named for a different Wilson, he certainly satisfied E.O. Wilson’s Biophilia. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36597690

374 - Networking 05/15/2025

374 - Networking I apologize for the weird audio quality this week! I'm traveling -- as you'll hear -- and my audio editing program did an update that takes out breath noises, etc, automatically. But that also changes how my voice sounds and seems to reduce enunciation. If it's too annoying to listen to, you can read the article at: /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36509075

373 - Adventures in Porcupine Wilderness 05/08/2025

373 - Adventures in Porcupine Wilderness At the trailhead, the woods were set alight by the sunshine reflecting off the melting snow. While my boots crunched down the trail, my eyes wandered to the trees where life was starting to awaken. Lichens, mosses, and mushrooms decorated the bark in a burst of bright greens, yellows and oranges–a welcome sight against the backdrop of the forest. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36412420

372 - Lois Nestel’s Sweet Ode to Spring 05/01/2025

372 - Lois Nestel’s Sweet Ode to Spring “What sweet ode shall we write to spring? Soft and tremulous one minute, tempestuous the next, she proffers her gifts with one fair hand and with the other snatches them away.” –Lois Nestel, Wayside Wanderings II /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36323265

371 - The Sparrow's Songs 04/24/2025

371 - The Sparrow's Songs A faint string of birdsong filtered through closed windows on a recent morning. It was well after dawn, but thick gray clouds made it feel like the Sun had yet to rise. “Song sparrow!” I exclaimed. “They must have arrived overnight!” /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36222860

370 - The Pulse of a Waking Forest 04/17/2025

370 - The Pulse of a Waking Forest The grouse drummed again; thumping slowly at first, and then crescendoing into a rapid-fire blur. As his last vibrations dissipated into the still air, another grouse answered from a neighboring territory. The low-frequency sounds are audible from up to a quarter mile away. I’m always amazed by how much I feel their sound instead of hearing it. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36097880

369 - Snowshoe Hares Eat Dirt 04/10/2025

369 - Snowshoe Hares Eat Dirt For three days in the summer of 2018 we worked on this mark-recapture survey along a pipeline access road in the Brooks Range of northern Alaska, gathering data that would help scientists at the nearby Gates of the Arctic National Park estimate snowshoe hare population numbers for this year. Our opinion? The population was high. Almost every trap was full, which meant a delayed lunch, and that sense of relief to find an empty trap. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/36006005

368 - A Home for Wood Ducks 04/03/2025

368 - A Home for Wood Ducks Listening to a pair of wood ducks explode from a tiny patch of open water in a woodland pond and woo-eek through the woods is a distinctly springtime experience. Wood ducks are uniquely adapted for life in the forest, with strong claws on their webbed toes that allow them to perch on tree branches. Scaring up a pair of wood ducks together is common, because these ducks find a mate on their wintering grounds and arrive home together. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35911520

367 - Icy Wonders of Chequamegon Bay 03/27/2025

367 - Icy Wonders of Chequamegon Bay The first ice cave was a wonder to behold. Crouching low, we shuffled into the crack that was the cave entrance. The light from our headlamps danced across the cave walls and highlighted the mass of clear ice that extended from the ceiling to the surface of the lake. As other tour guests took pictures with the glowing ice, I was marveling at the cave formation. Sitting under a low-hanging section of the cave, I began to think about how these caves along Chequamegon Bay are formed. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35766315

366 - Loon Behavior on Lake Jocassee 03/20/2025

366 - Loon Behavior on Lake Jocassee For recording time-activity-budgets for loons, Jay has an app on his phone that is set to beep at 2-minute intervals for an hour. At every beep, the binocular-wielding observers help the recorder mark down the behavior. Was the loon resting, locomoting, preening, foraging, or being aggressive? And was the loon within 25 body lengths of another loon? How many loons? One of the main goals of this research is to compare how loons on the salt-free waters of Lake Jocassee spend their time, versus loons who spend their winter on the ocean. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35706785

365 - The Loons of Lake Jocassee 03/13/2025

365 - The Loons of Lake Jocassee The first day of Loon Camp begins with a count of all the loons on Lake Jocassee, which is why I was now puttering through the upper lake on a pontoon boat with Jay, Brooks, and seven other “loonatics.” With eyes scanning and binoculars at the ready, we spotted solo loons fishing in the deep water, rafts of loons preening near shore, and gaggles of smaller waterfowl like horned grebes, too. Jay kept the tally on his data sheet, and we were free to be amazed by the loons. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35632640

364 - Winter Wind and Wildflowers with Lois Nestel 03/06/2025

364 - Winter Wind and Wildflowers with Lois Nestel As the snow melts and I enter the melancholy often brought on by mud season, I find myself seeking comfort in the words of Lois Nestel, the founding naturalist, director, and curator of the Cable Natural History Museum. She wrote: “Now there seems a desolation and bitterness in the wind as though it mourns the sadness and injustice in the world. But the wind is not governed by political upheavals, poverty or crime. It is as it has always been. Only the listener, the endurer, has changed." /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35482390

363 - Heaven in the Northwoods 02/27/2025

363 - Heaven in the Northwoods Note from Emily Stone: I’m so excited that Heaven has joined our Museum team! In between teaching MuseumMobile programs in schools, organizing spring field trips, and leading Junior Naturalist Programs, Heaven will be guest writing for Natural Connections about once a month. I’m looking forward to following her journey of discovery in the Northwoods! Heaven in the Northwoods: "The wonders of nature have fascinated me from a young age. Now I strive to understand the intricate natural workings of each place I live or visit. Cable, Wisconsin, is my newest place of interest. As the new Educator/Naturalist at the Cable Natural History Museum, I will get to use my fascination with the environment to connect both myself and the public with Northwoods nature." /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35424705

362 - Black-backed Woodpecker in the Bog 02/20/2025

362 - Black-backed Woodpecker in the Bog I hardly needed to zoom in to see the bird’s black head, white face with black stripe, black-and-white barring on their flanks, and solid black back. Five years ago I’d seen an almost identical woodpecker in this same bog, but that one had a stripe of white down the middle of their back identifying them as a three-toed woodpecker. This was their cousin, a black-backed woodpecker. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35287425

361 - The Breeze of Balance 02/13/2025

361 - The Breeze of Balance The wind can be a symbol of unity, freedom, eternity and balance. It is as true ecologically as it is metaphorically. As the winter winds swirl around you, take moment to appreciate the wind’s role in encouraging balance and unity in our sometimes stormy world. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35191700

360 - Frost Cracks 02/06/2025

360 - Frost Cracks It wasn’t long before someone keyed in on an adorably squiqqly line snaking up the length of a tree. A frost crack! Long ago I learned that these cracks burst open with a noise like a rifle shot as a sunny day plunges into a frigid night. I couldn’t remember, though: was it the contraction of cooling wood, or the expansion of ice that caused the trunk to split? Both make sense. I pondered this as we hiked along, and also tried to spot more cracks throughout the forest. /episode/index/show/cablenaturalhistorymuseum/id/35099540

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