Wildlife

If you’ve driven by the Low Water Bridge recently, you probably have seen a good bit of bulldozer activity and wondered what exactly was happening to this beautiful natural area. The work is being undertaken with a promising objective in mind. The LandTrust of Central N.C. is partnering with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission to […]

Say you wake up in the middle of the night with a few hives on your arms. You might take some Benadryl and go back to sleep. Another night, you wake up with hives covering your body. You’re also having trouble breathing. Your face and hands might be swelling. You end up in the emergency […]

Have you wondered whether bees in our area are suffering from colony collapse disorder? Do you know what fly fishing’s aquatic insects can tell us about water quality? Entomologists (insect scientists) are no longer the only people watching bugs. Like many branches of natural science, entomology has reached out to citizen scientists for help in […]

Last week while surveying one of our properties, a natural heritage field biologist found an interesting species never before documented this far south – the eastern gray tree frog (Hyla versicolor). The gray tree frog found widely across the state is the Cope’s gray tree frog (Hyla chrysoscelis). The eastern gray tree frog was documented […]

My mom was putting out mulch about this time last year when she noticed a box turtle digging a hole in the dry, red clay under the eaves of the house. Eastern box turtles (Terrapene carolina carolina) appear in many types of habitat, making them a natural choice for our state reptile. Since they’re most […]

If you’ve gotten outside lately you must have noticed that the forests have been alive with a consistent humming and drumming, sometimes quite loud. When you first hear it you’ll swear there is a motor running, or look skyward in search of the nearby power line. But this sound is natural, as it comes from […]

As you’ve likely gathered from a number of both my and Ruth Ann Grissom’s past articles on this website, it is pretty safe to say that there’s still a lot about wildlife we just don’t know in the Uwharries, and a lot of other places as well. One factor that is largely responsible for this […]

If you’re like me, this warmer weather is more than enough encouragement to spend more time outside. Days are getting longer and bulky winter clothing is replaced with t-shirts and flip flops. Time to start thinking about heading to our lakes and rivers for water-based recreational activities, and for many of you, the activity at […]

While walking along the Rocky River one day in Stanly County, I came upon a neat little turtle on the stream banks who had suffered some kind of physical malady, from which he must have recovered a while ago. He had a slight disfigurement of his face, but he had healed nicely, so I placed […]

During our recent hike in the Birkheads, I noticed more than ever one of the most significant aspects of being in the woods this time of year – and that is just how quiet it is. Other than the occasional loud sounds of crunching leaves under our feet, most of the normal sounds of the […]