Searching for spring
Draba verna"He who hopes for spring with upturned eyenever sees so small a thing as Draba.He who despairs of spring with downcast eyesteps on it, unknowing.He who searches for spring with his knees in...
View ArticleCatching Mice in the Dead Sea
Fallow FieldAdams County OhioThe fallow fields along the Ohio River may be waiting for seed or plow, but they’re anything but empty on this early spring afternoon.Covered by a giant purple carpet, they...
View ArticleTime with Trout-lilies
White Trout-lily, Erythronium albidumI seldom worry that what is found in a day outdoors will not be in some way extraordinary.In early April, especially, when daily change makes the new of yesterday...
View ArticleLittle men of the spring woods
Dutchman's BreechesI climbed the hillside and sat among pole after pole of tiny trousers, waving in the breeze of an April afternoon.But for as long as I waited there on the leafy bank for her return,...
View ArticleThe Birds of Sugar Creek
photo courtesy Jim McCormacWhat’s wrong with this picture?It's a group shot, from the Sugar Creek field trip at the New River Birding and Nature Festival where I spent the last wonderful week...a...
View ArticleWhat's underneath it all
May apple blossom in the RainA blue school bus makes the steady climb along a narrow gravel drive in West Virginia.From behind its steamed windows on a chilly morning, a group of birders looks out into...
View ArticleTaking Time
Blue-Gray GnatcatcherA tiny bird sings incessantly from the highest branch of the tree beyond my window—a blue-gray gnatcatcher…that seemingly miniature mockingbird, with his wispy, whistle-y song. Oh,...
View ArticleHeard Only
Lake Nettie in the MorningI wake this morning to the sound of tree frogs.Warm, heavy air has been spread over the Ohio River valley like a scratchy wool blanket that I would peel back and crawl out...
View ArticleMeeting the Heaths
Wetland in Northern MichiganTime in Michigan allowed me a chance to meet more of the Heath family.Nope, not the people...the plants.These members of Ericaceae, whose species number over 3300 worldwide,...
View ArticleWe interrupt our regularly scheduled program...
I’ll get back to sharing Michigan’s wonderful adventure soon enough.But, let’s press pause, set the cool air and fresh breezes aside for a moment, and catch up with a bit of excitement I found in my...
View ArticleSummer’s really hoppin’ at the ol’ swimmin’ hole!
This year’s extraordinarily wet spring may have put a crimp in the plans for your garden, but the repeated soaking rains and slow progression of warming temperatures have provided that perfect world...
View ArticleHope... and things with wings...from a naturalist's notebook
January 18th was a day for winter walking.Light rain mid-morning had given way to blue skies, which, in a season best described as a string of predictably gray flannel afternoons that stretches from...
View ArticleSolace for the Night Owl
Summer solstice is behind us.And with it, have gone the lengthening days that offer me, each evening, a reprise—several hours more to explore the outdoors. The very trails I walked this morning, with...
View ArticleA snake in the grass... and some flowers along the way
A summer walk down a grassy path will quickly tell you one thing—there’s far more here than meets the eye. From beneath the tangle of green, field crickets sing, unseen in the heat of the day....
View ArticleHave you seen...
The face beyond the windowpane,drawn to the light from within, bumps noisily head to glass, as I, on the other side, peer carefully nose to glass, drawn to the darkness of this night, and look out to...
View ArticleThe Natural Athlete
Excuse me, while I ramble, but being off-task is something I do well--something that, no matter how earnestly I try to walk that straight and narrow path, always takes me on a detour. I eventually find...
View ArticleAnother helping of Botany, anyone?
Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpureaThe Midwest Native Plant Symposium brought together a combination of botanical experts, local native plant vendors and plant/nature enthusiasts for a weekend of...
View ArticleHeat
Like many others, I’ve been kept off the trail for days by this extreme heat--a wave so wide-ranging and long-lasting that I’m hard-pressed to find a direction to explore, a place escaping the blanket...
View ArticleThe Birding Curve
Prothonotary Warbler in Wet Woods I recall a brief greeting several years ago in an exchange one spring afternoon beside a boardwalk. “The prothonotary has returned!” he said. But as I stepped onto the...
View ArticleHave you seen...
I had just made the last trip outside for the night, flipping on the porch light and grabbing the few remaining items from the clothesline across the yard. Glad that I’d caught them before the heavy...
View ArticleRefilling the Feeder
My hummingbird is happy for the change…in me. A newly cleaned and freshly filled reservoir hangs, brimming with cool nectar, in what feels like September’s first fall breeze. I’d gotten lazy in my...
View ArticleGoing Coastal
Marblehead Light This may not be the image that first pops into your mind at the mention of the word Ohio. Ohio’s a Midwestern state, right? Farmland boasting fertile fields of both corn and beans, a...
View ArticleThe Great Borer Expedition II
The Great Borer Expedition II A journey into the untamed brush of southern Ohio in pursuit of the Amorpha Borer, a seldom seen longhorned beetle, described by the few who have found it as ‘the most...
View ArticleTransplanting a Garden
The thin, green strip has been mowed again—that narrow band of grass and weeds that runs in the few feet of unplowed land on either side of the lane that I walk along each day.Chicory, Cichorium...
View Article
