Power birding at Tessentee (again)
Don’t know why but the last two birding trips to Tessentee Bottomland Preserve in Macon County (last Nov. and last Sunday (Nov. 25) have been rushed affairs – allowing about two-and-a-half hours of birding from 9:30 a.m. to 12 noon. Now, of course, two-and-a-half...
Build it and they will come
Back in spring of 2011 I wrote about a wetlands restoration project at Lake Junaluska - http://www.smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/3686-a-perfect-fit. Candace Stimson, in order to fulfill her Low Impact Development degree at Haywood Community College, unearthed...
Venus and moon dance in front of the sun
Early mornings kind of go with the territory around here. With work, kids and the never-ending list of chores every homeowner has the wee hours are often the only time one has to exhale. But I’m a crepuscular creature and that suits me just find. Last Sunday morning...
This winter?
Finch irruptions are not that uncommon. They generally occur in some numbers, in some locations almost every year. But in some years the movements are larger and more widespread. The winter of 2012-2013 is shaping up to be one of those years. Irruptions are not...
Sounds of Silence
This morning when I had coffee on my deck I did not hear the hooded warbler that nests in the tangles in the young woods below my yard. I did not hear a northern parula singing from the tops of the tulip poplars. There was no buzzy black-throated blue song emanating...
For you the bells toll
Waiting in the ubiquitous checkout line, I spied a National Geographic special publication, “50 of the World’s last great places – Destinations of a Lifetime.” Thumbing through, right between Bialowieza (remnants of ancient European forests on the border of Poland and...