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  Migration is an exciting time for birders. The number and variety brings enjoyment and fascination to almost everyone. Birding is commonly thought of as an activity of counting birds that have been seen or heard. The total species noted, along with their number, is often thought of as the objective. Recently a walk of…

Hooked Saturday morning, 7am. Trucks and bass boat trailers fill the parking lot at Lake Jocassee. A school of fishermen, lured from pre-dawn beds, have long since disappeared across dark, calm water to hide against the shore in favored fishing grounds. A couple of stragglers try their luck near the boat ramp as morning sun…

Delicate, almost imperceptible fragrances from tulip poplars and climbing hydrangeas catch you by surprise.  Your sun-warmed skin involuntarily shivers as you glide into a shaded, stream-fed cove. Small, yellow and orange, tulip-shaped flowers litter your path as your fingers gently caress  pillow-soft clumps of moss and tiny, feathery ferns.  Quietly following a well-worn path along…

Wake up!  It’s 6:13am. Barely civil-twilight. From the mountain laurel right outside our bedroom window Carolina Wren yells at me with all the subtlety of a seven-year-old with a new whistle. “LA-ZY! LA-ZY! LA-ZY! UP!” “ YEAAAAAHHHH” trills Pine Warbler. Sleep, what I had of that on this full moon night, is over as the…

On the ground, I see a millipede. Our Wild Child group has been keeping track of all the species we see, so we examine this slow mover. It’s sitting on a leaf, so I pick up the leaf and coax it into crawling on my hand. I explain that millipedes eat decaying leaves, that they…

Blacks We may call this a park, we may claim human possession of land and water, but the real lords of this place are black vultures that fly low sweeping patrols over swimmers, clean up fish carcass left behind from Thursday tournaments, and watch the comings and goings of two Canada geese and their four…

  “Her name is Tickle,” she said, giggling as a millipede crawled across her arm. “It tickles!” That moment—pure curiosity, a little bravery, and a lot of joy—captured the spirit of our first week of Jocassee Wild Child Outdoor Laboratory Experiences (JWC OLÉ). This week, 4th graders from Oconee and Greenville counties stepped into a…

Ahh-chooo!   Chill rises with morning air to wipe a smooth surface across deeper recesses of Lake Jocassee. Sun has risen behind these steep, worn mountains, but here, where ancient river follows an ancient path, light is subdued. Then river bends around mountain, and rays of sunshine stream through trees, illuminating water dusted white with…

After overwintering as a chrysalis in diapause, hidden in curled leaves and tree crevices or protected under rock ledges, our adult tiger swallowtail butterflies have begun to emerge. Several have been spotted fluttering across coves and narrow channels of the lake in search of the perfect spot to complete two very important tasks. These butterflies…

Xy-loco-pa I have a friend who will close a gentle fist around carpenter bees who stray too close. If you should stray too close, she’ll hold her fist to your ear so you can hear the strong buzz from Bee. Some people are impressed. Some are terrified. The sound brings to mind the sound of…

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We were on a boat in the dark, headed for the convergence of conservation and culture. The full moon fell slowly behind the mountain, as it has for eons. The deep waters beneath us covered the valley, once home to a timeline of inhabitants, from ancient ferns and mastodons to human settlers. This morning, Lake…