Old stone walls redux
(Author’s Note: While running random Internet searches, I occasionally am confronted from out of the blue, as it were, with…
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Bluebirds continue to fascinate
My oh my what a wonderful day Plenty of sunshine in my way Zip-a-dee-doo-dah Zip-a-dee-eh Mr Bluebird’s on my shoulder…
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Making friends with an injured crow
According to the current Ornithological Union listing, the appropriate non-scientific name for a crow is “common crow.” How apt! Like…
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Uplifted by the flight of birds
Lately, I’ve been writing a lot about birds. I guess I have them on my mind, in part, because the…
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The curious habits of birds
The curious lifestyles and distinctive habits one can observe in the bird world are continually fascinating. Some things you can…
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Popeyed pleasures
Many people who spend some time walking the woodland stream banks and other wet areas here in the Smokies region…
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Cowbirds a favorite to despise
Some folks can’t stand house sparrows (a native of north Africa and Eurasia) while others detest starlings (a native of…
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Reservoir rendezvous
Joe Wright was born and raised in the high Nantahalas in the northwest corner of Macon County. He was 90-some-years-old…
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Forsythia heralds the spring season
The recent warm spell has the birds singing and various plants budding. One of these is forsythia. My wife, Elizabeth,…
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Owls remain mysterious, alluring
Of late, I have been hearing the owls sounding off on the slopes and ridge lines behind our home. Some…
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Getting to know liverworts
Some years ago, when I was first interested in plant identification, I became curious about liverworts. They are one of…
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An interested observer
omething banged against the office window above my desk. I assumed it was a bird of some sort. And since…
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Winter wear
(Note: A version of this essay will appear in an upcoming issue of “Chinquapin: The Newsletter of the Southern Appalachian…
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Taking a likin’ to the lichen
On a winter walk you will encounter numerous evergreen plants. None is more mysterious or delightful to behold than the…
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My birding through the warbler
It wasn’t until the late 1970s that my wife, Elizabeth, and I first started birding in a systematic fashion. That…
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An early account of Western NC
While crossing the Blue Ridge north of present Asheville in the early 1540s, Hernando de Soto’s scribes entered some brief…
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Alum Cave for a breath of fresh air
I recently happened upon an interesting article that described an excursion made in 1860 to the Alum Cave on the…
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Highlands plateau still a world of green hills
Several years ago I wrote about Bradford Torrey’s A World of Green Hills, which was published in 1898 by Houghton…
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Upper world guardians
We are all fascinated by birds. In addition to being pretty (even buzzards are pretty in their own way), they…
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Dr. Elisha Mitchell
While scanning the shelves of a rare bookstore in Asheville several months ago, I happened upon a regional volume by…
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Right in the thick of it
Our southern mountains are old and relatively sedate when compared with the Himalayas, Rockies, and other “young” mountain ranges. But…
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It’s a dog’s life
A new book has been published that will be of particular interest to area hunters, outdoorsmen, and dog lovers. It…
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Sneaky snipe stamps scouts
Until I started birding seriously as an adult, I didnÕt know that snipe actually existed. For years that bird was…
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In living colour
Cedar waxwings and American holly are with us year round. The waxwings wander around a lot in extended family groups,…
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A plant’s purpose
There are more than 300,000 plant species in the world. Some are edible, some can be used for their medicinal…
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Rocking out
Here in the southern mountains there are magical habitats to be explored in every direction and at every elevation. Periglacial…
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Winter preparation
If you’ve been getting out in the woods at all lately, you’re aware that it’s been an especially good season…
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When litter is good
Due to the virtual absence of wind and rain, the fall color season is lingering with us. But winter weather…
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Overnight hibernation
As I write this on Monday morning, we’ve just had our initial hard frost of the year here in Swain…
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Uncovering winter’s delight
Some trees that might be difficult to locate during the spring through fall foliage season become more apparent in winter.…
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Beauty of the cardinal flower
The fall wildflower season has arrived. Along roadsides and woodland edges some of our more robust native plants are now…
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Shrills in the night
When I was growing up in the tobacco-farming portion of the southern Virginia piedmont, there were many haunted outbuildings throughout…
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Sweet bubby bush
I recently received an email from a reader who asked, “Could you write about the sweet bubby bush? That’s the…
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Saying farewell to summer
It’s mid-September ... late summer is sliding toward early autumn. The end of summer officially arrives with the autumnal equinox…
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Walnut toxicity
The walnut trees along the creek where we live are exhibiting a bumper crop this year. At night we are…
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Enchanting the summer evening
No late summer wildflower is more widely recognized than evening primrose. The four broad yellow petals that open in the…
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All in a day’s work
One of the more interesting and entertaining early descriptive accounts of the southern mountains is contained in a diary kept…
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Remarkable red cedar
I sometimes have occasion to drive Interstate 81 up the Great Valley of Tennessee and Virginia to Washington, D.C. As…
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Ginkgo — a living fossil
When a street was being cut in front of the new county administration building here in Bryson City back in…
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The golden season
It’s starting to become the goldenrod time of the year. Goldenrods — like asters, thistles, cosmos, zinnias, daisies, coneflowers, dahlias,…
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Hollyhocks and reminders of the past
Sometimes it’s difficult to draw the line between the natural and cultivated plant worlds. As cultivated plants escape they often…
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Sicklefin redhorse and the Cherokee
An article by Jon Ostendorff headed “Rare fish released into Oconaluftee River” appeared in this past Monday’s edition of the…
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The thrill of new discoveries
I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time recently up on the Blue Ridge Parkway conducting natural history…
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A man’s got to work and fish
This past Sunday afternoon I decided to go for a walk along the Tuckasegee River west of Bryson City. If…
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Thunder in the valley
Last week a late evening thunderstorm with high winds and occasional flashes of lightning rolled out of the high Smokies…
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The elusive hellbender
Have you ever noticed that once you start thinking about something or someone you haven’t seen in awhile, it’s not…
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Beware the leaves of three
If you like native Appalachian plants that are variable and adaptive, have interesting natural histories with abundant associations in both…
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