by Winding Pathways | Jan 4, 2016 | Nature, Travel/Columns, Wonderment
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Our winter wreath will soon sport hearts and last us through the season.
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Wintering woodpeckers, including the pileated, gobble up suet.
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A lone Carolina Wren has hung around and appreciates the suet on our outdoor Christmas Tree.
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Eagles have come down from the north. As waterways freeze over they concentrate below roller dams.
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Lonely winter grill
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A cautious squirrel scoping out the action.
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The birds have not yet flocked to the High Bush Cranberries but will later in the winter.
by Winding Pathways | Jan 2, 2016 | Nature, Reflections/Profiles, Wonderment
This great book is colorful, factual and encourages folks to “Go Outside!”
As kids growing up, we read books our classmates would have considered weird. They were field guides to birds, mammals, fish, wildflowers, rocks and the weather. Color plates of animals, trees and all sorts of other living things fascinated us. Range maps taught geography, and the text good writing.
With the rapid growth of apps to help identify many objects of nature, field guides may be slipping from winter reading lists, but there is one new book that any nature lover should have handy.
The Secret Lives of Animals includes 1001 tidbits, oddities and facts about North America’s wild animals. It’s not a book to read cover to cover. It is one to pick up when there are a few spare minutes for learning and enjoyment. There’s learning on every page. We see two audiences who will enjoy having this book close by.
Kids and adolescents: With colorful illustrations and loads of facts presented in succinct form it’s a fascinating book for youngsters. We would have loved to have had this book by our bedside when we were young to glean wildlife snippets in moments before sleep.
Adults: The book is studded with interesting facts and makes a good one minute or three hour read. Any trivia lover will enjoy it as well as people who delight in wildlife.
Our favorite part of the book appears frequently and is called GO OUTSIDE. Going outside and enjoying nature is what we advocate at Winding Pathways and The Secret Lives of Animals gives readers something new to look for outdoors and then encourages them to put the book down, pull on the boots and go explore outside.
THE SECRET LIVES OF ANIMALS-1001 Tidbits, Oddities, & Amazing Facts About America’s Coolest Animals, by Stacy Torino and Ken Keffer with illustrations by Rachel Riordan. FalconGuides. ISBN 978-1-4930-1191-9. http://amzn.to/1PMc5EJ
