Bryan's Blog
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Snowy Owls and Us
My essay on finding opportunity and humility in this winter’s irruption of Snowy Owls. For Aeon magazine.
Shadows and Sex
You don’t need Punxsutawney Phil to know which way the wind blows. Groundhog Day ain’t about shadows. It’s about sex. Birds and rodents are beginning a season of foreplay.
Life Among the Dead
Here in one of our great museum collections, I find warmth, diversity, shock, awe and innumerable stories of life on Earth.
A Winter Warbler
My essay on Yellow-rumped Warblers in winter is today’s feature (and my debut) on BirdNote, a daily meditation on birds airing online and on public radio stations across the country. I’ll be writing for BirdNote from time to time. Listen here…
The Year in Flight
They dwell on northern bogs and at ponds, and do what damselflies do: fly around, kill things and have sex. To casual observers, this pair of Subarctic Bluets (Coenagrion interrogatum) may appear no different than many other little blue damselflies…
December Gleanings
By Bryan on December 19, 2013 On the road writing, I’ll offer a few recent discoveries: The New York Times offers a fine account of the recent Monarch butterfly decline – and potential for a comeback. Aeon Magazine is an…
What’s This? No. 16
Our next What’s This? challenge materialized on December 4, 2013. Name it to win nature notoriety and $5 off any of my outings or workshops. Enter using the comments section below. (Fear not – I don’t publish incorrect answers.) Here are…
The Troubling Buzz on Bees
From my colleagues at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies: More than one-quarter of Vermont’s bumble bee species, which are vital crop pollinators, have either vanished or are in serious decline, according to a new investigation from the Vermont Center for…
What’s This? No. 15
My What’s This? challenge returns from a long vacation. Hint: It’s neither a turkey nor a football. Use the comments section below to name it and win little more than respect and $5 off any of my outings or workshops….
One Day, Two Ross’s
AT DAWN in in the ornate village of Chambly, Quebec, at a bulge in the Richelieu River, restless gulls began to take flight. And five restless birdwatchers (many more would come later) began their search, scanning the river for an arctic ghost,…
War and Climate and Us
War and Climate and Us Required reading in The Times from Roy Scranton, a soldier, author and philosopher. In this gripping essay about war, climate and humanity is our future – a fate with scarce shelter in the Anthropocene. Scraton writes: Now, when…
The Last Butterfly
By Bryan on November 5, 2013 From spring through fall, they flickered and fluttered among us – tiny flashes of red, orange, yellow and blue floating above hayfields and dancing in flower gardens: Spring Azures, Great Spangled Fritillaries, Red Admirals,…
