“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”
John Muir
It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, but I’ve been busy publishing book 5 (The Omphalos) in my fantasy series, The Maqlû. The ebook and audiobook are out, but I’m waiting on proper cover sizes before I publish the paper versions.
The idea for this post came from a trip I made this fall to my younger son, who lives in Florida. His job is as a Fishery and Wildlife Biologist for the southern half of the state of Florida, including projects as far south as the Keys. One of the cool things I got to do with him was check out some areas in a couple of lakes where they’ve tried to establish living shorelines that help prevent erosion and encourage wildlife. But I got a real wake-up call in one of the lakes.
To see the grasses volunteers planted, we had to wade into the lake. We entered at a point where somebody had moved a picnic bench into the water. It might be comfortable in the summer heat, but let me tell you, it wasn’t that comfortable in November. And, being me, my son dared me to sit down. The expression on my face in the picture below should give you an idea of how ‘cool’ the water was. Once I got over the shock of the cold water, it was okay and a really cool (literally and figuratively) experience.
It got me thinking about some of the best natural experiences I’ve had on my forest land in Kentucky.
- I think the top of my list was standing in a field of bees in the backyard. There were hundreds, maybe thousands, buzzing all around me. It was a fantastic experience. And for those of you fearful of bees, not a one bothered me. (Now yellow jackets – that’s a different story).
- I never got to experience that again because my efforts to increase habitat diversity have been successful, and they’ve spread out across our property. Now I have to look for where they’re gathering pollen – like when the fruit trees we’ve planted are blooming, or our lower meadow in late summer when the flowers are blooming. I’ve also been fascinated to see how many types of pollinators are out among our flowers – it’s not just honey bees, as the pollinators range from ants to varying types of bees, wasps, and butterflies.
- The most significant learning I’ve had on our property, though, is the importance of trails through the woods. I started clearing out the old logging trails primarily to create fire breaks. Of course, I knew animals would use them, but I had no idea how much until I watched the waterfowl coming off our pond. What’s shocking to me is that 100% of the time, the birds will fly off our pond heading north, then take an immediate left and follow a trail I have to the edge of my property, where they turn left or right at the boundary trail. They rise into the air and go whichever way they are headed only after they clear the trails on my property.
- I’ve also got to watch all sorts of animal activity, from watching turtles cover their eggs to observing young bucks practice fighting. What was interesting about the bucks is you could tell their personalities. The biggest buck shied away from butting heads. The youngest and smallest one, though, went after the most aggressive one repeatedly.
- Another interesting thing I’ve observed is the changing wildflower colors across the blooming season. Most of our early flowers are white. The second wave tends to be primarily yellows. The purples, pinks, and oranges tend to come at the end of the growing season. Red wildflowers are the rarest and usually smaller and harder to see.
I look forward to more fascinating experiences in nature.
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