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Leaves‍ Leaves drift down. Hanging on has finally become too much effort. Their brief spring-to-summer presence has been heavy with responsibility: tirelessly converting sunshine to sugar, benevolently offering shelter to both hungry caterpillar and hungry bird, favoring neither. Fallen leaves are pocked with holes, riddled with serpentine mines, chewed to bits. Some are skeletonized,…

  ‍Numerous raptors make their homes in the Jocassee Gorges. On a visit to Lake Jocassee you will certainly see vultures, you have a good chance of seeing a bald eagle, and if you’re very lucky, you might get a glimpse of a peregrine falcon. As these late summer days fade into autumn, though, fall…

 Rain Tease‍ I go outside and look to the sky, hopeful. Is that rain? We need rain. I’ve been fooled before by the gentle clapping of tree leaves high in the canopy, stirred by breezes blowing up from the tropics. This land is dry; trees are distressed, leaves hang limp as rags. Is that rain?…

  ‍Eyes up, everyone. Fall hawk migration is upon us, as well as the migration of vultures (some of them), woodcocks (some of them) and nighthawks, all of which are day migrators. So look up! It’s a complex and marvelous phenomena that our high mountain overlooks give us a chance to observe. Sassafras Mountain and…

Perspectives‍ 19 eager Jocassee Naturalist students capture a pair of ecology behaviorists and zip across Lake Jocassee. In a location known to a few sharp-eyed guides, and more than a few freaked-out families, we stop to point out a dirt bank on the leeward side of a popular point of land. The bank is…

‍On Saturday afternoon’s tour, we heard the high-pitched piping sounds that are characteristic of an eagle call. Hearing our national bird often inspires amusement rather than awe. Two mature bald eagles perched just across the water. Were they calling out to their young? On Tuesday, we watched a bald eagle swoop down and snatch a…

Perspectives‍ Lake Jocassee is turbulent. Some people laugh in delight and jump wakes with wakeboards, or bounce on tubes behind circling boats, some stir the waters even more with jet skis. Others of us note the erosion along the shoreline with disapproval and seek out calmer places. The water is warm, overheated from too…

4 more weeks. That’s a solid month, plenty of time to get your swimming hours in. If weather is at all predictable here from year to year, and so far in these times of rapid climate change we are still reasonably stable, then the weather and the water should stay quite swimmable through at least…

Micro’d‍ A $7 impulse buy, and the micro world opens wide. Sparkling spider webs, fat fern spores, and even my own fingernails are fascinating discoveries. Mushrooms! Insect wings! I’m eight years old again, exploring tiny worlds through a plastic jeweler’s loupe. Challenged to describe what I see, to think in terms of “what else…

Although it’s only mid-August and there’s weeks of swimming and paddling time still to come, subtle changes are apparent when you cruise the shoreline. Tulip poplars, sourwoods and the occasional stressed red maple are expressing hints of color. Goldenrods and Joe Pye weed are blooming, muscadine vines and hickories are hanging heavy with fruit. Aralia…

Fallen Friend‍ Early morning. Rain-slicked asphalt. Loose gravel. A brief moment of confusion and chaos, and in that blink of an eye, life changes. Searing pain. And blood… so much blood. It was a regular Wednesday until our friend Brandon crashed his motorcycle coming into work, shattering his ankle. Now he faces months of…

  NOT Skibidi Toilet Ohio! I have been busy this summer doing what I love the most…hanging out with kids in nature. Lately, I have been leading them on boat adventures with Jocassee Lake Tours. Twice this week I have been hugged by 11-year-old kids who had no clue who I was before they got…