thank you my friends

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Wild Birds Unlimited

My late mother was especially proud that she was the one who taught me how to talk. So in addition to thanking her posthumously, I need to thank the following groups who have invited me to speak in the past few weeks. 

To my friends at Wild Birds Unlimited for inviting me to speak about fatherhood in the bird world. Thank you.

To the good folks of the Tellico Village Garden Club thank you for asking me to speak about hawks and other diurnal birds of prey.

To the Author's Guild of Tennessee for inviting me to chat a bit about the authoring of my three books published by the University of Tennessee Press.

To my friends at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, thank you Tiffany for asking me to speak about the "Secrets of Backyard Birds."

And finally to Dana and Marti with the Great Smoky Mountains Association for asking me to talk about local owls. I even tried to call in a northern saw-whet owl but with the overcast skies and rapidly approaching storm, they were rather taciturn that evening.  

Tellico Village Garden Club

Author's Guild of Tennessee

Great Smoky Mountains Association members

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Wendy: rattlesnake whisperer

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Traveling around the country, you meet a lot of interesting people, single-minded folks with convection. In April, I met Wendy Shaw, a passionate conservationist and self-confessed rattlesnake whisperer, i.e. protector and rescuer.

Yes, rattlesnakes. 

As her tagline states, "Rattlesnakes aren't really monsters. They just play monsters on TV." 

Wendy Shaw with night snake

This is the season in Washington state when snakes are on the move. Boy snakes looking for girl snakes, that sort of thing. 

Often at night they find themselves on darkened highways where their flattened scales do not find much traction and inevitably a car or truck comes barreling along. The thick, large scales on their bellies are called "scutes," and they are not particularly good at gripping asphalt. 

Western spadefoot toad

Let us hope that Wendy is behind the steering wheel of the oncoming car because she will kindly pull off the road and rescue the reptile (or even amphibians like spadefoots). Wendy will carry the herpetological creature out of harm's way, moving it as far from the thoroughfare as she is able. Wendy is not funded. Her mission is fueled by the goodness in her heart. She is just their sovereign protector like Wonder Woman.  

WOW 'n GOODNESS!

After a day's work, she is out until midnight or even into the wee hours, if it's a busy night, on snake patrol.

If there were a Nobel Prize for kindness, Wendy would get my nod.  

Click here and Wendy tells here own story, night patrol.  

For other posts on my trip to Yakima, click:

Yakima snake protector

Cowiche Canyon

Yakima Valley College.

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mindfulness

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Feeling stressed and overwhelmed by your job? Or your life? Your place on the planet? Then turn off the news, the cell phone, the tablet, the kindle, the flatscreen. It's time to de-stress, slow down, relax and find inner peace. Time magazine just published an entire issue dedicated to the therapeutic benefits of Mindfulness. Ijams has been organizing Mindfulness Walks for two years. And they are so calming.  

If you have never been to an Ijams program, 
this may be the one for you.
I will be hosting two mindfulness activities in the next week.

Take some time to stop and smell the roses.
 

Sunday, June 11, 2 p.m. 

Mindfulness Nature Journaling  

(Ages 14 and up) Unplug from your cell phone and all electronics and join me for a no-talking nature journaling experience and record your inner peace. Bring a notebook or journal, pencil or pen and whether you draw, write prose or poetry, let nature be your inspiration. 

Saturday, June 17, 9 a.m. 

Mindfulness Walk

(Ages 14 and up) Mindfulness walks are calming strolls. Based on the therapeutic Japanese practice called Shinrin Yoku, or forest bathing, it’s a meditative, calming stroll, exploring the forest using all five senses. By removing distractions such as cell phones, cameras and even talking, participants are able to truly engage with their surroundings and experience the restorative properties of nature. 

For both we meet at historic High Ground Park, 

1000 Cherokee Trail, Knoxville, TN 37920. 

For more information or to register go online 

to ijams.org/events/

High Ground Park

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look who's talkin'

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Authors Guild of Tennessee Meeting: Thursday, June 8, 6 p.m. at the Farragut Library, 417 N. Campbell Station Road. The guest speaker is Stephen Lyn Bales (c'est moi), award-winning writer, photographer and senior naturalist at Ijams Nature Center. Published authors are invited to attend. 

Info: authorsguildoftn.org

Father Birds. Saturday, June 17, 1-2 p.m. Celebrate Father's Day with Wild Birds Unlimited, 7240 Kingston Pike, ste 164, and Ijams senior naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales (c'est moi encore une fois) for a lighthearted look at the bad dads and good fathers in the local bird world. Learn which species are paternal and which are no show papas.

Please RSVP to WBU at (865) 337-5990 so that we may allow for the appropriate amount of seating.

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Yakima snake protector

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Wendy Shaw with petite "night snake" and Mark Fuzie, English professor and poet at Yakima Valley College

To paraphrase a line from the original TV series Twin Peaks, "The snakes are not what they seem." And since I was in the Pacific Northwest at the time, borrowing from David Lynch & Mark Frost seems appropriate.

Snakes are not what they seem, since many many people seem to think they are sneaky demons. But they are much more cautious of us than we should be of them. And why not? We have been chopping off their heads with garden hoes for centuries. (Have garden hoes been around for centuries?  I must check that.)

They are predators. They eat mice, insects, lizards, fish, frogs, even other snakes. They're low to the ground. It's that simple.  

There's an absolute beauty to the way a snake moves, an economy of motion. Streamlined, without the benefit of legs which they evolved away from, they get along just fine. Their bodies are muscular and their ventral (belly) scales are large, oblong and especially low friction enabling the snake to grip the ground for traction, although they are not that good on asphalt. Crossing a road can be difficult.

So why all this about snakes? 

At the Yakima Valley College Earth Fest that I attended recently, I met Wendy Shaw a self-confessed snake protector and rescuer. She approached my naturalist table with a completely docile night snake (Hypsiglena torquata) and we talked all things snake especially the one she had weaving itself through and around her fingers.

"They have a unique defensive posture, which is pretty adorable," emailed Wendy. "They form a compact little coil rather like frosting on a cupcake. I caught one in the act last summer during a routine snake rescue patrol and snapped a couple of shots before scooping him off to safety."

Rescue patrol? Wendy's hobby/avocation/passion is saving snakes at night from the local roads before they become roadkill but more about that in an upcoming post.

Until then, attend my Snake-ology class at Ijams this Sunday, June 4 at 2 p.m. To preregister call 577-4717, ext. 110.

For other posts on my trip to Yakima, click:

Cowiche Canyon

Yakima Valley College.

Night snake cupcake, defensive posture

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