The smallest sprout shows there is really no death —Walt Whitman The largest living organism is a fungus. While groups of Armillaria ostoyae caps sprout here and there, the vast majority of it lives its life out of human sight, sprawling four square miles under a Pacific Northwest forest floor.
I know things have been quiet on the Big Year front. For the past few months, I’ve taken an unintentionally intentional step back from birding and from writing. This isn’t the time nor the place to dive into the details, but in that distance, I’ve been rolling
It’s been a slow few months on the bird front—summer is like that. The migrants are off making babies, and those that stick around tend towards languidity. I’ve also experienced a certain amount of listlessness when it comes to bird watching. It’s an odd feeling to
Birds, as I’ve learned time and again, don’t care about my schedule. I’ve planned trips, obsessively checked eBird lists, bumped a rental car down paths that are roads in name only, waded through mud, and been over my head in prairie grass—and the birds just aren’
It’s a moment of pure power, focus, and grace. A moment when all of the bird works together for a singular purpose. The head is set, the eyes locked on their prey, even though the body is in motion. In the dive, their wings remain outstretched, and tail feathers
We’re in the midst of summer, the time when the rattle of cicadas drowns out all but the most persistent bird song. I did spend some time at the Outer Banks in North Carolina and was able to snag a couple of new birds for the year. New Birds
The ocean gets all the glory when it comes to sunsets. And I get it. There is something about being able to watch the full path of the sun as it dips below the horizon. To see the light fracture into seemingly infinite shards. To watch the sky catch fire
The Chipping Sparrow has a melodic rattle, almost metallic but with enough recognizable naturalness to know its a creature rather than machine. The Carolina Chickadee sings volumes above its size. A small, slight bird that can still compete not only with birds three times its size, but with lawn equipment
Summer is fast approaching, and the bird count is grinding down with just two new birds for the year in May. One of them (the Starling) is not actually native to the US. From the Cornell Lab: All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds set loose
One recent evening I was witness to a hunting class. We have a pair of Barred Owls living close to our house and they recently had a couple of babies. As dusk settled into night, the two owlets and an adult began their class. The little owlets acted almost the
Spring is IT. Spring is when the migrants blanket the country in their colorful glory—just a wash of vibrant yellows, oranges, reds, blues, and a myriad of other attention-seeking plumage. The air is full of song, and the trees are alive with tiny warblers hopping from branch to branch
You know them when you see them. They are the ones on the ground, hopping here and there, kicking up leaves in search of the next tasty morsel. They are the Scrumpers, just scrumping around. The Scrumpers delight me for the simple reason they do a thing so antithetical to