Category: Natural History
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That Makes Scents
…neither fish nor beast is the otter. ~Ted Hughes Driving down a dirt road last week on the Pungo Unit, I spotted something up ahead. It wasn’t a critter, but rather a distinctive sign made by an animal. As I got closer, I could see it was a very large area that had been marked Read more…
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Scrambled Eggs
The name “raccoon” is drawn from the Algonquian term “arakun” and roughly translates to “he who scratches with his hands”. ~Samuel I. Zevelof, in Raccoons: A Natural History Between the Bobcat and the Black Bear cubs the other day, I had another interesting wildlife encounter. Most of the dusty miles of gravel roads at Alligator Read more…
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A Rare Day
…a very secretive animal; you rarely see them. ~Paul Rezendes, in Tracking and the Art of Seeing Secretive indeed. I have been lucky over the years to have seen several (about twenty five or so), mainly at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. A few others at Alligator River and Mattamuskeet, one in Chapel Hill at Read more…
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The Wilds Close to Home
What makes a place special is the way it buries itself inside the heart, not whether it’s flat or rugged, rich or austere, wet or arid, gentle or harsh, warm or cold, wild or tame. Every place, like every person, is elevated by the love and respect shown toward it, and by the way in Read more…
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Bison Babies
I hear the soft inquiring grunts of the cows as they talk to their calves, and the gentle grunt in return as the calf answers, “Here I am”. ~Wes Olson, in Portraits of the Bison If there is an iconic animal of Yellowstone, it has to be the Bison. And spring is a great time Read more…
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Wings Over Yellowstone
Walk in wild places, and you are sure to see, and hear, birds, if nothing else. I am betting that many visitors to Yellowstone pay the birds little notice. It is, after all, the big mammals that draw most of the attention – the bears, the wolves, Elk, Bison, Moose, and Pronghorn. Some of the Read more…
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Badger Business
Badger hates society, and invitations, and dinner, and all that sort of thing. ~Kenneth Grahame, in Wind in the Willows Badgers are a solitary lot, except during the mating season, or when females are raising their young. So, last year in Yellowstone, I was thrilled when I saw more badgers than I have ever seen Read more…
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Cub Scouting
Bears are made of the same dust as we, and breathe the same winds and drink of the same waters. A bear’s days are warmed by the same sun, his dwellings are overdomed by the same blue sky, and his life turns and ebbs with heart-pulsings like ours and was poured from the same fountain… Read more…
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Watching Wolves
It was clear to me in an instant why nearly 100,000 people say they come to Yellowstone each year just to see wolves. ~Frank Clifford, in Howling Success I have been going to Yellowstone since the early 1980’s, a decade before wolves were reintroduced. In my early trips, it often seemed like I had the Read more…
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Songbird? Not so Much
…when I first heard them, I thought something was dying or being hurt. Then I realized it was just one of these birds “singing”. ~anonymous Every time I visit Yellowstone in summer, I see and hear the beautiful male Yellow-headed Blackbirds as they establish and defend territories in marshy ponds. They can be regularly observed Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 