Author: Mike Dunn
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Another Count, Another Great Day at Pungo
Conservation is a cause that has no end. There is no point at which we say, “Our work is finished…” ~Rachel Carson Saturday was our chance to participate in the 119th annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. We did it, as we have for many years, at the Pettigrew Christmas Count centered on Lake Phelps in… Read more…
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They’re Baaaaack
The homing instinct in birds and animals is one of their most remarkable traits: their strong local attachments and their skill in finding their way back…It seems at times as if they possessed some extra sense—the home sense—which operates unerringly. ~John Burroughs, 1905 Last weekend we managed to escape for a couple of days and… Read more…
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Pausing
Something precious is lost if we rush headlong into the details of life without pausing for a moment to pay homage to the mystery of life and the gift of another day. ~ Kent Nerburn As usual, it has been another busy week – catching up on rescheduled programs (due to our incredibly rainy fall),… Read more…
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Awesome Arachnids
She asks me to kill the spider. Instead, I get the most peaceful weapons I can find. I take a cup and a napkin. I catch the spider, put it outside and allow it to walk away. If I am ever caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, just being alive and not… Read more…
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Hiking the High Country
Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. ~Harold B Melchart Seems like just a little over a week ago that I was struggling to climb a mountain… Read more…
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Shining Rock
Backpacking: An extended form of hiking in which people carry double the amount of gear they need for half the distance they planned to go in twice the time it should take. ~Author unknown Melissa loves to backpack. That is an understatement. And I love to be in the places that backpacking takes us. It… Read more…
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See No Weevil…Well, Just One
A big nose never spoiled a handsome face. ~French proverb I set out the moth light the other night and had a few species come in, but had many non-moth visitors – katydids, a praying mantis, lots of caddisflies, and one very interesting little guy, a weevil. Weevils are the largest family of beetles with… Read more…
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Snippets
Life moves pretty fast.If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. ~John Hughes Indeed, life has been moving too fast of late, with so many things happening at work and in our personal lives. Luckily, I work in a magical place, and it doesn’t take much time to… Read more…
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A Week of Moments
The butterfly counts not months, but moments, and has time enough. ~Rabindranath Tagore Last week was a busy one (actually, aren’t they all) at work with getting everything back out after the hurricane and preparing for and delivering several programs. And yet, it was still a week full of natural history highlights, brief moments when… Read more…
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Moths in a Storm
Intimate connection allows recognition in an all-too-often anonymous world… Intimacy gives us a different way of seeing. ~Robin Wall Kimmerer As the rains continue to pour down from what was the hurricane that mercifully just glanced by us here in the woods, we are both reading and pursuing some indoor activities. I decided to look… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 