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Long-tailed Skipper
Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne Went wandering in the yard this weekend and I caught a glimpse of an infrequent visitor to these parts – a Long-tailed Skipper, Urbanus proteus. Long-tailed Skippers are… Read more
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Woods Wandering
Forests are places where we can get back in touch with our inner selves, where we can walk on soft ground, breathe in natural cents, taste berries, listen to the leaves crackling – all the senses are awakened in the subdued light… ~Pierre Lieutaghi I decided to wander away from the house one morning and… Read more
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Walking Small, Part 2
Look slowly and hard at something subtle and small. ~Philip Pearlstein Some more finds while wandering in the heat in our yard jungle. The first one was a challenge. I noticed missing leaves at the tip of a Virginia Creeper vine (Parthenocissus quinquefolia). Only the curved stems of the leaves remained. I looked closely, and… Read more
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Frog Friday
You can’t tell by the look of a frog how far they’ll jump. ~Paul Doiron Took a stroll around the property yesterday, camera in hand, looking for the tiny creatures who share these woods. One thing really impressed me – the amazing number of spider webs that seemed to block my way at every turn.… Read more
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Baby Saddlebacks
Relative to other caterpillars, slug caterpillars seem more fantasy than reality. ~David Wagner It is getting to be that time of year – caterpillar time! As summer draws to a creeping close, one of the things that lifts my spirits above the stifling heat waves is the increasing abundance of larval Lepidoptera. And one of… Read more
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Itsy Bitsy Spiderlings
When we’re distracted, we are still paying attention—just not to the task that was the previous still point of our intentional neural processing. ~Dale Keiger I’m afraid I have a long history of being “distracted” by the natural world. I remember a time as a young teenager when I was helping my father nail shingles… Read more
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Rain Man (and Woman)
A rainy day is a perfect time for a walk in the woods. ~Rachel Carson I am finally getting around to posting about our trip to one of our favorite backpacking spots, Mount Rogers, VA. My backpacking and camping queen (you know who I am talking about) has been chomping at the bit to get… Read more
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National Moth Week Ends
I think that engaging with natural history – learning the identity and phenology of your neighbors by reading about their stories, and studying their lives alongside your own can give anyone a sense of rootedness. ~Henry Hershey One reason I like National Moth Week so much is that it reminds me to make the effort… Read more
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Baby Bluebirds
Be like the bluebird who never is blue, for he knows from his upbringing what singing can do. ~Cole Porter I checked on the bluebird box out in the yard yesterday to see if any of the four eggs I saw about a week ago had hatched. As always, I approached noisily, then knocked on… Read more
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Roads End Naturalist 