Category: Natural History
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Grand Finale
The song is ended, but the melody lingers on. ~Irving Berlin After leading my last group over a week ago, we decided to make one more trip to Pungo last Friday (it appears letting go truly is hard to do!). Our friend, Meghan, was with us and we decided to do a day trip for Read more…
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A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
On many trips I’ve led, especially ones where we see large groups of wildlife, someone asks about the collective noun for whatever species we’re observing. Whether it’s a romp of otters or a symphony of swans, it’s always fun to look that up and/or make it up (because “symphony” is not the legit collective noun Read more…
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My Last Group
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. ~Dr. Seuss Last weekend, I had the privilege of co-leading a group of folks to two of my favorite NC places, the Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes NWR and Mattamuskeet NWR. It was for a program sponsored by the NC Botanical Garden and New Hope Bird Read more…
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A Monarch Pilgrimage
Each breaking wave, each rush of the sea on the slope of sand, reminds me why these places of pilgrimage matter. They matter to me because in the long view, I do not.~Terry Tempest Williams In mid-January, I had the privilege to take 12 exceptional North Carolina educators to Mexico. We had two primary goals: Read more…
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Salamander Nights
The real beauties of nature Whisper Instead of shouting ~Melissa Dowland For those of you not on social media (I posted some of this today on FB)… I cleaned out (removed excessive filamentous algae and some leaves) our two small wildlife pools last Friday in anticipation of the predicted rain, thinking it might be the Read more…
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Our Busy Woods
Life keeps moving, even when you can’t watch. ~Unknown While we have been busy on the road and having all sorts of appointments, the creatures of our woods continue with their busy lives. The trail cameras have recorded a lot of the usual suspects – deer, squirrels, and coyotes. But it is always fascinating to Read more…
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Soundscapes
The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind. ~Carly Simon I was back in my favorite spot in North Carolina this past week – Pocosin Lakes NWR. A lot has changed on the refuge since my first visit back in the early 1980’s. Back then, you could walk almost anywhere this time of Read more…
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Our Busy Neighborhood
A good neighbor is a very desirable thing. ~Thomas Jefferson While we were in Montana for a couple of weeks last month, our wild neighbors were quite active. The trail cameras recorded lots of interesting snippets of what happens in our woods that we would otherwise not see. Here are a few of the highlights…(enlarge Read more…
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Critters on Camera
Our desire to document is bringing us closer to nature and to animals. ~Ruxandra Guidi It seems as though the cameras are catching more clips of extended behavior than in the past with our woodland neighbors pausing or maximizing their routes by the cameras so we catch just a little more of how they behave. Read more…
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Deersplaining
Now and then we hear the wilder voices of the wilderness, from animals that in the hours of darkness do not fear the neighborhood of man: the coyotes wail like dismal ventriloquists, or the silence may be broken by the snorting and stamping of a deer. ~Theodore Roosevelt Signs of the approach of Fall ar Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 