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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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Clear, still, and twenty-two degrees with the rosy hint of sunrise at 6:50 a.m. I'm on my front porch, awaiting the dawn chorus of resident songbirds. Today is Aldo Leopold's birthday, so it is a memorial celebration for me to venture forth for dawnsong, as Leopold did so regularly. Because he listened to messages from the wild, he advocated the inclusive approach to life -- a land ethic he called it -- which underlies modern conservation practice. But all I hear this morning are crows and someone's stuck car horn -- a thief alarm like the crow voices, a congruity of signals about those who would rob nature's bank in the play of life. |
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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