Tag: butterfly
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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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A Monarch Pilgrimage
Each breaking wave, each rush of the sea on the slope of sand, reminds me why these places of pilgrimage matter. They matter to me because in the long view, I do not.~Terry Tempest Williams In mid-January, I had the privilege to take 12 exceptional North Carolina educators to Mexico. We had two primary goals: Read more…
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Return to Pungo
There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~Bill Waterson This past Thursday evening, Melissa participated in a Science Cafe hosted by her workplace, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. She joined a couple of other staff that had been authors of chapters in a book released this spring entitled, 30 Great Read more…
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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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Oh Yeah, It Must Be Spring
The incredible but annually commonplace change that is life eternally renewed has begun to stir. ~Hal Borland My last post dealt with the rapid changes in weather from the first spring wildflowers in our yard to the switch to bitter cold and time for chopping more firewood. The vagaries of “spring” weather really hit home Read more…
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Zestful Zebras
Butterflies and zebras. And moonbeams and fairy tales. That’s all she ever thinks about. Riding with the wind. ~Lyrics from Little Wing by Jimi Hendrix Zebra swallowtails (Eurytides marcellus) are surely one of North Carolina’s most beautiful butterflies. Their bold pattern of black and white stripes, long tails, and the bright red spots near the Read more…
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Roads End Naturalist 