Warming the cockles

No one knows what Western North Carolina will look like post COVID-19, but these mountains have seen much over their millions of years – ice ages, civil war, pandemics, etc. and they are still here. Spring will come with its ephemerals and migrants; summer will flush...

Remember when hope was the thing with feathers?

Bobolinks are regular migrants through Western NC and their numbers have declined by more than 60 percent since 1966 - Don Hendershot photo Emily Dickinson wrote of that feathered hope in 1861: “Hope is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings...

Buteo jamaicensis

Soaring adult red-tail Don Hendershot photo A red-tail by any other name and there are several “named” red-tails. But I dare say for we sons and daughters of the South, simply the word hawk conjures up mental images of Buteo jamaicensis either scanning its...

Windy City peregrines

My bride and I spent a few days in Chicago last week. She was there for a business seminar and I was there for moral support. But, alas, I also had work to do so after walking with her to the 737 Building on N. Michigan Ave. I returned to our room and began recording...

Laissez les bons temp rouler

Traveling from east to west, the Mississippi River Bridge is a time portal for me. I drive for hours squarely focused on the here and now, then I reach the bridge and in a breath I'm suspended above the Big Muddy, the river stretches for as far as I can see to my...

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Wrinkles in Space and Time

Millions of years ago America and Africa rubbed shoulders and the Appalachia n Mountains were created. The ancient Appalachians, at one time as high as the Alps or Rockies, created quite an east-west barrier from Canada down to central Alabama. Today’s, kinder-gentler...

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Lighting up the mountains

I was at the Allens Creek soccer fields Saturday morning watching Maddie play w hen my eyes were drawn to the mountains across the way. Red splashes like watercolor brush strokes climbing a mottled green canvas were shinning from the forests. It was Virginia creeper...

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Serendipitous hawk watch

The rains came Saturday. It was a good day for a soaker, from my perspective. I had writing I needed to catch up on and it’s not as hard being stuck away down in the dungeon when it’s pouring. We had seen the forecast for Sunday and I remember remarking to Denise, on...

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Fall out for the fallout

Thanks to an invitation from a friend – Blair Ogburn, senior naturalist at Balsam Mountain Trust, I was able to spend a few hours last Saturday (9/12) morning looking for fall migrants at Balsam Mountain Preserve.   Great friends, great birding, add a twist of...

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Get thee to an eatery

Sorry, I couldn’t help it – I saw Hamlet at Montford Park this past weekend. But to be more specific, get thee to City Lights Café this Friday, September 13 at 6:00 p .m. for “Land of the Crooked Water.” Land of the Crooked Water is the inaugural offering of the...

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