Category: Natural History
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Yard Mystery
Experience suggests it doesn’t matter so much how you got here, as what you do after you arrive. ~Lois McMaster Bujold I took this photo of a Green Treefrog (Hyla cinerea) in May of 2006. I was walking around the yard looking for insects to photograph and stumbled upon this frog, backlit on a Tulip… Read more…
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Pink Horn
It’s the horns of a dilemma, no question about it. ~Steven Jeffrey Melissa needed a few caterpillars for a teacher workshop this week, so I went out the other night with our UV flashlight to scan the vegetation around the house. A reminder that many species of caterpillars glow under UV light at night, making… Read more…
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What is That?
The significance and joy in my science comes in those occasional moments of discovering something new… ~Henry F. Schaefer, III Last night we had friends over for pizza and beer and …mothing (wait, what?, you mean you don’t have people over and put out a moth light when it is 90 degrees and 95% humidity?).… Read more…
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Summer Scenes
The night still twinkles with fireflies but the day’s heat lingers and the air has a dusty August scent, the smell of languid Summer. ~Hal Borland We are definitely in the Dog Days of Summer, the heat and humidity making me rethink my desire to be out and about in the afternoon. But, it only… Read more…
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Pungo Heat
…the light of July and August is the day’s dazzle, hot light, with the season’s dust slowly accumulating and making the sky we see a giant silvered reflector. ~Hal Borland Last Friday was probably the hottest day of this summer thus far. So, naturally, I decided to head to the Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes… Read more…
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More of the Little Things in Life
If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. ~Emily Dickinson I’ve been wandering around the yard again, camera in hand, looking for the little things that might be living alongside us. The heat of summer tends to make a lot of the big things (like me) a bit… Read more…
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Glimpses of Life in the Woods
Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world. ~John Muir There is so much we see when we spend time in nature, but having a few trail cameras set out shows how much we miss. Here are a few of the wildlife happenings our three cameras caught over the past couple of… Read more…
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It’s the Small Things
Nothing is more humbling than to look with a strong magnifying glass at an insect so tiny that the naked eye sees only the barest speck and to discover that nevertheless it is sculpted and articulated and striped with the same care and imagination. ~Rudolf Arnheim I’m blaming it on our month-long trip out West… Read more…
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Completing the Circle
I’ve always loved butterflies, because they remind us that it’s never too late to transform ourselves. ~Drew Barrymore Last year I finally had success in photographing a chrysalis of a beautiful spring-time butterfly, the Falcate Orange-tip. I collected four eggs and their host plants and brought them inside to rear because I had no success… Read more…
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Return to Merchants Millpond
Paradise is just a paddle away. ~Author unknown When I worked as a District Naturalist for the state park system oh-so-many years ago, one of my favorite parks was Merchants Millpond State Park in northeastern North Carolina. It is a true natural gem of our state and remains one of my favorite spots to spend… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 