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First semi-supertelephoto light

April 30, 2018 - A couple of weeks ago, when my wonderful "benefactor" who'd provided the long-term loan of the Sigma supertelephoto fina...
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Tea drinker

April 29, 2018 - Just like you're not supposed to have a favorite child—or, at least, you're not supposed to admit you have—devotees of a...
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Back on the guiding trail

April 28, 2018 - Under normal circumstances, I'd be able to highlight, oh, at least one public natural history walk or school session tha...
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Fiddling about

April 27, 2018 - Several days ago, when I was combing the local boulders for Virginia Rockbreaker blossoms, I noticed the first "fiddlehe...
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Frogman

April 26, 2018 - While my granddaughter Stasia is often the featured child on these pages—maybe the too -featured child—I do have three o...
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Image-making inauguration

April 25, 2018 - When Stasia was owlet-watching and fine-tuning her spotting scope skills a couple of days ago, she also watched me takin...
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Sanguinary

April 24, 2018 - I planted my first Bloodroot in what passes for a true wildflower garden not long after we moved into the house I was st...
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Owlscoping 101

April 23, 2018 - My granddaughter Stasia is with us this week, and, happily enough, the sun was out, the day was close to warm—or, at lea...
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Not quite breaking rocks

April 22, 2018 - One of the most reliable signs that we've finally turned a corner towards real spring... not just calendar spring... is...
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Great luck bird

April 21, 2018 - One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from the nineteenth-century biologist Louis Pasteur, who told his audience,...
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Almost May blobs

April 20, 2018 - It's always a great time to walk in the wetlands, but the last part of April may be the best time of all. There are, of...
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Hepatic semi-hot-spot

April 19, 2018 - It was almost a spring day, and even though the wind still carried a chilly off the Atlantic, the sun was bright and del...
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Another second

April 18, 2018 - As a naturalist, I'm always looking for firsts, but I've already discovered the year's first butterfly—the Mourning Cloa...
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Serious business

April 17, 2018 - The phoebes are still chasing each other incessantly, but, at least on this occasion, one of the birds paused for a few...
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A late shimmer

April 16, 2018 - We had a lot of rain today, interspersed with long rumbles of thunder, and when it was all over in the late afternoon, t...
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A touch of yellow

April 15, 2018 - Forsythia are non-native shrubs related to olives and are mostly residents of Asia. The plant genus is named to honor Wi...
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Mate search

April 14, 2018 - The Phoebes have been back for several days, and, in their raspy voices, they've been singing up a storm, calling out an...
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Maybe a match

April 13, 2018 - Any worries about what might happen today, the date that folks stricken by paraskevidekatriaphobia everywhere fear the m...
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Not quite dynamic duo

April 11, 2018 - When I spotted the first Great Horned Owlet several days ago, I thought that it might not be alone. But no matter how lo...
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Hepatica heaven

April 11, 2018 - Last year, after searching for what I was beginning to assume were truly mythical plants, I finally discovered a patch o...
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Red alert

April 10, 2018 - To say that spring has been slow to arrive would probably be the understatement of the decade. To be sure, our springs—w...
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Welcome, baby GHO!

April 09, 2018 - At the very least, every time I trek down the driveway to get the mail, I'm now wearing high-powered binoculars and, bef...
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Prurient interest

April 08, 2018 - Beyond the simple fact that I know these are flies, I'm just not sure of their exact identity. But while species and gen...
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Prim and pleasurable

April 07, 2018 - The snow is gone, but the chill remains, and, with it, the absolutely grudging progress of what is, after all, supposed...
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False alarm

April 06, 2018 - The Weather Channel, of course, was humming with the "potential" for yet another nor'easter bringing dire consequences t...
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Switch hitters

April 05, 2018 - I've been wondering when the Tree Swallows would come "home" to the local wetlands, and this afternoon, on a trek past t...
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(Almost) Grand opening

April 03, 2018 - In this most grudging of springs, it all-too-often feels like the growing season is never going to get started. But, of...
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Great Horned Owl creed

April 03, 2018 - One phrase has long been used to characterize our mail carriers— Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays...
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Who's fooling whom?

April 02, 2018 - If Winter Storm Wilbur—yet another post-winter nor'easter—was forecast to arrive yesterday, I would have laughed it off...
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Easter inverts

April 01, 2018 - In keeping with the fact that today is Easter, the natural world provided its own brand of resurrection: on the calm sur...
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