Date: Saturday, October 17
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: 1801 Second Street, #270
Friday, October 9, 2009
See Linda & Robert Scarth next weekend in Coralville
Linda & Robert Scarth, photographers of Deep Nature: Photographs from Iowa, will be signing books at the Bird's Eye View in Coralville next Saturday.
Fun fact from Iowa Nature: Oct 10
October 10, 1853: Althea Sherman, pioneering Iowa ornithologist, was born near National in Clayton County.
From The Iowa Nature Calendar
From The Iowa Nature Calendar
This Week in Iowa Nature: Oct 1
Spectacular flocks of migrating snow geese, Canada geese, and ducks appear at Riverton, DeSoto Bend, and Union Slough wildlife areas; at Saylorville, Red Rock, Rathbun, and Coralville reservoirs; along the Mississippi, Missouri, and central flyways.
From The Iowa Nature Calendar
From The Iowa Nature Calendar
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Midwest Nature Quote of the Week: Oct 8
“There are many kinds of good streams. Any stream is good if it’s allowed to keep some of its integrity. It needn’t be a snow-fed mountain creek with waterfalls and all. It can be a big, brown river like the Missouri or Mississippi, a mature river, solid and strong, wandering through a broad floodplain that it began carving eons ago. A grandfather river. I like to go out and set hoopnets and basket traps, snooping around such backwaters as Jug Handle Slough and the Butterfly Chute and the Stump Patch, poling through green caverns out into vast beds of lotus, heavy with fragrance and ablaze with sunlight.”
From John Madson, Out Home
From John Madson, Out Home
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Check out the University of Iowa Press table at this year's MAC Conference
This year's Midwest Archaeological Conference is going to be right here in Iowa City and the University of Iowa Press will have a table with all of our newest archaeological and nature titles for sale!
Where: Sheraton Hotel
210 South Dubuque Street
210 South Dubuque Street
When: October 15–18, 2009
Here are just a few of the new titles that you'll be able to pick up:
Plant of the week: Oct 7
Prairie dandelion
Agoseris cuspidata (Pursh) Raf.
scientific name, 2008
Nothocalais cuspidata (Pursh) Greene
other common names: false dandelion, goat chicory, prairie false dandelion
Agoseris: from the Greek aix for "goat" and seris for "chicory"
Cuspidata: from Latin, meaning "with a cusp," a sharp and rigid point
Daisy family: Asteraceae (Compositae)
Photograph by Thomas Rosburg, from Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie: The Upper Midwest, Second Edition
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Upcoming Event at Prairie Lights
If you're going to be in Iowa City on Saturday, October 17 stop down at Prairie Lights to see photographer Bill Witt!
Prairie Lights is located at 15 South Dubuque Street, in the heart of downtown Iowa City.
Saturday, October 17
4:00 PM
Bill Witt is the photographer behind Enchanted by Prairie.
An Interview with Bill Witt: Part 2
What advice would you give to younger nature photographers?
Consider your relationship to natural places as you would long-term friendships. Be ready to invest your time and patience in getting to know one or two nearby places. Go to them regularly, in all seasons. Observe in all weathers. Always study the nature, quality, and fall of the light. Learn to use other tools than camera, lenses, filters, and tripod--practice with loppers, rakes, flame-flappers--and make an effort to nurture them: volunteer for burn crews, brush and weed removal, and so on. Study and learn the names of the plants and animals you meet; learn something of their ecology. Extend your philosophical reach: read Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, Scott Sanders, Rachel Carson, and other fine writers who have thought carefully and lovingly about our relationship as humans with the Nature that we live within. At some point, you may sense that you're beginning to fall in love with the Natural Object of Your Affections: this could be an excellent time to let go! and read the account that John Muir left of his first passionate encounter with the Yosemite Valley and its mountains that would become the love of his life: My First Summer in the Sierra. A young and mystical wanderer found his heart's desire, and in his enraptured embracing of it he discovered who he was and what the course of his life must be.
