Roads End Naturalist

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

Category: Natural History

  • Refuge Renewal

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    In such surroundings – occasional as our visits may be – we can achieve that kind of physical and spiritual renewal that comes alone from the wonder of the natural world. ~Laurence Rockefeller It is the season of renewal for me, the season of experiencing some of the wild spectacles of this place I call… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Standing with Swans

    Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way. ~John Muir I’ll just say it…I love being around the swans at Pungo. There is something magical about these birds and every winter I find myself drawn to them and wanting to… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Christmas Week Birds

    To be standing together in a frosty field, looking up into the sky, marveling at birds and reveling in the natural world around us, was a simple miracle. And I wondered why we were so rarely able to appreciate it. ~Lynn Thomson While visiting Melissa’s family in Richmond, I often take walks around a section… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Persimmon Seeds

    I talk to trees and animals. We have interesting conversations about food, weather, and love. They sometimes can predict the future. ~Shan Sa, author There is perhaps some truth in that sentiment, at least as far as the weather goes. Or so it seems based on the many tales and proverbs about how to predict… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Swamp Sounds

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    Natural, ambient sounds give us a picture over time and define place…every landscape has a rhythm to it. ~Dr. Bryan C. Pijanowski There is, indeed, a rhythm to paddling in a swamp, and the sounds help define it. Putting our canoes in at Gardner Creek a couple of weeks ago, we could hear the sounds… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • November Amphibians

    …more different species of animals have been recorded at the Reserve than in any other comparably-sized area in the entire Piedmont. ~NC Botanical Garden web site regarding Mason Farm Biological Reserve It is an idyllic place in an otherwise rapidly developing region of our state…it is Mason Farm Biological Reserve. Mason Farm is about 367… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • This is Nuts, Part 2

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    Each year insects heavily attack northern red oak acorns and destroy a large percentage of them, greatly reducing the number of acorns available to produce seedlings and feed wildlife. ~Lester P. Gibson No, this isn’t what you think…it really is a post about acorns (I need a break from the other nuttiness). It is a… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • This is Nuts!

    I am looking for acorns these days, to sow on the Walden lot, but can find very few sound ones…I found by trial that the last or apparently sound acorns would always sink in water, while the rotten ones would float, and I have accordingly offered five cents a quart for such as will sink.… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Surprise Endings

    I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars… ~Charles Darwin, 1860 So strange are the habits of certain groups of wasps that they have caused many a person to look upon them in disbelief… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • A Swirl of Swifts

    Their twittering notes and whizzing wings create a musical, but wild, continued roar. The twittering, whizzing roar continues to increase; the revolving circle fast assumes a funnel shape, moving downward until the point reaches the hollow in the stub, pouring its living mass therein until the last bird dropped out of sight. ~Chief Pokagon, of… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn