Nature Note: A Naturalist's Travels Through Nature

Snow, thick and sticky, like icing sugar is tumbling from the sky, while reports of thundersnow and blizzard conditions blast through the airwaves and cover the internet in posts about snarled travel and snow days. As I watch the "snowscreen" (it's like a smokescreen, but whiter) outside, my mind imagines what the next few months will bring in terms of adventure and excitement. Soon I won't simply be a northeastern naturalist. In a few more days, I will journey south of the Mason-Dixon to work in North Carolina for the coming spring. On Sunday, I'll be among the longleafs and dogwoods, looking for new places to explore while happily avoiding the snow and ice up north. North Carolina is home to five species that I've wanted to see for a while now, but never had the opportunity up north. Some of these species can be found in the northeast, but are localized and rare and sometimes are in restricted areas that make it difficult to engage with them properly. Othe...

After working with 5th and 6th grade kids, you definitely have a different perspective on the world. You realize how hard it is for kids in school these days with deluges of exams, the new Common Core standards, parental expectations, lack of recess and adequate physical education, and much more. But more than that, most kids and by extension, most adults, know little about the natural world around them. Through my years in the environmental education field and musings while on my own travels through nature, I always wonder how much other people are noticing about what's around them. As such, there are a lot of misconceptions about the wild creatures that we are increasingly coming in contact with as habitat fragmentation, housing developments, and other human-wildlife conflicts become more common. No more is the occasional raccoon raiding the bins or bear steal seed from the feeders, the wilderness is here and we better learn to live with it. That being said, I found with teachi...