The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

These are the times that try our souls. Isolation, face masks, drugs and diseases that are difficult to pronounce, let alone understand. Take heart. There's a world out there that proceeds without...

Some of the hardest questions to answer start with why. Why will fish bite one day and not the next, or even stop biting when they were having a feeding frenzy a minute ago? Why did prehistoric...

Can we all agree that winter is here? We probably could have reached that consensus of opinion after the snowstorms of late September and early October, but at times since the weather has seesawed...

Depending on your point of view, the summer is either beginning, half over or nearly done. Recent graduates of both high school and college probably wish summer would never end and people would stop...

Montana's rivers are running high, wide and muddy right now and things typically won't improve much for maybe two months. That all depends on rainfall and snowmelt. A cool, wet spring will prolong...

Several years ago, an old man, who I really didn't know, died and his wife gave me a grocery bag full of his fly-tying material. And for a long time, it sat untouched in the corner of my office. Over...

'Tis spring, the time when a young males fancy turns to, well, not football. Humans are such an odd lot. Animals – underwater, on the ground or in air – simply are driven by the survival of their...

Not all creatures have given up on spring ever happening. Some are counting on it. And soon. Great horned owls and Canada geese are sitting on eggs now, or soon will be. Two totally different Montana...

Winter will end. Trust me. But what will we see when all that white stuff disappears? A landscape green from melting snow littered with dead deer? Probably not. Yes, February was brutal for much of th...

Ever wonder on a cold, snowy winter day what fish are doing under the ice? The short answer is: about the same as the rest of the year. They breathe, eat and try to avoid being eaten. There are,...

It seems to take a while after sunrise now for birds to gather at the bird feeder by the kitchen window. On winter mornings like those recently, when the temperature struggled to rise much above...

Feeling strong? Recently, I watched a Cooper's hawk take off from a rural, gravel road, clutching a dead meadowlark in its talons. An adult Cooper's hawk might weigh one pound. An adult meadowlark pro...

Here's nothing new: It's been hot recently. How hot? So hot, I saw a dog chasing a cat and they were both walking. So hot I'm being forced to use passive verbs. Okay, for those who suffer from the...

If this Universe has a Creator, she must have been having a good day when she created birds. They are colorful and dull, helpful and ruinous. They eat bird seed, harmful insects, even our garbage....

Water, water, everywhere. You don't have to be an ancient mariner to see we have plenty of water around us. People are filling sandbags, checking flood insurance policies or waiting for fields to dry...

Ready for winter? Snow shovel out, snow blower gassed up? If you are a bear, you eat a lot, then sleep for six months. If you are a bird, you may either head to the sunny south or hunker down for a...

Snake season is here. Not a hunting season, but a season to admire Montana's snakes for what they are: a vital cog in the natural world that serves an important purpose even if some of us suffer the...

Back in third grade, I remember reading a story about a little boy who grew tired of rain ruining his weekends. So he chanted: Rain, rain go away. And he got his wish. The sky cleared, the sun came ou...