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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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Spring may be sensed in a greening rain, followed by sunshine. I smell ozone and warm organic dampness, see tiny, lime-green leaves, and hear birdsong -- the ambience of the season. As a child, Gretchen loved to dance in the rain and still likes to run in it. I purposely walk woods paths in the rain to feel the musty leaf litter and soil enriched by the nitrogen I can smell and use indirectly, deposited by raindrops and nitrogen-fixing bacteria in soil and plant roots. Greening rains arrive anytime from late January through March, once a year, more often, or not at all some years. They bring the landscape to life, but we will know it only if we walk in the woods on a day like today. |
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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