Last month I had occasion to spend a couple of days poking around beaver ponds with Joe Wheaton, a castorologist at Utah State University. Joe is a visionary thinker and a profound observer of aquatic ecosystems, and I learn something new whenever I hang out with him. My latest trip to Utah didn’t disappoint, and […]
Animals
The fire started on the west side of Protection Island, on a spit called Kanem Point. A witness later reported seeing a boat near the shore shooting off flares, one of which landed in the driftwood on the beach. Smoke soon billowed up. It was early August so all the grass that covers the island […]
This winter, having resolved to become better acquainted with our wild neighbors, I bought a trail camera. We’d been renting a cabin along a creek in the Arkansas Valley, and mink and foxes occasionally scuttled past our sliding backdoor. Who knew what other faunal wonders were traversing the property under cover of darkness? When I […]
One morning a week or so ago I was at a park on the north shore of Lake Washington. The park has a long pier, and I was standing on the pier’s end when I heard a harsh shwarrk off in the distance. I perked up, strained my ears. There it was again: Shwarrk! Shwarrk! […]
Assateague The waves curl in and lave the shore, drop their cargo of shells and polished glass, then withdraw, clawing back the sand. Sanderlings scatter, poke and pick, flee incoming waves, chase them back out, reverse, repeat. I stand on spongy sand, solid enough if a bit shaky, sea foam washing my feet. Somewhere to […]
Last weekend I went to the zoo, something I hadn’t done in at least two years and probably much longer. A friend was visiting with her kid, a zoo enthusiast who’d been looking forward to it for weeks. While at the zoo we saw many wondrous things. Two Asian elephants. A number of surprisingly giant […]
A few days ago, a friend texted me that a red-flanked bluetail had been spotted a couple of miles from where I live. I had to look up what a red-flanked bluetail was. Turns out that the red-flanked bluetail—also known as the orange-flanked bush-robin—is a small songbird with red flanks (or orange flanks, I guess, […]