Roads End Naturalist

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

Author: Mike Dunn

  • Christmas Bird Count

    It’s never been easier to be a citizen scientist and it’s never been more important to be one. ~David Yarnold, President and CEO, National Audubon Society Earlier this week, we participated in one of my favorite holiday traditions, the annual Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count at Pettigrew State Park. I helped start this particular count… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Christmas Week Birds

    To be standing together in a frosty field, looking up into the sky, marveling at birds and reveling in the natural world around us, was a simple miracle. And I wondered why we were so rarely able to appreciate it. ~Lynn Thomson While visiting Melissa’s family in Richmond, I often take walks around a section… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Follow the Nuthatch

    Another of Melissa’s poems about birds (and one of the few rhyming ones she has written)… Follow the Nuthatch by Melissa Dowland When searching for a bird of prey On a fall or winter’s day Never trust the noisy titmice Only the nuthatch will suffice. The titmouse is a busy soul Forever making a dreadful… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Red-shoulders

    The sparrow flying behind the hawk thinks the hawk is fleeing. ~Japanese proverb Last Saturday, I had the opportunity to work with my friend, Mary, to provide an introductory bird photography class at the NC Botanical Garden (NCBG) in Chapel Hill. It was next to the last in a series of programs that were part… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Persimmon Seeds

    I talk to trees and animals. We have interesting conversations about food, weather, and love. They sometimes can predict the future. ~Shan Sa, author There is perhaps some truth in that sentiment, at least as far as the weather goes. Or so it seems based on the many tales and proverbs about how to predict… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Swamp Sounds

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    Natural, ambient sounds give us a picture over time and define place…every landscape has a rhythm to it. ~Dr. Bryan C. Pijanowski There is, indeed, a rhythm to paddling in a swamp, and the sounds help define it. Putting our canoes in at Gardner Creek a couple of weeks ago, we could hear the sounds… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Swamp’s Sentinels

    Here’s another of Melissa’s poems that she read at the recent Poetry with Wings event at the NC Botanical Garden (paired with some of my images from our trips on the Roanoke River) … Swamp’s Sentinels by Melissa Dowland In the blackwater swamp The creeks are lined With cypress-sentinels Left whole by the loggers— Because… Read more…

    Written by

    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