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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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Overhearing autumn's last overhead conversation of chimney swifts, I realize that they are about as suburbanized as I am. I can't think of another native with such a wide distribution that has so completely switched to house habitat. The swifts know what I will feel tomorrow -- a temperature drop of forty-eight degrees. Today's falling air pressure cues their foraging in preparation for the change. At 7:00 p.m. one migrating flock roosts in a neighbor's unblocked chimney after diving in and out several times, apparently checking the hospitality, and stays two days before moving southward. |
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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