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...

Signs the Chinese are very good hoaxers

I’m sure many can remember what our president Donald J. Trump, a legend in his own mind, has had to say about climate change, i.e. anthropocentric global warming. In case your recollection is failing you – a couple of quotes – “NBC News just called it the great freeze...

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Best possible science discarded

Studying the red wolf fiasco taking place in eastern North Carolina takes me far away in time and distance – back to northeastern Louisiana in December 1969. I was 18 years old, sitting in a deer stand on the last day of season. It was a cold morning with a light...

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Back in the saddle

I have had, since 2004, one of the best gigs any bird nerd could ask for. That was when I was awarded my first Forest Service (FS) bird survey contract for three districts in the Pisgah National Forest. To say I didn’t know what I was getting into would be a great...

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Testing the early spring winds

Testing the early spring winds

I had the great pleasure of leading an early spring birding trip for Alarka Expeditions this past weekend – April 21 and 22. Alarka Expeditions is a brand new eco tour/environmental education enterprise based in Cowee, North Carolina adjacent to the Nantahala National...

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Puc Puggy’s digs

Puc Puggy’s digs

One of Western North Carolina’s most celebrated visitors acquired his love of - and curiosity about - nature at his father’s side along the Schuylkill River just outside of Philadelphia in the late 1700s. William Bartram was born in 1739 (along with twin sister...

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Spring has sprung

Spring has sprung

It doesn’t take a calendar to know spring is here. Spring is surely in the air but it’s also in the trees; it’s clawing through the dirt; it’s singing from vernal pools, streams and lakes; it’s even in the heavens. Orion is chasing Taurus out of sight as we turn away...

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