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Entries Tagged as 'urban nature'

Welcome Spring

March 31st, 2013 · No Comments

Thank you Marigold, Ophelia, and Ethel for the beautiful eggs. And happy spring to everyone! I heard the neighborhood flickers drumming in earnest on my early morning walk today. Let the wild rumpus begin!   You may also like:Our Urban Chicken Coop Plan Urban Chicken Retirement: What to do when older chickens stop laying? Buff [...]

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Tags: chickens, eggs, seasons, urban nature

Three Ways to Keep the Peace of the Season

December 3rd, 2012 · 8 Comments

Every year we see articles on “staying sane during the holidays”–advice for dealing with unruly inlaws while maximizing cookie production and shopping efficiency.  I follow some of this advice.  But here’s a confession:  I love the inner dimension of this season.  I love advent, the dark days leading to the Solstice and Christmas, and I [...]

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Tags: inspiration, seasons, urban nature

Reading to Trees

October 9th, 2012 · 14 Comments

You will have to trust me on this:  Thinking about reading to a tree feels stranger than actually reading to a tree, especially once you get going.  The other day I walked to the wooded park near my home with a particular aspen in mind and a book in my pocket.  What does one read [...]

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Tags: trees, urban nature

Letting Things Go in the Garden (on purpose)

August 15th, 2012 · 7 Comments

It’s mid-August, and the garden is taking on its late summer look– a gorgeous, tangled, fruitful mess.  I try to keep some things up:  tomatoes trellised, beans picked, nasturtiums guarded against aphids.  But some things I happily and intentionally let go. I’ve been enamored of Imogen Cunningham’s photograph of Morris Graves in his leek garden [...]

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Tags: garden, urban nature

Become a Human Hummingbird Feeder

July 25th, 2012 · 7 Comments

Yesterday I was writing at the sunny little table on my deck, surrounded by grape vines mixed with crocosmia (working from home is one of the joys and terrors of the writing life–it’s pleasant, but distraction abounds…).  An Anna’s hummingbird kept buzzing close to my head, then flying a few feet away to feed from [...]

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Tags: birds, urban nature

Backyard Bird Nest Drama: An Update on “The Roofer’s Birdhouse”

June 11th, 2012 · 6 Comments

Remember the Roofer’s Birdhouse? The avian soap opera continues:  We meant to borrow a long ladder and take the box down before more House Sparrows could use it this season, but alas, we didn’t quite get to it. So I decided to make the most of the urban wildlife “research opportunity,” and observe the progress [...]

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Tags: birds, urban nature

A Faerie Tangle

February 19th, 2012 · 7 Comments

I’ve been engaged these many months in the research and writing of my new book, The Urban Bestiary (and I am supposed to have the manuscript to my editor next week!–hence my shameful neglect of the Tangled Nest this last month…). I’m finding that immersion in the subject matter of the Bestiary is bringing close-to-home [...]

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Tags: art, books, urban nature

The Urban Winter Wild

January 10th, 2012 · 17 Comments

Winter is considered a time of quiet and hibernation, and often we wait until spring to think about viewing birds and other creatures. But the cold of winter increases the energetic need of wild animals, sending them out to seek food at all hours of the day.  It’s one of the best times to watch [...]

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Tags: birds, seasons, urban nature

Leave the Leaves (for the Thrushes!)

November 30th, 2011 · 3 Comments

Three years ago, I spotted the first Hermit Thrush I’d ever seen in my backyard.  She was standing on our concrete patio, poking her bill beneath the scattered autumn leaves and nibbling the worms and other tasty invertebrates  found there.  Since then, we stopped sweeping the leaves off of our patio, and we never rake [...]

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Tags: birds, urban nature

Squirrel on the Desk: Urban-Wild Research Gone Too Far

September 26th, 2011 · 6 Comments

I’ve talked a little about the new manuscript I’m working on–an urban bestiary.  As part of this project, I’ve been studying urban squirrels in depth.  I don’t feed birds much, but I do keep a tiny sunflower seed feeder suctioned to my study window just above the window box, which brings chickadees, nuthatches, and finches [...]

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Tags: urban nature