Author: Mike Dunn
-
Back in Paradise
I am back in Yellowstone leading a group, so posts will be limited for a few days. Great to be here so early, the brief season between winter and summer…absolutely beautiful. Look for more when I return. Read more…
Written by
-
Not Just a Garden for Elk
Each May for the past several years, I have made a pilgrimage to my parent’s home in Damascus, Virginia. It is my Dad’s birthday and, of course, Mother’s Day, so a perfect time to visit. It is also a perfect time to visit for the spectacle of spring in the mountains. We almost always manage… Read more…
Written by
-
Garden Birds – Blue Grosbeak
Its pleasing song and engaging appearance have made the [blue} grosbeak a favorite cage-bird among the southern [people], who know it as the “blue pop”. ~ In Biological Survey Bulletin, 1907 Though many wild birds were often kept as cage-birds decades ago (and still are in some areas of the world), I am glad the… Read more…
Written by
-
Garden Birds – Summer Tanager
The summer red bird arrives sometimes in the latter part of April, and all through the summer his scarlet form enlivens and presents a beautiful contrast to the green foliage. ~J.W.P. Smithwick, The Birds of Bertie County, NC, In The Wisconsin Naturalist (a monthly magazine), 1890 The tanagers are back! I wonder if Northern Cardinals… Read more…
Written by
-
Garden Birds – Brown Thrasher
Perhaps, if we had more neglected brush heaps and tangles of unkempt shrubbery and vines about our grounds, we might tempt the thrasher to be more sociable and nest near our homes. ~Dr. W.G. Erwin in Bent’s Life Histories of North American Birds I see Brown Thrashers all year in North Carolina, but, in winter,… Read more…
Written by
-
Garden Birds – Common Yellowthroat
When invading its haunts one is impressed with the vigorous personality of the male. He nervously raises his alarm with a variety of scolding, interrogative chirps and chattering notes and his dark inquisitive eyes sparkle with excitement through the black masks. He darts with nervous animation from place to place, then disappears in the dense… Read more…
Written by
-
Garden Birds – Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
I once knew a [beginner} bird-watcher who, not aware that altricial species attain full body size before leaving the nest, spoke seriously of the gnatcatcher as a tiny mockingbird. ~Francis Marion Weston Indeed, I often describe these active birds as looking and behaving like a tiny mockingbird. They are always fun to watch as they… Read more…
Written by
-
Garden Birds – Indigo Bunting
If, as Thoreau says, the bluebird carries the sky on its back, the Indigo Bunting may sometimes be carrying storm clouds. These common open space birds are now arriving back in NC from their tropical winter homes and the males have dressed for the occasion. During the winter, both males and females are primarily brown,… Read more…
Written by
-
Garden Birds – Rose-breasted Grosbeak
One attraction in coming to the woods to live was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in. ~Henry David Thoreau Perhaps he meant to say… one attraction in retiring was that I should have leisure and opportunity to see the spring come in. I have lived in the woods… Read more…
Written by
-
In the Belly of a Bluebird
The Bluebird Carries the Sky on His Back. ~Henry David Thoreau I probably have used that famous HDT quote before in a post, but it is so apt. Although the color of a male is so intense this time of year that it exceeds even a perfect Carolina blue sky. Bluebirds are among the most… Read more…
Written by
Roads End Naturalist 