Roads End Naturalist

Exploring the natural world as we wander at the end of the road


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  • Those White Winter Birds

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    Twenty thousand birds moved away from me as one, like a ground-hugging white cloud… ~Michael Pollan I managed a couple of trips to my favorite NC winter place recently and was rewarded with some wonderful scenes of wide colorful skies, masses of birds, quiet moments of watching wildlife, and some surprises. I’ll cover much of… Read more

  • Frosted Feathers

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    It’s not that I like ice Or freezin’ winds and snowy ground. It’s just sometimes it’s kind of nice To be the only bird in town. ~Shel Silverstein This final post on our January Yellowstone trip shares a few highlights of the birds we encountered. There are certainly way fewer birds in this frozen land… Read more

  • Moose Magic

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    Hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature. Nonsense. A moose is a cow drawn by a three-year-old. ~Bill Bryson For many years, Moose have been one of the more difficult of Yellowstone’s large mammals to find. The best place was usually at the Northeast entrance or in the… Read more

  • How Old is Your Ram?

    The wild ram embodies the mystery and magic of the mountains… ~Jack O’Connor In honor of today’s contest between formidable members of the animal kingdom, I offer this short meander into the world of rams. Methinks the choice of a ram as a team mascot is a wise one – they are sure-footed, brawny, and… Read more

  • Octo-Ungulates

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    Ungulates. The most boring animals on earth. All they do is stand around and chew their cud. ~Hal Brindley It seems there are not a lot of quotes out there about ungulates (hoofed mammals) but I found this one in a clever blog post by someone that I know through social media. I agree with… Read more

  • Canid Capers

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    Let me tell you something about wolves, child. When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. In winter, we must protect one another, keep each other warm, share our strengths. ~George R. R. Martin One of the best things about Yellowstone in winter is the enhanced… Read more

  • Winter Wonderland

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    Through the weeks of deep snow, we walked above the ground on fallen sky… ~Wendell Berry I alluded to this trip in our last post when I whined about missing our “big snow” at home while we were away. Well, we were away in our happy place, Yellowstone. And, even though it is experiencing a… Read more

  • It Really Snowed (and we missed it)!

    While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best. ~Thomas H. Allen While we were away in mid-late January we got our biggest snow of the past couple of years (a whopping 3+ inches I believe). We were bummed to miss it (even though we were off on an… Read more

  • Oh Deer

    Everything pales in comparison to deer. ~Bill Vaughan After the ubiquitous squirrels, deer have been the mainstay of the triggers on our three trail cameras. It was a busy fall with deer frequently visiting the vicinity of some oak trees as they searched for scarce acorns. Here are a few other clips showing some behaviors… Read more

  • Refuge Ramble, Part 2 – Pea Island and Alligator River

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    Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way. ~John Muir This is the last in a series on my wanderings last week in eastern North Carolina and is about the middle of my trip when I visited the coast. After… Read more

Roads End Naturalist

Exploring the natural world as we wander at the end of the road

Copyright Mike Dunn and Melissa Dowland