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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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Tonight, with Tchaikovsky's "Winter Dreams" playing, I sit down to read an editorial about the impending extinction of naturalists, since specialization is the mode in our culture. Folks can hardly talk to each other, let alone other people, because their languages are so different. No wonder the public has difficulty understanding that all life in the Biosphere must work together. Outside, in the drizzle of dusk, a male eastern screech owl sings. With the rhythmic beat of rain on the deck and the sweet trill of the owl, I need no other music and turn off the recording, put the reading down, and remember a night four decades ago -- the first night Nancy and I spent in Butterfly Hollow, welcomed by the owl's universal language. |
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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