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Come back to this page each day to read another entry from Frederick R. Gehlbach's almanac of suburban natural and unnatural history, "Messages from the Wild," which chronicles the world of a forested ravine in central Texas.
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When they first return for the winter, hermit thrushes sing their single, high, ringing notes. I guess it's a territorial proclamation, since hermits are spaced at about five-acre intervals through the forest, and never seem to utter anything else except scolding calls until late March or April when they rarely offer the beautiful dawn and dusk carols I love to hear. White-throated sparrows also sing on this sunny but cool damp dawn, and I hear the first tinkling bells of a winter wren. Then a cold front blows in and drops the air temperature eighteen degrees in the first five minutes of a forty-five-minute downpour that cancels my serenity. |
Frederick R. Gehlbach is Professor Emeritus of Biology and Environmental Studies at Baylor University. His ecological studies have taken him from New Zealand to Slovakia and, in the Americas, from Alaska and Newfoundland to Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. His research interests include the life-history strategies of small owls, small burrowing snakes and urban wildlife ecology.
From MESSAGES FROM THE WILD: AN ALMANAC OF SUBURBAN NATURAL AND UNNATURAL HISTORY by Frederick R. Gehlbach, Copyright © 2002. Courtesy of the University of Texas Press.
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