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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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In the hour before dawn I try to census singing screech owls along a mile of trail, but I hear nothing. It's cloudy, hiding the gibbous moon that should stimulate them to sing. Aside from an angry striped skunk, who smells badly because he's encountered someone besides the female he's looking for, nothing much is stirring. The north wind pushes clouds southward, and by dawn the sky is clear. Venus shines down from the southeast. The air temperature drops from forty-two to thirty-five degrees, reaffirming that cloud cover insulates the Earth. I sit for awhile until a Carolina wren sings a few times, but that's all. Like me, the songbirds are more interested in eating. |
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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