Author: Mike Dunn
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On Silent Wings
All nature is a new impression every instant. ~Henry David Thoreau While out working in the yard yesterday I saw one of the early signs of a woodland spring, the first Falcate Orangetip butterfly. These dainty white butterflies flit through the woods for only a few weeks each year searching for mates and plants in Read more…
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Window Treatment
Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly. ~Langston Hughes Several times this winter I have heard that familiar thud that means a winged beauty has collided with my window. A quick glance shows the track left behind by such a collision – a few feathers Read more…
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Beware the Ice of March
Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. ~Robert Frost I went out before dawn this morning to get some firewood and skidded on a thin sheet of ice that had formed overnight on the deck. The dreaded freezing rain had bent over the shrubs near the deck as the thermometer Read more…
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March Madness
The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month. ~Henry Van Dyke About two weeks ago, I blogged about what I thought would be my last snow of the season. The day I posted that topic, it snowed Read more…
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Signs
A track is a window to the past of an animal. Look at the ground as if it were a manuscript of the animal’s life. ~Tom Brown I took advantage of the warm weather yesterday and walked down the power line to a beautiful tract of woods I like to visit. It is a fairly Read more…
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The Last Snow?
What good is the warmth of summer without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. ~John Steinbeck Over the weekend I made a quick trip to my parents’ home in southwest Virginia . Like many regions in the East, their area has had a long cold winter. But, I am one of those strange Read more…
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Reserved Parking
Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight how to get from shore to food and back again. ~Richard Bach Ring-billed Gulls are very adaptable creatures. They are a common inhabitant of our inland reservoirs in winter where they often fly out each day to forage in landfills or other Read more…
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A Chip on My Shoulder
I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. Henry David Thoreau Sparrows….seems like people either love them or hate them. Read more…
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A Frog in My Throat
Frogs are the birds of the night. Henry David Thoreau There is something magical about the sounds of frogs and toads. In my museum days, I used to do a workshop activity where participants got a call sheet for a local frog or toad species. Each sheet had a photo and a description of the Read more…
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Woodland Chorus
What is the earliest sign of spring? The motion of worms and insects? The flow of sap in trees and the swelling of buds? Or are there earlier signs in the water? – the tortoises, frogs… Henry David Thoreau, March 7, 1853 I think the sounds of the coming spring are amongst the first things Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 