Roads End Naturalist

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

Category: Natural History

  • A Month for Songs

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    The air is like a butterfly With frail blue wings. The happy earth looks at the sky And sings. ~Joyce Kilmer, Spring Sipping my coffee with the cool air coming in the window before sunrise this morning, I can hear the first songs of the new day – a northern cardinal, a late spring peeper,… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Eggs in the Yard

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    Notice the small things. The rewards are inversely proportional. ~Liz Vassey While sitting out in the yard last week, we noticed a butterfly flitting around a few plants at the edge of the woods, a flight pattern that usually indicates it is a female looking for a place to lay an egg. The butterfly was… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Roses in the Yard

    Seen upon the ground, the dark bird is scarcely attractive with his clumsy beak overbalancing a head that protrudes with stupid-looking awkwardness; but as he rises into the trees his lovely rose-colored breast and under-wing feathers are seen, and before he has had time to repeat his delicious, rich-voiced warble you are already in love… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Sunrise to Sunset Owls

    I too felt a slumberous influence after watching him half an hour, as he sat thus with his eyes half open, like a cat, winged brother of the cat. ~Henry David Thoreau, on watching an owl I got a surprise email this week from a friend that had been one of my Yellowstone participants last… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Into the Haw

    The rivers flow not past but through us. ~John Muir The Haw River flows along the boundary of the community where we live. It is a beautiful, rocky, river that flows 110 miles from its headwaters in Forsyth County, through Jordan Lake, to its confluence with the Deep River, where they combine to form the… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Bald is Beautiful

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    With the exception of a body of rocks looking like the ruins of an old castle, near the southwestern extremity, the top of Roan may be described as a vast meadow, without a tree to ob­struct the prospect; where a person may gallop his horse for a mile or two, with Carolina at his feet… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Sunset Birds

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    Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty, if only we have the eyes to see them. ~John Ruskin While we saw a variety of wildlife on our Florida adventure, I was a bit surprised we had not seen as many birds as I had hoped. As I mentioned in an… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Big Cypress

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    If, in the name of progress, we want to destroy everything beautiful in our world, and contaminate the air we breathe, and the water we drink, then we are in trouble. ~Marjory Stoneman Douglas, in response to critics saying that conservationists were trying to halt progress in Florida by preserving Big Cypress Swamp Big Cypress… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Everglades

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    There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known. ~Marjory Stoneman Douglas, author of The Everglades: River of Grass, 1947 Sitting by the fire yesterday afternoon, I can hardly believe I spent last week in the Florida heat… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Color Me Cryptic

    Theories pass. The frog remains. ~Jean Rostand, French biologist and philosopher While walking down by the intermittent stream in the woods this week, I caught a flash of movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned, but didn’t see anything at first. When I stepped in the direction of the flash, it happened… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn