Category: Natural History
-
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…
Written by
-
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…
Written by
-
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…
Written by
-
More Bang for the Buck(s)
The life of the wood, meadow, and lake go on without us. Flowers bloom, set seed and die back; squirrels hide nuts in the fall and scold all year long; bobcats track the snowy lake in winter; deer browse the willow shoots in spring. Humans are but intruders who have presumed the right to be… Read more…
Written by
-
Fly Like an Eagle
I know he’d be a poorer man if he never saw an eagle fly. ~John Denver A couple of weeks ago I made a trip over to the B. Everett Jordan Dam about 25 minutes from our house. I had seen a lot of images recently on social media of the Bald Eagles that tend… Read more…
Written by
-
Opossum Afterlife
Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. ~Lao Tzu One day earlier this month I discovered a recently deceased Virginia Opossum out by one of the wood piles. No idea what might have happened to it though it was not long after some severely cold weather. I decided to… Read more…
Written by
-
Mustelid Moments
We need the tonic of wildness, — to wade sometimes in marshes where the bittern and the meadow-hen lurk, and hear the booming of the snipe; to smell the whispering sedge where only some wilder and more solitary fowl builds her nest, and the mink crawls with its belly close to the ground. ~Henry David… Read more…
Written by
-
Sharing with Friends
To appreciate the beauty of a snowflake it is necessary to stand in the cold. ~Aristotle This is the second post from our January trip to Yellowstone. After spending a few days scouting the northern range of the park and hanging out with some Montana friends, a group of eight NC friends flew out to… Read more…
Written by
-
A Winter’s Journey
Winter is not a season, it’s a celebration. ~Anamika Mishra Melissa had another wonderful educator workshop to Yellowstone last month with plenty of extraordinary sightings including a Pygmy Owl, Ermine, and a Bobcat feeding on a Mule Deer carcass (jealous, me??). We planned for her to take some time off afterward and have some friends… Read more…
Written by
-
Critter Condo
Be as useful as a tree! Give life to others; be shelter to everyone; grant fruits to all! Be good like a tree! ~Mehmet Murat Ildan Just beyond our deer fence is a huge old Tulip Poplar with a split at the base forming a hollow that stretches up 20 feet or so. This is… Read more…
Written by
Roads End Naturalist 