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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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It is such a beautiful day that I suggest a plant hunt to neighbors, who want some native wildflowers to grow around their deck at the edge of our nature preserve. Several species are peeking above ground. The air is eighty-two degrees, a record, and it stimulates a golden rain of cedar pollen. It's a January thaw with nothing to thaw. We sneeze and talk about how we miss cold weather, something we'll regret later when winter returns. As we dig Missouri violets, white avens, plateau spiderlilies, and roughstem sunflowers, a hibernating water scavenger beetle is unearthed fifty feet up the hill from the creek -- a novelty that so often happens on a day in the woods. |
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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