From the arrival of the male red-winged blackbird signaling spring to the sight of a sunning turtle that says summer has arrived, from his keen eye for bird migrations to explaining the science behind freeze-up on Minnesota waters, naturalist Jim Gilbert has been a person of every season for Star Tribune readers.

His Nature Notes columns have been an education — and a sensory one at that — as Gilbert wrote about what he saw, heard and embraced in his life outdoors.

While his column ends with 2022, Gilbert's daily walks and record of those mornings afield will continue near his home in Waconia. So many of his jottings were a source for Star Tribune pages going on 29 years or more.

Gilbert, 82, said his main hope is that readers learned something — or got grounded in some knowledge of the natural world. His resume includes 30 years as a science teacher and naturalist in Hopkins public schools. Beginning in 1998, he worked another 20 years as an environmental studies professor at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. He continues to hear from former students whom he's inspired by his enthusiasm and nature smarts.

"That is why I [write]," he added. "It is the teacher in me. Simple as that."