Discover nature this week with crickets in Missouri. The cricket’s song can recall the carefree summer days of childhood. But usually, we reduce the chirping to background noise.

Discover nature this week with ants in Missouri. You see them as they scurry about on driveways, lawns, and sidewalks -- or maybe even in your home! Regardless, ants seem to be everywhere. Some tunnel underground, while others reside in rotting wood or leaf litter.

Discover Nature this week with Missouri’s wildlife survival skills. Life among nature’s creatures is not all sweetness and delight. There are conflicts in the wild over food, nest sites and mates. And these conflicts can result in life or death.

Discover nature this week with Missouri's crayfish. While coastal lobsters are famous, their downsized relative, the crayfish (also called crawdad) lives in obscurity right here in Midwestern waters.

You might steal a kiss under its green branches, but in nature, mistletoe is a parasitic plant that attaches to and steals nutrients from trees.

While on the road this holiday season, be on the lookout for these roadside dive-bombers: American kestrels.

Our most common native evergreen is the eastern red cedar, a cone-shaped juniper with a spicy yuletide aroma. It's prickly, scale-like leaves are quite different from those of spruce, fir, or pine. But it's symmetrical shape and fresh scent make cedar a yuletide choice.

Blue jays are relatively large songbirds (about the size of a robin) with blue upperparts and whitish underparts. A blue crest on the head can be raised or lowered depending on the bird’s mood.

As you drive country highways, it sometimes seems that hawks are everywhere -- perched on telephone poles and fence posts or circling overhead.

If you venture out near the woods after dark, you might hear the high-pitched cry of a flying squirrel.