The morning after a nighttime snowfall evokes feelings of newness and wonder. If the air is calm and the trees still retain their coat of fluffy white, I immediately bundle up and head out to explore. I trudge into the woods looking and listening for signs of life in this alien world.
It is not uncommon for me to follow in the footsteps of others; coyotes, bobcats, foxes, deer, rabbits, and squirrels have already been out and about. I visually follow their tracks, trying to decipher the short vignettes that have been temporarily etched onto the landscape. I stop for a few minutes to listen. Everything is still. [Read more…] about A Tiny King of the Winter Woods: Golden-Crowned Kinglets
For many 
In the cold October air, my classmates and I gathered around the square oak board placed on the ground more than a year earlier. Carefully, we lifted it and peered underneath.
Standing on the berm of a small pond, I watch the resident beaver leave its lodge, a silhouetted nose moving through the water. It disappears briefly and returns with a branch in tow. The beaver clambers over the edge of its dam along a muddy path, branch bouncing along behind.
Several weeks and many baths ago, my dog discovered a black-and-white stranger crossing our lawn. Wagging vigorously, and ignoring my frantic shouts, she ran up and offered her canine greeting: a nose-to-tail sniff.
Now that white-tailed deer