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Serenity prayer

August 31, 2017 - If an amphibian could ever be said to look serene, then I think that term would be a completely appropriate description...
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Haute cuisine

August 29, 2017 - On any walk, I'm always searching the weeds for signs of Praying Mantis activity, and today, in the underbrush by the mi...
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Great expectations

August 29, 2017 - One of the hallmarks of late August, when summer has really begun turning towards autumn, is the appearance in the woods...
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Gray jewel

August 28, 2017 - The Hairstreak butterflies are pretty little jewels, but if you're not judicious, they can also be pretty confusing litt...
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Loose and lovely

August 27, 2017 - With my granddaughter back home after spending most of the summer vacation with us, I had the strangest problem this mor...
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Gold digger

August 26, 2017 - I had seen this handsome and rather frighteningly large wasp patrolling a variety of flowers throughout the month, but,...
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The key to Marsh Ferns

August 25, 2017 - I'm gradually getting better at fern identification, although, for reasons that escape me, I'm hardly a pro, despite a f...
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Early end

August 24, 2017 - Today was a joyous and melancholy day—the very definition of bittersweet. After doing the usual things with my granddaug...
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Along the shoremen

August 23, 2017 - After I'd finished up the usual round of work and house work, I had a little bit of time to myself, and I decided to spe...
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Silver and gold

August 22, 2017 - It was high time I went across the street to my neighbor's field to try to find the first Black-and-Yellow Garden Spider...
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Eclipse day

August 21, 2017 - In the four or so years that I've been writing and photographing this blog, I've never once wrapped a post around someon...
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Ironweed exploiter

August 20, 2017 - I had a little bit of free time in the late afternoon, and I had an agenda: with myriad patches of Joe Pye Weed in full...
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Look, but don't touch

August 19, 2017 - Like biologist JBS Haldane, the Lord, and field guide writer Art Evans, I have an "inordinate fondness for beetles," and...
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Balancing act

August 18, 2017 - It's been a fine and, from a kid-rearing perspective, wonderfully successful year for our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Si...
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First fawn

August 17, 2017 - When you live a long time in the same place and you're committed to record-keeping, you can, in fairly short order, begi...
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Next generation

August 16, 2017 - Reproduction among invertebrates can take on many shapes and forms, a number of which fit into the, let us say, "don't t...
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Playing possum

August 15, 2017 - This wasn't a walking day, what with persistent showers, so I worked reluctantly inside. I did manage to get outside at...
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Baby food

August 14, 2017 - On a quick survey trek around the lawn—not exactly an epic journey... well, in terms of distance...—I heard a rustling i...
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Dog days DJ

August 13, 2017 - Cicadas are certainly the heart and soul, or, at least, the voice, of mid-summer heat, but because they mostly do their...
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Orchid appreciation

August 12, 2017 - There's a field close to the Lantern Hill trailhead that I explore every time before I do a climb, and in mid-August, th...
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Birth of the high-flying generation

August 11, 2017 - Monarch butterflies have been hit hard in recent years, and as a result of pesticides, the elimination of far too many m...
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Very unexpected visitor

August 10, 2017 - We used to see Box Turtles in the back yard every year. We never knew where they came from, and we never discovered wher...
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Uber-predator

August 09, 2017 - Several hundred million years ago, giant dragonflies, with wingspans exceeding two feet, patrolled the steamy and oxygen...
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Flower child

August 08, 2017 - It's been a fine midsummer for Sweet William blossoms in the flower garden and the nearby gone-wild edges of the fields,...
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Distinguised flower fly

August 07, 2017 - When I finally broke down and bought my 85mm Nikkor micro lens—refurbished, of course... I couldn't afford a new one—I h...
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Monarch season begins

August 06, 2017 - I was out with a group of Avalonia Land Conservancy folks this morning at an area known as the Peck Preserve to examine...
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Floral cardinals

August 05, 2017 - It felt like old times today: a walk to the millpond, a few minutes pulling beaver-deposited sticks out of the spillway,...
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Early Halloween

August 03, 2017 - When my granddaughter Stasia came out of one of the dollar stores recently, she was aghast at what she'd seen. "Hallowee...
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Social climber

August 03, 2017 - We've starting seeing a lot of very young and very small Spring Peepers hopping across the lawn these, and when my grand...
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Jumping treasure

August 02, 2017 - Once again, a non-hiking day due to work overload, but my granddaughter Stasia and I managed to get outside for a while...
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Painted Ladies, two perspectives

August 01, 2017 - Whatever entomologist affixed the common name of Painted Lady to this species of Brushfoot butterfly no doubt had a sens...
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