tales from the wild metropolis
Do you remember being 15 years old and walking out the door of your local DMV with a learner's permit in your sweaty hand? Perched on the edge of your family-of-origin nest with wings outstretched, ready to fly into the unfettered sky of adulthood and freedoms you'd dreamed of for a lifetime! Do you also... Continue Reading →
Sometimes, what may appear as indolence, indecision, or timid reluctance is, in fact, a strategic decision to bide one's time until the moment is right. Consider, if you will, the Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). These stocky slate-and-chalk hued birds with stout, spiked bills like to chillax near a lake or river, looking like they've got... Continue Reading →
Ever notice how many of the colloquialisms we use for comparisons aren't all that apropos, or even true? Like... graceful as a swan (have you ever seen one on land?) dull as ditchwater (believe me, that liquid is lively at the microbial level) happy as a clam (surely not all clams are cheerful, especially those... Continue Reading →
Lately, when I'm feeling especially stressed or anxious, I find it comforting to escape reality by watching a sitcom episode, or three, from "the before-times," a term now being use as shorthand for "everything prior to the first quarter of 2020, when the world changed for everyone, everywhere." Little wonder I've considered, in odd moments,... Continue Reading →
If the stranger hoped to slip into Lafayette Square unnoticed he went about it all wrong. Sure, choosing a plain white top beneath an unadorned black waistcoat might sound like a reasonable way to avoid detection, especially when one is hanging out against a backdrop of grey-scale bark and shadow. I could tell at a... Continue Reading →
“This is my favorite place in the whole entire world,” I murmured to myself. Admittedly, for then 6-year-old me, the whole entire world consisted of a 150 mile ring around two river confluences of great consequence in my life — the meeting of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers 20 miles upstream from my hometown of... Continue Reading →
Watching a white-breasted nuthatch (Sitta carolinensis) cascade along the steep slope of a tree brought to mind the playground at Oakville Elementary, and made me wonder if the species' iconic bottoms-up foraging style is the result of a dare. The far corner of our grade school property was the site of many childhood rites of... Continue Reading →
How often do you come across a bird so dee-lightful, so dee-lectable that it captured the attention of characters as disparate as W.C. Fields and Cole Porter? Quite often, actually, because chickadees (Poecile spp) are far from rare in North America. In my own little corner of the world, a historic neighborhood about two miles... Continue Reading →
Next-Door Nature 