April week 3 Catamounts
Nothing stirs tales of “wild” Appalachia quite like the mention of “painters.” This article was written before a DNA study of cougars – that may change the way biologists think – in terms of race and/or subspecies of Puma concolor. We will catch up with the catamount...
The swamp a ghost saved
Yay! Spring Break! That special time to be sequestered with adolescents and/or pre-adolescents in about 50 square feet while hurtling down the highway at 70 m.p.h. “What?” “Take the ear buds out.” “What?” “He said you have ear bugs.” “I do not have ear bugs, and...
A Golden secret
There is one winter visitor to our North Carolina Mountains that is probably happy the Blue ridge Parkway is closed and is not burgeoning with sightseers and thrill seekers like it is the rest of the year. That visitor would be Aquila chrysaetos canadensis, the North...
The uncommon common goldeneye
The best way I know of to get a rare bird to fly the coop is to write about it. So by the time you see this article the two drake common goldeneyes that have been hanging out at Lake Junaluska for the past week or so will likely have vanished. But they have been...
Double the fun
I had the pleasure of participating in two Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs) this past weekend. The first was the Balsam CBC on Friday Jan. 2. This was our 13th count – 12th official, and we had 18 participants. Our unofficial tally for this year’s count was a little on...
Golden poster-bird
It seems like the golden-winged warbler (GWWA) has become the non-game poster bird for everything from clearcuts to shelterwood cuts to overstory removal to seed tree harvests in our national forests. The philosophy appears to be “if you build it they will come,” see...