Category: Natural History
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Reserved Parking
Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight how to get from shore to food and back again. ~Richard Bach Ring-billed Gulls are very adaptable creatures. They are a common inhabitant of our inland reservoirs in winter where they often fly out each day to forage in landfills or other Read more…
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A Chip on My Shoulder
I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. Henry David Thoreau Sparrows….seems like people either love them or hate them. Read more…
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A Frog in My Throat
Frogs are the birds of the night. Henry David Thoreau There is something magical about the sounds of frogs and toads. In my museum days, I used to do a workshop activity where participants got a call sheet for a local frog or toad species. Each sheet had a photo and a description of the Read more…
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Woodland Chorus
What is the earliest sign of spring? The motion of worms and insects? The flow of sap in trees and the swelling of buds? Or are there earlier signs in the water? – the tortoises, frogs… Henry David Thoreau, March 7, 1853 I think the sounds of the coming spring are amongst the first things Read more…
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Salamander Candy
Spring is here. Maybe not in its totality of warm days and flowering plants, but there are signs – signs of new life. This week I heard the first dawn chorus in my woods – the songs birds sing, especially in spring, at the first light of day. The lilting notes of the Bluebirds are Read more…
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Northbound
The story of bird migration is the story of promise – a promise to return. ~the movie, Winged Migration A week ago, we had a snow storm that crippled much of the south. Today, the temperatures soared into the 70’s. Less than two weeks ago, I stood in awe as thousands of Snow Geese swirled Read more…
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Trip Report – Pungo
Last week I had another group going to the Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. They had been scheduled for the prior week, but the rare coastal snow storm had made it impossible for them to get to Pungo. I headed down the day before to scout the roads that had been so Read more…
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The Long and Short of It
I admire herons, herons of all sorts. They have a stately posture, epitomize patience, and have bright eyes that can stare down anyone. My recent trip to Florida had lots of heron highlights. Here I report on the long and short of it, Great Blue Herons and Green Herons. Standing four feet tall with a Read more…
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More than his Belican
A wonderful bird is the pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican, He can take in his beak Enough food for a week But I’m damned if I see how the helican! ~Dixon Lanier Merritt American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are always a treat to see. When I first moved to North Carolina Read more…
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Trip Report – a Frozen Mattamuskeet and Pungo
To me, the beautiful and ever-changing patterns formed in lake ice – and in snowflakes, the ice of the sky – are winter’s “bloom,” corresponding to the flowering plants of summer. ~Stephen Hatch I had another trip to North Carolina’s winter wonderland this past weekend. And a wonderland it was…Lake Mattamuskeet was largely frozen, a Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 