Roads End Naturalist

Exploring the natural world as we wander at the end of the road

Author: Mike Dunn

  • Sanctuary in the Swamp

    …when life looks sandy and barren, is reduced to its lowest terms, we have no appetite, and it has no flavour, then let me visit such a swamp as this, deep and impenetrable, where the earth quakes for a rod around you at every step, with its open water where swallows skim and twitter… ~Henry Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • November Amphibians

    …more different species of animals have been recorded at the Reserve than in any other comparably-sized area in the entire Piedmont. ~NC Botanical Garden web site regarding Mason Farm Biological Reserve It is an idyllic place in an otherwise rapidly developing region of our state…it is Mason Farm Biological Reserve. Mason Farm is about 367 Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Poetry with Wings

    There was a poetry reading yesterday at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill entitled Poetry with Wings. As part of the Garden’s Saving Our Birds programming initiative this Fall, five local poets were invited to read poems that touch on birds in some way  It was a wonderful event with a wide range Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • This is Nuts, Part 2

    ,

    Each year insects heavily attack northern red oak acorns and destroy a large percentage of them, greatly reducing the number of acorns available to produce seedlings and feed wildlife. ~Lester P. Gibson No, this isn’t what you think…it really is a post about acorns (I need a break from the other nuttiness). It is a Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • The Day After

    Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness. ~Desmond Tutu Be the light… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • This is Nuts!

    I am looking for acorns these days, to sow on the Walden lot, but can find very few sound ones…I found by trial that the last or apparently sound acorns would always sink in water, while the rotten ones would float, and I have accordingly offered five cents a quart for such as will sink. Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Ground Squirrels in Trees

    ,

    There was no variation in his manner of proceeding all the time I observed him. He was alert, cautious, and exceedingly methodical. ~John Burroughs, on observing a chipmunk, 1894 On our recent mountain trip, we camped at Hickory Ridge Campground at Grayson Highlands State Park.  In addition to several maple, birch and (appropriately) hickory trees, Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • The Highlands of Virginia

    Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity. ~John Muir I think thousands of people must have read this quote last Sunday and headed to my favorite Virginia state park, Grayson Highlands. The parking lots were all packed on Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Tree Climbing

    To climb a tree is for a child to discover a new world. ~Friedrich Frobel, 1826 It has been a very busy couple of weeks so you may have noticed my posts have been a bit slow in coming. Last weekend we finished celebrating our birthdays with a different sort of birthday surprise…a  private tree Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Northwoods

    There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude, and peace. The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness and of a freedom almost forgotten. It is an antidote to insecurity, the open door to waterways of ages past Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn