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Walking the Woods
Parting is such sweet sorrow. ~William Shakespeare Yesterday morning we took what may be our final stroll through our property. Our home is on a little over 14 acres of rolling landscape with big hardwoods, mostly white oak and tulip poplar with some northern red oak and various hickories making up the largest trees. As… Read more
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Chip Away
The temple of truth has never suffered so much from woodpeckers on the outside as from termites within. ~Vance Havner Melissa spotted a pair of pileated woodpeckers out front the other day and we grabbed the scope to take a closer look. They were both pounding on a couple of hickory stumps that we had… Read more
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Swampin’ Again
Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day. ~Winnie the Pooh Well, if you didn’t know it before, you will know it now…swamps are Melissa’s (and my) favorite places to camp in North Carolina. And one swamp in particular, the “Amazon of North Carolina”, the massive swamps along the Roanoke… Read more
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Song of the Swamp
If prisons, freight trains, swamps, and gators don’t get ya to write songs, y’ain’t got no business writin’ songs. ~Ronnie Van Zant As part of our “farewell tour”, we drove up to Merchants Millpond State Park last weekend. When I was working with state parks, I fell in love with that place and its amazing… Read more
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Farewell Eastern Columbine
I’m glad the Covid-19 shutdown began in March. April is the best month to be home. Twenty-five years of gardening – not the traditional type of gardening; Mike’s gardening is more like an attempt to create a mountain cove forest in the side yard – has led to a beautiful array of native wildflowers. April… Read more
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Snow Birds
Winter perches like a bird. Wings tucked in so the soul is heard. ~Angie Weiland-Crosby Another nice snowfall (it has been many years since I could utter that phrase around these parts). We probably got about 3 inches here and it was a nice fluffy snow (prepping us for our upcoming move to Montana no… Read more
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Grand Finale
The song is ended, but the melody lingers on. ~Irving Berlin After leading my last group over a week ago, we decided to make one more trip to Pungo last Friday (it appears letting go truly is hard to do!). Our friend, Meghan, was with us and we decided to do a day trip for… Read more
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A Kaleidoscope of Butterflies
On many trips I’ve led, especially ones where we see large groups of wildlife, someone asks about the collective noun for whatever species we’re observing. Whether it’s a romp of otters or a symphony of swans, it’s always fun to look that up and/or make it up (because “symphony” is not the legit collective noun… Read more
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My Last Group
Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened. ~Dr. Seuss Last weekend, I had the privilege of co-leading a group of folks to two of my favorite NC places, the Pungo Unit of Pocosin Lakes NWR and Mattamuskeet NWR. It was for a program sponsored by the NC Botanical Garden and New Hope Bird… Read more
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Roads End Naturalist 