Category: Natural History
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October Surprises
The surprise is that you continue to be surprised. ~Jill A. Davis I interrupt the truck camping travelogue posts to bring you some current yard sightings. We have been gone quite a bit the past couple of months so the “yard” has taken on more of a jungle look. On Friday, I started some long… Read more…
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Caterpillars and Such
When summer gathers up her robes of glory, and, like a dream, glides away. ~Sarah Helen Whitman Though the temperatures sure don’t seem like it, I’m seeing signs that Summer is coming to a close and Fall is just around the corner. The butterflies that so many thought had forsaken us this year are now… Read more…
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Return to Pungo
There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~Bill Waterson This past Thursday evening, Melissa participated in a Science Cafe hosted by her workplace, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. She joined a couple of other staff that had been authors of chapters in a book released this spring entitled, 30 Great… Read more…
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Long-tailed Skipper
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne Went wandering in the yard this weekend and I caught a glimpse of an infrequent visitor to these parts – a Long-tailed Skipper, Urbanus proteus. Long-tailed Skippers are… Read more…
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Walking Small, Part 2
Look slowly and hard at something subtle and small. ~Philip Pearlstein Some more finds while wandering in the heat in our yard jungle. The first one was a challenge. I noticed missing leaves at the tip of a Virginia Creeper vine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). Only the curved stems of the leaves remained. I looked closely, and… Read more…
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Frog Friday
You can’t tell by the look of a frog how far they’ll jump. ~Paul Doiron Took a stroll around the property yesterday, camera in hand, looking for the tiny creatures who share these woods. One thing really impressed me – the amazing number of spider webs that seemed to block my way at every turn.… Read more…
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Baby Saddlebacks
Relative to other caterpillars, slug caterpillars seem more fantasy than reality. ~David Wagner It is getting to be that time of year – caterpillar time! As summer draws to a creeping close, one of the things that lifts my spirits above the stifling heat waves is the increasing abundance of larval Lepidoptera. And one of… Read more…
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Itsy Bitsy Spiderlings
When we’re distracted, we are still paying attention—just not to the task that was the previous still point of our intentional neural processing. ~Dale Keiger I’m afraid I have a long history of being “distracted” by the natural world. I remember a time as a young teenager when I was helping my father nail shingles… Read more…
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Rain Man (and Woman)
A rainy day is a perfect time for a walk in the woods. ~Rachel Carson I am finally getting around to posting about our trip to one of our favorite backpacking spots, Mount Rogers, VA. My backpacking and camping queen (you know who I am talking about) has been chomping at the bit to get… Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 