“Getting away from it all” doesn’t necessarily require taking a long trip. As this guest post on the Aldo Leopold Foundation blog describes, a short visit to a favorite spot can work wonders to refresh the spirit.
It’s common for naturalists to draw connections between places they visit. Think of John Muir, for example, reflecting in his Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf, on the plants he found along the way and their similarities to plants he’d left back in Wisconsin. In the May/June issue of Omaha Magazine, I examine similarities between two places I’ve come to know, as well as the ways that sandhill cranes connect people to both places.
To read, open the link to the full issue and click to page 66.
Dimming my headlights, I turn onto the gravel lane and let the car roll slowly downhill in the direction of the Crawfish River. Ostensibly, I am here to count sandhill cranes, but the first order of pre-dawn business is to look – and listen – for snipe.
I lower my window, turn off the car and close my eyes. And there it is: an eerie whir that rises and fades, rises and fades as air rushes over the fanned tail feathers of a Wilson’s snipe in territorial display. Through my binoculars I search the twilit sky and finally make out the ghostly form of the foot-long shorebird in its quick, stuttering flight. Continue reading