Author: Mike Dunn
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Nice Eyes
The eye is the jewel of the body. ~Henry David Thoreau I hope you are enjoying Melissa’s wildflower observations. She will have more in coming days. But this morning I wanted to share something I found a few days ago and finally took the time to go photograph yesterday afternoon. We have a nest box Read more…
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Pale Green
Pay attention to what gets your attention. ~Gina Mollicone-Long First, the answers to yesterdays Attention to Detail post… I’m sure many of you already knew the answers, but, just in case, here is what each of the images in yesterday’s post depicted: Sensitive Fern – the spore-containing capsules are round in this species. Foamflower – Read more…
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Attention to Detail
Details create the big picture. ~Sanford I. Weill Back in the day, I worked for a truly remarkable visionary, Mary Ann Brittain. I learned a lot from her and (I think) we made a good team for the museum as educator/naturalists. I remember when I first started going on the road with her to do Read more…
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The End Result of Butterfly Courtship
Paying attention to the world around you will help you develop the extraordinary capacity to look at mundane things and see the miraculous. ~Michael Mikalko Last week I did a post on the courtship behavior and egg-laying by Falcate Orangetip butterflies in our yard. I watched a female lay two eggs on two different plants Read more…
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Haw River Saunter
…whenever I felt emotionally overwhelmed, I would take a walk in the woods. Being in the stillness and grandeur of trees had always calmed me. ~Brenda Strong We hiked (I suppose sauntered is a better word, really) along a short section of the Haw River with some good friends on Saturday (practicing social distancing, of Read more…
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Outside Our Door
…it places its nest at a great height, sometimes fifty feet, attaching it to the twigs of a forked branch. Here the nest is small, thin but compact, composed of the slender stems of dried grasses mixed with coarse fibrous roots and the exuviae of caterpillars or other insects, and lined with the hair of Read more…
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Alien Life Form Answer
There were a lot of interesting guesses and a couple of what I believe to be correct answers. I will preface this post with the disclaimer that I am certainly no expert on fungi (or anything else, for that matter) , but here is what I think our mystery photo is… I thought it was Read more…
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Alien Life Form?
I think the surest sign that there is intelligent life out there in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. ~Bill Watterson Today’s mystery comes to us courtesy of Beth Howard, a friend and teacher extraordinaire in the Wilmington area. She found this in her yard and sent me a Read more…
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Cherry Tree Mystery Answer
We had a few good observations and comments on our mystery post from yesterday. Deb noticed the silk strand in one of the images (reprinted below) which made her suspect some sort of silk-spinning critter. That pretty much limits what type of animal since the only two groups of terrestrial critters I know that can Read more…
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Cherry Tree Mystery
He who finds a thought that lets us penetrate even a little deeper into the eternal mystery of nature has been granted great peace. ~Albert Einstein Melissa and I have been talking about how we can help students and teachers during this time of online learning so I want to try to do some different Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 