Bryan's Blog
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Solving Shorebirds
A primer on shorebird identification for landlocked birdwatchers.
The Headless Shorebird Challenge
IF YOU’VE READ Solving Shorebirds, perhaps you’re ready for my Shorebird Challenge. Actually, if you’re new to plovers and sandpipers, this challenge may be difficult. That’s because bills aren’t in play in each of these six quiz photos. The challenge starts…
“It’s Not About The Nail”
If you were in woods or wetlands all summer, as I was, and are among the one-percenters who missed this:
Borderlines by Terry Allen
By Bryan on August 22, 2013. Here’s a reason to go to the hospital – stat: Terry Allen’s exhibit of photography from around the planet ends Monday morning at Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin. Get there to see these…
An Overdue Tribute to Sally Laughlin
Nearly 30 years ago, soon after moving to Vermont, I made the pilgrimage of any self-respecting birder and field naturalist. I visited Sally Laughlin in Woodstock. Tall, elegant, brilliant, imposing, and driven, Sally welcomed me into an office of paperwork…
Pipsissewa
Here’s a rare sight — at least for me. For whatever reason (and I can provide none credible), I had never seen Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) in bloom. So here’s a “life inflorescence” from the woods near a bog in north-central Saskatchewan…
What’s This? No. 14
At long last my What’s This? challenge returns with a highlight of my summer road trip. This is among the most remarkable of its kind ever discovered. The first to name it wins fame and $5 off any of my…
Big Sky
Onward from Saskatchewan (“Land of Living Skies”) to Montana (“Big Sky”). Forgive me for not yet updating the “Oh, Canada” post. Ruth and I are down from eight days of backpacking in the Gallatin Range south of Bozeman. She’s flown…
Oh, Canada
Before I say anything about Canada, about the reasonable food at Tim Hortons and crystalline waters of Lake Superior, about loonies and toonies; before I celebrate vast bogs and infinite lakes, Baird’s Sparrows and the Wawa Goose; before you get…
National Moth Week 2013
By Bryan on July 23, 2013 Grab the kids, chill the beer, mash the bananas, paint the trees, and leave the porch light burning – it’s National Moth Week. Here’s my contribution, from north central Saskatchewan, well over halfway to…
DSA Update No. 6 (Final): Emeralds
Little else in nature rivals the scintillation, the explosion of green, expressed in the eyes of the dragonflies we call “Emeralds.” Here’s how it usually happens: You’re squishing around in a spruce bog or walking a woodland trail, and you…
DSA Update No. 5: Destination North
ONWARD to the Canadian Shield – the vast region of exposed precambrian rock on which reside infinite lakes, bogs sprinkled with orchids, coniferous woods, and, of course, lots of flying things. We’ve wrapped up the formal gathering of the Dragonfly…
