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Come back to this page each day to read another entry from Frederick R. Gehlbach's almanac of suburban natural and unnatural history, "Messages from the Wild," which chronicles the world of a forested ravine in central Texas.
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My habit at any time of year is to rise by 5:00 a.m. and think and write in splendid solitude before or after an hour of searching for wild messengers. At the appropriate time, most mornings I'll take a few minutes outside to greet the rising sun. Later, when it is warm enough to open windows, I combine writing with listening and, still later, when the dawn is nearer, I'll almost always walk in the ravine before writing. At 7:35 this morning, as the sun peeks over the treetops, daily "moving" eastward, a downy woodpecker drums on wood for the first time in several months -- its message about the coming of spring. |
Frederick R. Gehlbach is Professor Emeritus of Biology and Environmental Studies at Baylor University. His ecological studies have taken him from New Zealand to Slovakia and, in the Americas, from Alaska and Newfoundland to Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. His research interests include the life-history strategies of small owls, small burrowing snakes and urban wildlife ecology.
From MESSAGES FROM THE WILD: AN ALMANAC OF SUBURBAN NATURAL AND UNNATURAL HISTORY by Frederick R. Gehlbach, Copyright © 2002. Courtesy of the University of Texas Press.
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