Author: Mike Dunn
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Yard Mystery
Experience suggests it doesn’t matter so much how you got here, as what you do after you arrive. ~Lois McMaster Bujold I took this photo of a Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea) in May of 2006. I was walking around the yard looking for insects to photograph and stumbled upon this frog, backlit on a Tulip Read more…
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Pink Horn
It’s the horns of a dilemma, no question about it. ~Steven Jeffrey Melissa needed a few caterpillars for a teacher workshop this week, so I went out the other night with our UV flashlight to scan the vegetation around the house. A reminder that many species of caterpillars glow under UV light at night, making Read more…
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Yard Missiles
Stare hard at the hummingbird, in the summer rain,shaking the water-sparks from its wings… ~ Mary Oliver With a thunderstorm kicking up outside and rain (much needed rain) starting to fall, I sit inside watching the yard missiles go at each other at the four feeders we have scattered around the house. It still baffles Read more…
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What is That?
The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering something new… ~Henry F. Schaefer, III Last night we had friends over for pizza and beer and …mothing (wait, what?, you mean you don’t have people over and put out a moth light when it is 90 degrees and 95% humidity?). Read more…
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Summer Scenes
The night still twinkles with fireflies but the day’s heat lingers and the air has a dusty August scent, the smell of languid Summer. ~Hal Borland We are definitely in the Dog Days of Summer, the heat and humidity making me rethink my desire to be out and about in the afternoon. But, it only Read more…
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Pungo Heat
…the light of July and August is the day’s dazzle, hot light, with the season’s dust slowly accumulating and making the sky we see a giant silvered reflector. ~Hal Borland Last Friday was probably the hottest day of this summer thus far. So, naturally, I decided to head to the Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes Read more…
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Trail Cam Delights
Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us. ~Boris Pasternak The heat of summer seems to have slowed the activity around the trail cameras in our woods, but sometimes, amid all the images of squirrels, raccoons, and wind blown leafy branches, there is is a jewel that really makes me appreciate the 24-hour Read more…
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More of the Little Things in Life
If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. ~Emily Dickinson I’ve been wandering around the yard again, camera in hand, looking for the little things that might be living alongside us. The heat of summer tends to make a lot of the big things (like me) a bit Read more…
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Glimpses of Life in the Woods
Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world. ~John Muir There is so much we see when we spend time in nature, but having a few trail cameras set out shows how much we miss. Here are a few of the wildlife happenings our three cameras caught over the past couple of Read more…
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It’s the Small Things
Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination. ~Rudolf Arnheim I’m blaming it on our month-long trip out West Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 