Sunday, May 10th, 2026

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Sunday, May 10th, 2026

Breaking News for

Sportsmen Since 1968

Nature Smart

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Nature Smart: A tough-to-classify bird

People love to group, label, and pigeon-hole what we see and experience around us in nature.
I believe it helps us to understand and organize in our brains the vast number of species with

Nature Smart: Stylized loon ‘gliding’

There are many things we don’t understand in nature. We often make assumptions about the kinds of behaviors we see or witness in nature, and we often incorrectly attribute a specific animal behavior based on

Nature Smart: A mysterious big-woods sandpiper

Last week, while leading a photo workshop to photograph black bears in northern Minnesota, I was reminded once again that nature exemplifies diversity.
My small group of photographers was following a female black bear

Nature Smart: A lark that wears horns

The population of ground-nesting birds is steadily decreasing. In North America, we have hundreds of bird species that nest on the ground. Prairie birds such as Eastern and Western meadowlarks are good examples. If you

Nature Smart: Understanding the sharp-tailed grouse

This spring, I’ve been capturing images of two grouse species. In my last column I wrote about the greater prairie chicken, a once widespread species that numbered in the millions. It’s now nearly extinct in

Nature Smart: The now too-rare prairie chickens

Awaking at o’-dark:30 to capture images of wildlife is standard operating procedure in my field.
During the past 40 years, I’ve dragged myself out of bed early thousands of times. So, last week when

Nature Smart: The unique marsh rabbit

While recently leading a photo tour in Florida, I was excited to see a crazy-cool critter and one of nature’s true rule-breakers!
I was walking a boardwalk over a shallow wetland. A wide variety

Nature Smart: Sandhill cranes on the Platte River

It was just before the pandemic that I’d last gone to see one of the most amazing natural spectacles in North America: the annual migration of sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) in south-central Nebraska. For the

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