May 18, 2019. I have been a member of the Arkansas Native Plant Society since fall 2014, and their biannual meetings are always fun, educational and highlights of my year. Although the flora and fauna of Arkansas, especially southern Arkansas, overlaps a good bit with the flora and fauna of northern Louisiana, it is not uncommon to get to see something new on one of my jaunts into Arkansas. So it was with buffalo clover. According to the North America Plant Atlas, it occurs in Louisiana, but I have never seen it here. This beauty grows on the grounds of…

April 4, 2019. It’s a bit of a good news, bad news story. On the one hand, my river birch is dying. That makes me sad. I have always enjoyed it’s flaky bark and filtered shade. On the other, as it dies and is infiltrated with insects, it becomes an impressive standing bird feeder. Even so, I was surprised and delighted to look out the back door and see this. Red-bellies are pretty common in my back yard. Not so much this magnificent, noisy, red-crested drummer boy. Half of the tree did not produce leaves this past year, so I…

March 16, 2019. It’s Saturday of Louisiana Master Naturalist’s annual 3-day meeting called “Rendezvous.” This year we met in Fountainbleau State Park on the north side of Lake Pontchartrain. Fountainbleau has a lot to offer naturalists. It’s also ideal habitat for cross vine (Bignonia capreolata), one of my fave native plants. I began looking for its distinctive sets of four leaves, actually two pairs of two leaves, going up the straight trunks of trees long before I saw a flower. But when I finally did see a flower? Wow! I thought immediately of Tom Wolfe’s book, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake…

February 27, 2019. Hmm. Maybe 2019 was the year of the bird? In February I traveled to Albuqurque to attend the Episcopal Archdeacon’s annual conference. It was surprisingly cold. In Albuqurque? Yes, said the local I asked about it. People often underestimate how cold it gets in Albuqurque. So I really was not prepared to be out walking and shooting. But we always get a little time off at that conference, so I bundled up as best I could with what I had and paid a visit to San Felipe de Neri, the historic Roman Catholic church that dominates Old…

January 1, 2019. I am driving Highway 2 to D’Arbonne State Park to lead a First Day Hike. As usual, my camera is on the passenger seat and I am keeping a sharp eye for photo opps along the way. I should have a bumper sticker that reads “I brake for raptors on power lines.” Because I do. And I have gotten good at spotting hawks along Louisiana country roads. Seeing them on poles is more common, but this one was sitting on the powerline, which sagged significantly between the poles. I pulled to the side of the road about…