July: Fungi Frolic

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Things to notice the next time you go into the woods: How some gilled mushrooms age and die quite beautifully by turning their caps inside out. Stray rays of sunlight filtering through the trees sculpt the exposed gills and provide a perfect mountain trail for a tiny red hiker. The Gulf Coast Mycological Society typically conducts a Summer Foray in July. I attend the Friday night & Saturday portions when I can, and join a bunch of other fun and interesting people crazy enough to go into the woods in July and sweat profusely whilst looking for mushrooms. Last summer…

June: The Best

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For the past several summers, I have gone butterfly counting as often as possible. This year is no different. I’ll be back in Arkansas where I made this photo in a few weeks. Last year in June I was with the usual crew counting butterflies at the “Rick Evans” Grandview Prairie Nature Center near Hope, Ark. It was the best count ever! At least the best in my relatively short career as a butterfly counter. Prairies are wonderful butterfly habitat, and we saw lots. But the best sighting of the day, for me, at least, was this little beauty. Only…

May: Dauphin Island Adventure

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In May, I spent a few days on Dauphin Island–always a good time! But that trip I had a cold that wouldn’t quit, so one afternoon, instead of walking beaches and bird sanctuaries and neighborhoods as usual, I went to the marina and got on a “Lighthouse, Shrimping, Dolphin” boat tour. Turns out the dolphins were all vacationing in the Bahamas and the sea was too rough to go out to the lighthouse. Nevertheless…. it happened that the smallish group on the boat included a family of seven: mom, dad, a babe in arms, and four kids ranging in age…

February: Timberdoodle Time

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February 2025 brought me a brand new fun and educational experience. One of my Master Naturalist friends, Suzaanne Laird, gave our chapter a presentation on Woodcocks, then took us out to find some with the help of Quill, the Wonder Dog. Suzanne leads hunts, but hunting season was over. We were strictly out to experience a well-trained bird dog and to get a glimpse of a Woodcock. The day was a huge success on both accounts. Quill pointed a half dozen birds for us, but try as I might, I never saw one on the ground. On one occasion, I…

January: Birds & Beaches

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It’s really late to be starting my #YearInReview series, but I’m going with “better late than never”! Winter is birding season and January 2025 I participated in the Lake Claiborne (State Park) Christmas Bird Count for the first time. Claiborne is in the northwest corner of the state, so two birding and butterfly counting friends and I met at a nearby hotel the night before so we could begin counting early the designated day. I’m sorry to say, I did not save documentation of the count totals to my computer, but I do recall that the three of us identified…