Roads End Naturalist

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


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  • Soundscapes

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    The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind. ~Carly Simon I was back in my favorite spot in North Carolina this past week – Pocosin Lakes NWR. A lot has changed on the refuge since my first visit back in the early 1980’s. Back then, you could walk almost anywhere this time of Read more

  • Countdown

    The last time you’re doing something – knowing you’re doing it for the last – makes it even more alive than the first. ~Gloria Naylor This week we headed down to the Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes NWR for our annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC). As best as I can remember, I have been doing Read more

  • Our Busy Neighborhood

    A good neighbor is a very desirable thing. ~Thomas Jefferson While we were in Montana for a couple of weeks last month, our wild neighbors were quite active. The trail cameras recorded lots of interesting snippets of what happens in our woods that we would otherwise not see. Here are a few of the highlights…(enlarge Read more

  • All Roads…

    Moving doesn’t change who you are. It only changes the view outside your window. ~Rachel Hollis Most of you probably already know about our coming big change (we put it up on FaceBook a few weeks ago). But, if you don’t, here it is. Melissa and I bought a house in Gardiner, Montana, the north Read more

  • Glimpses of Our Wild Neighbors

    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 I keep telling myself I’ll do a blog about something other than our trail camera findings, but then I check the cameras and see more cool stuff. So, here’s another Read more

  • Critters on Camera

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    Our desire to document is bringing us closer to nature and to animals.  ~Ruxandra Guidi It seems as though the cameras are catching more clips of extended behavior than in the past with our woodland neighbors pausing or maximizing their routes by the cameras so we catch just a little more of how they behave. Read more

  • Deersplaining

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    Now and then we hear the wilder voices of the wilderness, from animals that in the hours of darkness do not fear the neighborhood of man: the coyotes wail like dismal ventriloquists, or the silence may be broken by the snorting and stamping of a deer. ~Theodore Roosevelt Signs of the approach of Fall ar Read more

  • Coyote Capers

    Coyotes have the gift of seldom being seen; they keep to the edge of vision and beyond… ~N. Scott Momaday On our last round of trail camera videos, we caught members of the local coyote clan in several places, often alone, and on a few occasions, as a group —-A Coyote trots by a trail Read more

  • Change is in the Air

    Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. ~F. Scott Fitzgerald The change is happening…we have longed for it, and it is starting to tease us with the possibility of cooler nights and sunny, comfortable days. I see it in our woods as well in the plants and critters. New activity Read more

  • Dog Days

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    Now came the dog days – day after day of hot, still summer, when for hours at a time light seemed the only thing that moved… ~Richard Adams The last week has provided a nice break from the typical heat and humidity of this time of year, the so-called dog days of August. Historically, the Read more

Roads End Naturalist

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

Copyright Mike Dunn and Melissa Dowland