…the most wonderful singer of all the birds is the water-ouzel that dives into foaming rapids and feeds at the bottom, holding on in a wonderful way, living a charmed life. —John Muir 1894 This is North America’s truly aquatic song bird. It is a chunky little bird that lives along fast moving streams and rivers […]
American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) Read More »
Once I spent a whole day there, a blade of grass in each hand to anchor me to the warm earth. I watched the sun rise, pass over my head and set. Ladybirds mated on my knuckle; a shrew nibbled a hole in my stocking while I tried not to laugh. Such a day was
Masked Shrew (Sorex cinereus) Read More »
Scout: “Why couldn’t I mash him? Jem: “Because they don’t bother you, Jem answered in the darkness. He had turned out his reading light.–Scout and Jem discussing their roly-poly encounter, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee. This pill-bug is a common invertebrate found, well, almost anywhere in North America these days but is a native species
Pill-bug (Armadillidium vulgare) Read More »
In a store I saw a one-cup teapotshaped like a fish I once metunder the waves at Puako Beach.Short as a thumb, he had a name longerthan the curving shore. –from the poem, A Pot of Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, Rachel Dacus I don’t pretend to know how to pronounce that – but the crib notes suggest “who-moo-who-moo-noo-koo-ah-pooah-ah”. It’s
Humuhumunukunukuapua’a (Rhinecanthus rectangulus) Read More »
In Sweden they form it into bats or baffles, which lie at their doors to clean shoes upon. It restores ropy wine in a few days. Encyclopedia Londinensis, Or, Universal dictionary of the Arts, Sciences, and Literature. Anonymous. 1810. Running club moss is a Lycopodium, a genus of plants that are flowerless, vascular, terrestrial (some grow
Running Clubmoss (Lycopodium clavatum) Read More »