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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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Cast off skins of cicada nymphs, a cardinal's nest fallen beneath a cedar tree, and shaggy mane mushroom splotches on the ground are stark reminders of the green year gone by. Yesterday's sixty degrees and bright sunshine induced a mountain patchnose snake to bask, but by dawn it's a dark twenty-nine degrees, and I'm unlikely to see it again until March. The sun rises directly in front of my house and never gets more than five fists above the horizon, for we are only ten days away from the shortest sunlight of the year. The last sights of warmer days and creatures and the darkness make me sleepy. This time of year I feel torpid, as do so many wild brethren. |
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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