All posts in Nature

Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? Job 38:22 Student: Teacher, what is snow?  Teacher: Snow is part of the hydrologic water cycle that is essentially ice mixed with air. Supercooled droplets of water freeze into microscopic crystals, then these crystals conglomerate into a flake, forming one of six unique shapes of snowflake in accordance…

Sketch: Saturday morning, 5:30, Kenai River flats, 32*F Sandhill cranes, long legged and musical, pitching into the mud with stilted legs outstretched. A flock of several hundred White-fronted geese, these with a watery cackle, circle once and come in. The sky is alive with birds: Lesser Canada Geese, Pintails and Mallards, a wigeon, some Northern…

A lone raven, surfing a wind that is skimming the far side of the mountain, croaks and appears over the ridgetop. He pivots until he is facing the wind, but carried backward by it, like an Olympic skater skating backward while retaining forward momentum. He pivots again, pins his wings close, razors off around the…

A tongue of fog flanks the mountain at its midriff, rising slightly to stream over the knob where the mountain tapers into the flats. It is flowing like a river suspended in midair; air currents made visible.  The sun rises and paints it yellow, briefly. It’s going to be a good day for mountains.  We ascend…

Took to the woods bright and early long before first light. Drove the Jeep down to the ford by Claywells’s field and couldn’t make it up the other side, it being a one-legged jeep, so I just dropped the Grumman in right there. I discovered my mistake instantly but was too stupid to admit it,…

Now, when I step out onto the porch to check the thermometer, I listen for it as the light reaches several hundred candlepower: A gobble, which makes spring official. He is at the head of the small hollow, two-thirds up the side of the ridge, probably in the branches of some beech. His neck will…