Roads End Naturalist

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

Category: Natural History

  • Blue Grosbeak Nest

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    It is composed of fine dried grasses, which are more carefully arranged towards the interior, and is lined with a few delicate fibrous roots, dried moss, or horse-hair. There are seldom more than four eggs, but two broods are raised in the season. ~John Jame Audubon describing the nest of a Blue Grosbeak, 1844 The… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Predators Lurking Everywhere

    Every kid has a bug period… I never grew out of mine. ~E.O. Wilson After the climbing Copperhead incident over the weekend, I have been looking around more than usual every time I am outside. What I have discovered is that it is a jungle out there! Everywhere I look I see small critters feeding… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Cicada Killer, But Not The Kind You Think

    There is no better high than discovery. ~E.O. Wilson I walked out the front door before heading to bed last night just to see what I might see. The din from form the katydids was almost deafening, punctuated by the loud throaty “gunk” calls of the Green Frogs in the nearby water garden. When I… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Small Wonders

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    Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. ~Henry David Thoreau The heat this past week has been pretty oppressive. So, I needed to remind myself that, even though there are not groups of Black Bears feeding… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Fourth of July Bearworks

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    May this intelligent animal always have a place. We need to better understand bears. ~Mike McIntosh Hope you had a good holiday weekend. Mine was special in many ways – good food, good friends, and a memorable trip to my favorite place in the East, Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. It was a long day… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • When Predators Become Prey

    If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos. ~ E. O. Wilson Although my woods lack the charismatic fauna found in Yellowstone – wolves, elk, grizzlies – there is… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Cope-ing with Night Sounds

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    The spring breeding chorus also provides evening entertainment to re-affirm our connection with nature. ~Encyclopedia of Life on one of the benefits of Gray Treefrogs The rains over the weekend brought out an intense display of night sounds that could be heard through the closed windows and doors. Friends came over for dinner Saturday night… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Faces of Yellowstone

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    There are so many people here this week. So many faces. Many are international visitors. I guess many are in Yellowstone for the first time. I realized how important faces are to us humans, how that is what we usually look at first in another person, and how it can often tell us so much.… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Babes in Paradise

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    This may not be what you expected if this came up in a Google search. My last post was about being back in Yellowstone… my paradise. It being early June, the park is full of babes… of the wildlife kind. I have seen many in my first couple of days, many too far away to… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn

  • Back in Paradise

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       A quick post from my favorite place. Arrived yesterday in Yellowstone. Surprisingly hot for this time of year here… 87° in Bozeman. But, the park continues to amaze.   Relatively little wildlife on my way in yesterday save for the usual bear jams near Roosevelt. But then late in the day… two wolves in Lamar… Read more…

    Written by

    Mike Dunn