Category: Natural History
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South Dakota, a New Favorite
It looks a bit like the inside of a cave that has been turned inside out and warmed by the sun. ~Stefanie Payne After our quiet stay in Medicine Bow NF, we were going to drive to the Badlands of South Dakota, but a new brown sign made us do a slight detour. Melissa charted Read more…
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A Ribbon of Green in the Desert
If the earth is a mother, then rivers are her veins. ~Amit Kalantri After Bear River, we knew it was time to point the truck eastward and start the long trek home (but with plenty of stops still). We charted a course for Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming where we had camped on previous Read more…
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Dinosaurs and Birds
Birds are the last of the dinosaurs. Tiny velociraptors with wings. Devouring defenseless wiggly things and, and nuts, and fish, and, and other birds. ~Neil Gaiman Picking up again on our May road trip…after Denver, we headed to Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado and Utah, a huge national monument at over 210,000 acres (and a Read more…
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Brown Signs and Birds
Wherever you meet this sign, respect it. It means that the land behind the sign has been dedicated by the American people to preserving, for themselves and their children, as much of our native wildlife as can be retained along with our modern civilization. ~Rachel Carson on our national wildlife refuges (referring to their logo Read more…
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Springtime in the Woods
The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May. ~Edwin Way Teale The trail cameras have been sort of slow lately, mainly capturing the usual suspects of deer, squirrels, and raccoons. They have also seen a few birds including an Ovenbird and a Wood Thrush gathering nesting material. There have been two Read more…
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Flashes of Red
I want to create red in a world that often appears black and white. ~Terry Tempest Williams Another gray day here in the woods, but the plants I put in the ground yesterday are appreciating it. Looking out the window, I can see spots of color in the yard – the blooms of Coreopsis, some Read more…
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Cashie Calling
My favourite places on earth are the wild waterways where the forest opens its arms and a silver curve of river folds the traveller into its embrace. ~ Rory MacLean This is the second post on our recent canoe/camping trip in eastern North Carolina (see previous post here). We departed the Cypress Cathedral camping platform Read more…
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Swamping Again
The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness, and of a freedom almost forgotten. ~Sigurd F. Olson The Swamp Queen (aka Melissa) did it again…planned a canoe/camping adventure to our favorite swamp destination, the Roanoke River. So, last week, we headed east to spend a planned 6 days paddling over 50 miles Read more…
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Squirrely Behavior
…for all the motions of a squirrel, even in the most solitary recesses of the forest, imply spectators… ~Henry David Thoreau Yesterday I posted about deer communication through scent at a community scrape. Are the other animals in our woods communicating to one another with scent? Do they have their own “social media sites”? I Read more…
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Woodland Social Media
Every act of communication is a miracle of translation. ~Ken Liu I recognize a buck scrape in our woods when I see one. It is a bare patch of earth with lots of hoof scrapes and deer tracks under an overhanging low limb (usually an evergreen). One or more twigs are often broken from the Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 