Tag: Field Guide
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The national park trip begins with a photograph. A canyon. A lake. A waterfall. A granite wall. A mountain road disappearing through trees.
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There is a common tree-identification system in North America. If it has needles, call it a pine tree.
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The woods become a different place after dark. During the day, a noise in the brush is probably an animal.
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Trail descriptions are written in a dialect of optimism. “Rolling terrain.” “Some exposure.” “Brief scramble.”
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There is a large class of birds whose main field mark is that they have been standing ten feet from you for most of your life.
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Human beings encounter a spectacular geologic formation and react in a predictable sequence. First: awe.
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Most animals do not want to ruin your weekend. This is important. The moose is not monitoring your vacation calendar. The rattlesnake has not read the reservation.
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A wildflower is doing several jobs at once. It is feeding pollinators, producing seed, storing energy, interacting with fungi, competing with neighbors, and trying to complete reproduction before weather, herbivores or…
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A national monument can protect an enormous landscape. It can also protect one cave. One volcano. One fossil deposit.
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The beginner birding problem is not merely that birds are difficult to see. It is that several birds have declined to sound like birds.