New Mexico--Western Tanager

It seems that no matter where you find them, tanagers are a delightful surprise. I met this beautiful western tanager in the Pecos Wilderness area of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of north central New Mexico.

I have just returned from a solo 3000-mile journey across the west and back, which I can say, surpassed all expectations.

A journey of this kind shakes you out of your complacence, defies any sort of expectations and pushes you head first into the unknown, rattling even those aspects of yourself you thought you knew well. Responsibility lies in choices, in being in the moment no matter what the conditions, in discovering what you enjoy and what you don’t (which may change with new insight) and in making sure you have a safe place to lay your head at night and enough gas in your auto tank to get to the next stop--simple requirements but not always easy.Seeing this western tanager was one of many moments I enjoyed with nature on this journey. In fact, every encounter I had with wildlife was a fun experience, a surprising dip into a fresh and unfamiliar world. The western tanager is a brilliantly colored woodland song bird whose voice I heard frequently in the early mornings when rising. The birds at this 8000 ft elevation generally sang during the first hour of daylight at five a.m. and after that the forest was often profoundly silent. Our host at Rose Mountain , Andy Gold, explained that at these arid elevations, larger territories are required for species survival and fewer individuals are found in any given area than what you might find in the Appalachians. These early morning photos were made possible because this tanager visited Rose Mountain’s garden pool for a drink.

Forget-me-nots

Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven,
Blossom the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.--Henry Wadsworth LongfellowA woman said to me, “I need to get away, go somewhere and figure out who I am.” And I thought, that could be a nice break, but what I hear in those words is ‘more of the same’. We do not discover who we are by thinking or even going someplace new to think. We take whoever we are with us and repeat what we know in our minds.

If you want your life to change, if you want to experience something different, you must do something different. Action invites discovery. It is in doing a new thing, in trying a different way that we discover who we are, where we are stuck, our attitudes, our true values--and only then, if we act with awareness. Everyday is full of new discoveries--we only need to pay attention.

Gray Fossil Site

Our amazing earth and the enriching stories she tells.

Shovel-tusked elephant depicted in Gray Fossil Site Museum mural.

The discovery of the Gray Fossil Site , located in Gray, TN, in the southern Appalachian Mountains, is telling the world previously untold stories about the climate and wildlife in eastern North America 4.5 million years ago during the Miocene era. In doing so, this discovery is enriching the knowledge of scientists around the world. Exciting finds of pre-historic Red pandas, Shovel-tusked elephants, tapirs, rhinoceros, prehistoric badgers, camels and alligators, sabor-toothed tigers and sloths, all have brought new understanding to us about climate change and land mass formations from North America to Asia, all of this told through the stories of flora and fauna being uncovered at the site. Red Panda skull (left) compared to today's Red Panda (right) on display through the window of the paleontology lab. Constructed with wrap around windows, visitors can see the newest discoveries being processed and pieced together.
I love the stories. I love the way the earth speaks to us and tells her stories through nature. A journey into enrichment, an experience beyond the everyday and into the wonders of time and change--nature, with a different face, showing her depth and endurance.

A special thank you to Stephen Lyn Bales and Ijams Nature Center for organizing this trip back in time.

Earth Intimacy

Wildflowers are shy and illusive. They reach up from fallen leaves in demur silence. It would be easy to overlook them. But to stumble upon their subtle beauty, while the nights are still cold and the tree limbs bare, to stop and gaze upon silken petals and inhale the rich Earth smells that surround them, this is to feel Earth's breath upon your face.
A budding Cutleaf Toothwort, not yet ready to open its pedals.

Harbinger-of-Spring

A harbinger “makes known the approach of another [or] heralds”, according Random House. I’ve heard this expression for years, tagged onto countless species of spring blooms and songbirds, among them the crocus and the bluebird. But during my hike in Edgar Evans State Park (see March 2 post), I stumbled upon the true Harbinger-of-Spring (Erigenia bulbosa), a flower that actually wears this name, an early blooming member of the parsley family, also known as “salt and pepper”. Among decaying leaves, while the forest hardwoods are still barren of bud and leaf, these delicate clusters of white brighten the drab landscape and whisper their promise of warmer days to come.