Category: Trip report
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Return to Merchants Millpond
Paradise is just a paddle away. ~Author unknown When I worked as a District Naturalist for the state park system oh-so-many years ago, one of my favorite parks was Merchants Millpond State Park in northeastern North Carolina. It is a true natural gem of our state and remains one of my favorite spots to spend Read more…
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Refuges as refuge
For every day of loneliness we endure, we’ll spend a day in communion with the life around us until the loneliness passes away. ~Richard Louv If you have read previous posts on this blog, you know that we are lucky to live in a beautiful wooded setting with abundant wildlife from insects to birds. But Read more…
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How Many Birds?
Now Bird-Lore proposes a new kind of Christmas side hunt, in the form of a Christmas bird-census. We hope that all our readers who have the opportunity will aid us in making it a success by spending a portion of Christmas Day with the birds and sending a report of their ‘hunt’ to Bird-Lore before Read more…
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Otterly Fantastic (and more)
The heron and the otter are my friends And we are all connected to each other In a circle, in a hoop that never ends! ~Carl Binder A few days after our virtual program outing, I decided to make a day trip to the refuges for some quiet time watching wildlife. I headed out last Read more…
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They’re Back and All is Right with the World
Birds have always had the ability to bring me out of a dark space and provide relief in bad times. ~Jason Ward You may have noticed I have fallen way behind in my musings on the natural world this past month. I still haven’t even finished posting about our last road trip back in October! Read more…
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Reaching the Mountains
We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us. ~John Muir After driving across the high plains for several days, we finally saw the sharp peaks of southern Colorado reaching for the hazy skies (fires in Wyoming brought smoky skies Read more…
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Heading West
The road is there, it will always be there. You just have to decide when to take it. ~Chris Humphrey Two days before departing on our journey, we finally made plans to head toward Colorado. Why not, right? We had been there last year about the same time and it was beautiful, but this time Read more…
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Wait, What, Again?
A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. ~John Steinbeck Yeah, we did it again. A mere two weeks after we returned from our first Read more…
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Heading Home
Coming back is the thing that enables you to see how all the dots in your life are connected… ~Ann Patchett We were up early on our last morning, hoping to get to nearby Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge at sunrise. The refuge was originally called Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, but was changed in Read more…
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The Detour
Sometimes, the most scenic roads in life are the detours you didn’t mean to take. ~Angela N. Blount Driving away from the grandeur of the Tetons, we passed through some impressive landscapes along the Hoback River valley. Once we broke out of the mountains, the landscape shifted dramatically to an almost flat, endless expanse of Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 