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This scene along my driveway is a tale of two seasons. In the foreground the summer flowers are still near their peak of bloom, visited by a bumblebee. In the background the leaves of a Virginia creeper are turning brilliant red, a harbinger of autumn just around the corner. I […]

Katydids are found on every continent except Antarctica, with their greatest diversity in the tropics. In my yard they bring an exotic jungle sound to summer nights. They call by rubbing their front wings together. They hear these sounds through their legs, which have specialized patches that serve as their […]

Years ago I lived in central North Carolina, the westernmost distribution of spotted turtles in the state. This is a post for throwback Thursday, since I now live in the mountains where they are not found. Though a few young or very old turtles have no spots, their name comes […]

In the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard is nature’s waterslide, as dramatic as any water park. This granite boulder has been eroded to a gentle waterfall, though with 11,000 gallons of water going down the rock every minute there is plenty of force to propel slippery sliding. It is about […]

To paraphrase Superman- Up in the sky, look. It’s a hummingbird. It’s a moth. It’s a hummingbird moth! These ethereal creatures are confused with bees, baby hummingbirds, and are even described in a clearly fanciful way as flying lobsters because of the way they flare their tails out when they […]

In the middle of the day the Blue Ridge Mountains look green, but at sunrise and sunset, when viewed from a distance, they have a very visible blue haze. This is nature’s healthy smog, produced when plants breathe. They exhale hydrocarbons into the air, and these tiny molecules join in […]

This falls is named for nearby Looking Glass Rock, a massive monolith almost 4000 feet tall named for the way its granite face can sometimes be covered with frozen water in winter, reflecting the sun like a mirror. A river runs by the rock and at the point where I […]

  Roan Mountain straddles North Carolina and Tennessee and the Appalachian trail runs along much of its ridge, reaching elevations over 6000 feet. The Friends of Roan Mountain is a group fostering appreciation of this amazing ecosystem, and this weekend is their fall naturalist’s rally. I dragged myself out of […]

This is a shot taken en route to Asheville, with a glimpse of mountains cloaked in clouds. Looking out the window, I was transfixed by the impossible blue of sky at this height, the complex geometry of endless shapes and layers of clouds. There was a familiar giddy feeling at […]