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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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This winter of 1997-1998 is the warmest in thirty-five years, because we're experiencing one of the biggest El Niņos ever recorded. Also, winter rainfall is heavier than average. We've had only one hard freeze. Spring will be buggier than ever, says local folklore, and I add that the growing season has started earlier for natives who've played in this scene for a long, long time. I sit on my patio at sixty degrees in the twilight, listen to chirping crickets, and watch the new moon rise behind winter moths flitting about bare treetops laying eggs. Yes, this growing season may be longer, but we've had long ones before. The important question is whether they are increasing and what that means. |
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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