The future naturalists
October 31, 2014 - To a naturalist, Halloween, a.k.a. Samhain in the ancient tradition, is a very special day and night in which the spirit...
Read the Full Post »
Uncertain thrush
October 30, 2014 - There are times when I'm not at all sure that I should post a photograph, even one I think is the best of the day and de...
Read the Full Post »
At long last persimmons
October 29, 2014 - At least a dozen years ago, we put in a number of fruit trees in the hope of establishing a mini-orchard. It was a noble...
Read the Full Post »
Sleeping marsh
October 28, 2014 - On a delightfully warm, Indian Summer afternoon, my path brought me to the boardwalk at the Henne preserve, and there, I...
Read the Full Post »
Dem bones
October 27, 2014 - Earlier this month and in September, I kept hearing persistent rumors about a cougar haunting the area between two local...
Read the Full Post »
Tiny mysteries
October 26, 2014 - What with the drought and all, it's been a pretty meager mushroom season. I've found very few edibles—actually, so far,...
Read the Full Post »
A ridge picnic
October 25, 2014 - I don't normally include more than one picture in each post, but I had to make an exception here, a story about a walk I...
Read the Full Post »
A berry for cold times
October 24, 2014 - My walking expeditions often take me by the edges of fresh-water wetlands—OK, they sometimes take me past said edges and...
Read the Full Post »
The witch flowers start appearing
October 23, 2014 - We're about halfway through foliage season, but some tree groups, the maples, birches, and hickories in particular, are...
Read the Full Post »
The last of the garden flowers
October 22, 2014 - Over the years, I tried growing plants touted as Hardy Cyclamens a number of times, and every time, they failed to meet...
Read the Full Post »
Wall paper... wasps
October 21, 2014 - As quickly as the temperature dropped yesterday, it started rising again today, and by the afternoon, we were entering I...
Read the Full Post »
First frost
October 20, 2014 - Not long after the sun went down yesterday, I decided to check the Weather Channel to get a handle on just how cold it w...
Read the Full Post »
The last hawk... weeds
October 19, 2014 - After a morning—and a chilly one at that—outside with my granddaughter, we came in from raking leaves and I headed off t...
Read the Full Post »
The salamander hunter
October 17, 2014 - My granddaughter Stasia was here for the weekend, so we spent as much time outside as possible. Today's agenda called fo...
Read the Full Post »
Early witches
October 17, 2014 - One of the prettiest trees on display during the autumn color extravaganza is the Witch-hazel, a ubiquitous hardwood tha...
Read the Full Post »
Stem fall
October 16, 2014 - Among our hardwood trees, the hickories are first group to drop their leaves. They turn a soft yellow—nothing dramatic,...
Read the Full Post »
One road, or two
October 14, 2014 - The drought continues, and it's making history, with water levels in the local rivers lower than chroniclers have record...
Read the Full Post »
Surprise swarm
October 13, 2014 - The temperature rose almost into the 70s today, and on my walk, it was back to tee-shirt weather. It was also back to dr...
Read the Full Post »
Gorgeous migrant
October 13, 2014 - There wasn't a lot of time today for much of anything, what with overseeing a tree-cutting job at my neighbor's and writ...
Read the Full Post »
High and, alas, drying
October 12, 2014 - I really was supposed to stay home all day and work around the house. Perhaps I'd get in a late-afternoon bike ride; per...
Read the Full Post »
Red-tail left
October 11, 2014 - It was one of those partly cloudy but warming days, and though a good part of the morning and early afternoon was taken...
Read the Full Post »
Just bones
October 10, 2014 - It was almost freezing this morning—upper 30s—and clearly high time to test drive the new woodstove we'd recently had in...
Read the Full Post »
All gussied up
October 09, 2014 - After way too long an absence—almost two months—I hauled myself back to my natural history "home-away-from-home": the Th...
Read the Full Post »
Fungal neighbors
October 08, 2014 - We've had a few on- and off-again bouts of rain, and the mushrooms are beginning to respond. On a walk into the woods, I...
Read the Full Post »
Out of the shadows
October 07, 2014 - We're in the waning days of the odonate season, but there are still at least a few species accompanying me on my daily t...
Read the Full Post »
Basket of light
October 06, 2014 - Fall is moving in fast, and the swamp maples are taking on their finery along the shore of the millpond. But in the less...
Read the Full Post »
The hunt for Spies
October 05, 2014 - With the sun out, the day warm, and our daughter-in-law and granddaughter in tow, my wife and I drove north to Rhode Isl...
Read the Full Post »
Overlooked beast
October 04, 2014 - How have I missed this creature, clearly a watchful but benign troll, all these months? The guardian has been in plain s...
Read the Full Post »
Forgive us our tresspasses
October 03, 2014 - The weather remains cloudy, incredibly humid, and quite warm: mid-60s. I was exceptionally busy writing and getting the...
Read the Full Post »
Leaves, current and future
October 02, 2014 - Fall color is arriving early this October, and many of the first-turning trees are already dropping their leaves. The ca...
Read the Full Post »
Love letters on a beech
October 01, 2014 - The weather has turned blissfully murky, and while there have been a few showers, we've yet to have the heavy, steady do...
Read the Full Post »
|