Roads End Naturalist

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


Author: Mike Dunn

  • Garden Glimpses

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    Each day has its own beauty, and a mindful attitude enables us to discover the awe and wonder of each moment. ~Stephen Hatch I’ve been back from Yellowstone about a month now. It took me  a couple of weeks to go through my images and post blogs on the trip. I just finished that process… Read more…

  • Yellowstone Reflections

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    This place, this Yellowstone, comes in through the nostrils, swims into the blood, to alter your very constitution, leaving the familiar skin a sage-scented facade for the wildness running beneath. ~Liz Hinman, a teacher that participated in a Yellowstone Educators of Excellence Institute It usually takes me awhile to readjust after returning from Yellowstone. As… Read more…

  • Bison Babies

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    I hear the soft inquiring grunts of the cows as they talk to their calves, and the gentle grunt in return as the calf answers, “Here I am”. ~Wes Olson, in Portraits of the Bison If there is an iconic animal of Yellowstone, it has to be the Bison. And spring is a great time… Read more…

  • Wings Over Yellowstone

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    Walk in wild places, and you are sure to see, and hear, birds, if nothing else. I am betting that many visitors to Yellowstone pay the birds little notice. It is, after all, the big mammals that draw most of the attention – the bears, the wolves, Elk, Bison, Moose, and Pronghorn. Some of the… Read more…

  • Badger Business

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    Badger hates society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing. ~Kenneth Grahame, in Wind in the Willows Badgers are a solitary lot, except during the mating season, or when females are raising their young. So, last year in Yellowstone, I was thrilled when I saw more badgers than I have ever seen… Read more…

  • Cub Scouting

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    Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear’s days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain…… Read more…

  • Watching Wolves

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    It was clear to me in an instant why nearly 100,000 people say they come to Yellowstone each year just to see wolves. ~Frank Clifford, in Howling Success I have been going to Yellowstone since the early 1980’s, a decade before wolves were reintroduced. In my early trips, it often seemed like I had the… Read more…

  • Songbird? Not so Much

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    …when I first heard them, I thought something was dying or being hurt. Then I realized it was just one of these birds “singing”. ~anonymous Every time I visit Yellowstone in summer, I see and hear the beautiful male Yellow-headed Blackbirds as they establish and defend territories in marshy ponds. They can be regularly observed… Read more…

  • What Grizzlies Eat

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    …almost everything is food except granite… ~John Muir on what grizzlies eat Muir was probably not far off in that observation. Grizzlies (and Black Bears as well) have a tremendously varied diet according to the season and food availability. Grizzlies are omnivores, feeding on a wide range of both plants and animals. Grizzlies tend to… Read more…

  • Year of the Grizzly

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    Bears keep me humble. They help me to keep the world in perspective and to understand where I fit on the spectrum of life. We need to preserve the wilderness and its monarchs for ourselves, and for the dreams of children. We should fight for these things as if our lives depended on it, because… Read more…