WILD THINGS: 2 SCENES FROM A BREEDING SEASON
She flew in and landed atop the fence, although it wasn’t immediately clear that she was a she. Mourning doves are sexually monomorphic, meaning...
WILD THINGS: THE AFTERNOON THAT HASN’T ENDED
It was mid June, hot as Hades and I was on the sidewalk outside of Harpoon Harry’s after lunch.
This was three years ago.
The heat...
WILD THINGS: NOTES ON A NEAR-HURRICANE
Winslow Homer painted two watercolors on his first trip to Key West in 1895. The first was a relatively demure study of a coconut...
WILD THINGS: THE SECRET LIVES OF YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOOS
It would be tough to be a yellow-billed cuckoo in the Florida Keys if you viewed yourself through the eyes of a birdwatcher, because,...
WILD THINGS COLUMN: AN IDEA OF ORDER AT KEY WEST
In the proper scheme of things we, as humans, are not supposed to occupy intimate space with a bird like a Cory’s shearwater. Shearwaters...
ASK THE BIRD GEEK: ARE BIRDS REALLY JUST FANCY, LITTLE DINOSAURS?
Are birds really just fancy little dinosaurs? — Bi-Residential Barry
Yes! Yes, they are.
I started to write about how all the birds we know can be...
WILD THINGS: HEARING THE WORDS, BUT NOT KNOWING THE SONG
Mnemonics are mental hacks designed to help us remember things. ROY G BIV. Every Good Boy Does Fine. King Phillip Came Over For Great...
WILD THINGS: GLIDING INTO THE UNEXPECTED
We saw the fake Southernmost Point marker in Satellite Beach, Florida, 437 miles from Cuba, 347 miles north of the real one. It was...
WILD THINGS: ENCOUNTERS WITH THE GRAY GHOST
I was not expecting the Gray Ghost, not expecting it to come up the way it did over my shoulder, not expecting it to...
WILD THINGS: OPOSSUM, MY POSSUM
There comes a time in every person’s life when he/she/they must take a hard, unsentimental look at their past. They must peer fearlessly into...