Finally, as you grow in your knowledge and affection for your special place, you may find yourself at certain moments nearly overwhelmed by sudden gratitude. Don't shy from the feeling. Go ahead. Give thanks.
What are your favorite natural areas in Iowa and the Midwest? What areas do you return to constantly, and what's your favorite newly visited area?
The Cedar Hills Sand Prairie State Preserve is the place I return to most often. It's remarkably diverse, and it's just a ten-minute drive from my home. I've been going there for 27 years. It has guided me in learning almost everything I know about the practice of prairie photography. Other prairies that are important for me are Rochester Cemetery Prairie, Hayden Prairie State Preserve, Sylvan Runkel State Preserve and Stone State Park in the Loess Hills, and the hill prairies of the Upper Iowa River.
I'm also deeply drawn to the forests and streams of the "driftless area" of northeast Iowa, where I grew up, particularly the algific talus slopes with their rare, boreal, and post-Pleistocene relict plants and invertebrates. In the Upper Midwest, I love the Hardin County/Iowa River greenbelt, the blufflands of the Mississippi Valley, and the Lake Superior region--the North Shore and the Apostle Islands. New, compelling places: Blackmun Prairie, which came into public ownership fairly recently, thanks to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, and the oak-hickory savannas of southern Iowa.
Bill Witt is the photographer of Enchanted by Prairie
Consider your relationship to natural places as you would long-term friendships. Be ready to invest your time and patience in getting to know one or two nearby places. Go to them regularly, in all seasons. Observe in all weathers. Always study the nature, quality, and fall of the light. Learn to use other tools than camera, lenses, filters, and tripod--practice with loppers, rakes, flame-flappers--and make an effort to nurture them: volunteer for burn crews, brush and weed removal, and so on. Study and learn the names of the plants and animals you meet; learn something of their ecology. Extend your philosophical reach: read Aldo Leopold, Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, Scott Sanders, Rachel Carson, and other fine writers who have thought carefully and lovingly about our relationship as humans with the Nature that we live within. At some point, you may sense that you're beginning to fall in love with the Natural Object of Your Affections: this could be an excellent time to let go! and read the account that John Muir left of his first passionate encounter with the Yosemite Valley and its mountains that would become the love of his life: My First Summer in the Sierra. A young and mystical wanderer found his heart's desire, and in his enraptured embracing of it he discovered who he was and what the course of his life must be.
Finally, as you grow in your knowledge and affection for your special place, you may find yourself at certain moments nearly overwhelmed by sudden gratitude. Don't shy from the feeling. Go ahead. Give thanks.
What are your favorite natural areas in Iowa and the Midwest? What areas do you return to constantly, and what's your favorite newly visited area?
The Cedar Hills Sand Prairie State Preserve is the place I return to most often. It's remarkably diverse, and it's just a ten-minute drive from my home. I've been going there for 27 years. It has guided me in learning almost everything I know about the practice of prairie photography. Other prairies that are important for me are Rochester Cemetery Prairie, Hayden Prairie State Preserve, Sylvan Runkel State Preserve and Stone State Park in the Loess Hills, and the hill prairies of the Upper Iowa River.
I'm also deeply drawn to the forests and streams of the "driftless area" of northeast Iowa, where I grew up, particularly the algific talus slopes with their rare, boreal, and post-Pleistocene relict plants and invertebrates. In the Upper Midwest, I love the Hardin County/Iowa River greenbelt, the blufflands of the Mississippi Valley, and the Lake Superior region--the North Shore and the Apostle Islands. New, compelling places: Blackmun Prairie, which came into public ownership fairly recently, thanks to the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, and the oak-hickory savannas of southern Iowa.
Bill Witt is the photographer of Enchanted by Prairie
Monday, October 5, 2009
This Week in Iowa Nature: Oct 5-9
Look for late broods of butterflies, such as sulphurs, blues, and coppers, until frost.
From The Iowa Nature Calendar
From The Iowa Nature Calendar
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)