nature calling
"I'm never at a loss for things to study or topics to write about: everything in the natural world is fair game. If I'm not intrigued and excited every time I step outside, it just means I'm not paying attention."

- from Feathers by Thor Hanson

.

.

Tennessee Naturalist UT Press Author blog

• University of Tennessee Press author and speaker, Tennessee naturalist

•

•

Stephen Lyn Bales

writer, speaker, humorist, photographer, artist, gonzo naturalist, local natural historian, official Tremonster, recycler of aluminum cans, listener of old LPs, taker of afternoon naps at 959 feet above sea level at 35º55'N, 83º56'W

"excellent writer, very humorous speaker"

- Crossville Chronicle

• Fifth generation Smoky
Mountain hillbilly
(Caleb to Jim to Homer to Russell to moi with a lot of help from Elizabeth, Emma, Pearl and Mary Helen)

• Pi Beta Phi Elementary School, Gatlinburg-Pittman High School, East Tennessee State University & the University of Tennessee

• Author of three books for the University of Tennessee Press: Natural Histories and Ghost Birds (Jim Tanner and the ivorybills), plus the new Ephemeral by Nature. In the works: Bad Dads/Good Fathers and Gatlinburg: Timber Town to Mountain Resort.

•

•
click image for article

"fantastic. Everyone loved it...best presentation yet."

- Angela Curry, M.D.G.C.

Total pageviews

1,239 Subscribers


2018 CHOICE Award

2018 CHOICE Award
American Library Association Outstanding Academic Title (Click Cover)

Each chapter begins with one of his delightful drawings

Patricia K. Lichen, author of "Passionate Slugs and Hollywood Frogs" and "Kidnapping the Wild One."

"Each chapter is like a conversation with the author"

Laura Twilley, Goodreads

"This is one seriously fantastic book."

Amazon - Janet Lee

"Another great book of nature essays"

- Jay Sturner

"a wildly entertaining read you'll want to pick up again and again"

Amazon - Megan Waugh

an accomplished naturalist and master story teller

Allen R. Coggins, author of "Place Names of the Smokies" and "Escape from Bone Cave"

...akin to a field trip led by an engaging naturalist both passionate and erudite

Joel Greenberg, author of "A Feathered River across the Sky."

Oak Ridge talk

Oak Ridge talk

Natural Histories

Natural Histories
UT Press 2007

"This is THE best Tennessee natural history book I've read."

  • Tennessee Parks
  • Amazon

"excellently researched and written in a style that is enjoyable to read"

Bobbi Phelps Wolverton, author of Behind the Smile

Ghost Birds

Ghost Birds
"Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, 1935 to 1941." UT Press 2010

Ghost Birds talk

Ghost Birds talk
Yakima Valley College 2017

Nominated: Deep South Book Prize

Ghost Birds was nominated for the Deep South Book Prize presented by the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South at the University of Alabama.

Smithsonian article

Smithsonian article
(Click for article) or to buy a copy of the September 2010 "Smithsonian" with my ivory-bill article signed by Nancy Tanner contact me.

Ghost Birds: Reviews

Ghost Birds: Reviews

Sets Tanner for the first time firmly in the pantheon of America's leading ornithologists

Audubon: Frank Graham Jr.

Cornell Review

Cornell Review

This is a tale of heartbreak

Living Bird: Bodio

THQ Review

THQ Review

Bales's tale of adventure is a model for doing environmental or scientific history

Tennessee Historical Quarterly

French review

French review

Alauda: Cet ouvrage est écrit dans un style très vivant

Jean-Marc Pons

get a true feel for Jim's daily life, his work and adventures searching remote swamps

Marcia Davis: News Sentinel

A compelling story

Tim Gallagher

"beautifully written and ineffably sad"

Audubon: Nov/Dec 2011

It made me cry at the end of the Afterward.

Marie from Tucson

"I was utterly absorbed in the story of Tanner's life."

Amazon review: Jade

"Combining nature, biography, history, and mythos"

Chapter 16: Review

Captures Tanner’s determined spirit as he tracked down ornithology’s Holy Grail.

Bobby Harrison

I read it in two days. It was well written and I couldn’t put it down and was sad when it was over.

- Scott from Arkansas

"Surprised to be so enchanted!"

Amazon review: J. E.

"What a wonderfully documented experience"

Amazon: Linda

Tribute to Mom

Tribute to Mom
(click photo)

Smoky Mountain Roots

Smoky Mountain Roots
Alex Cole cabin at great-granddad Jim Bales homesite Great Smoky Mountains National Park

WBIR Channel 10

WBIR Channel 10
Click for Abby Ham interview

Articles published 2020

Articles published 2020
Click cover for post

2018

2018
Click cover for post

2018

2018
Click cover for post

2017

2017
Click cover for post

2016

2016
Click cover for post

2015

2015
Click cover for post

2015

2015
Mar/Apr (click cover)

2014

2014
Click cover for post

2014

2014
Nov/Dec (click cover)

2014

2014
Jan/Feb (Click cover)

2013

2013
Nov/Dec (Click cover)

2012

2012
Mar/Apr (Click cover)

2012

2012
May/Jun (Click cover)

2011

2011
Jul/Aug (Click cover)

2011

2011
Jan/Feb (click cover)

2010

2010
May/Jun (click cover)

2010

2010
Jan/Feb 2010 (Click cover)

2009

2009
May/Jun (Click cover)

2008

2008
May/Jun (Click cover)

2007

2007
Nov/Dec (Click cover)

Blog Archive

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Book Talks & other

2015
Sun. Jan 25, 12:00 PM
Hawks of the Smokies @ WWW Pigeon Forge
Tues. Jan 27, 12:15 PM
IDing Local Birds of Prey @ WWW Pigeon Forge

Wed. Jan 28, 12:00 PM

Audubon's "Birds of America" @ WWW Pigeon Forge

Thurs, Jan 29, 2 PM
Ghost Birds: Tanner & the Ivorybill @ WWW Pigeon Forge
Thurs
. Jan 29, 4:30 PM

Secrets of Backyard Birds @ WWW Pigeon Forge
Sat. Feb 28

Audubon's "Birds of America" @ Rose Glen Literary Festival, Sevierville
Thurs. Apr 23 Audubon's "Birds of America" @ Wildflower Pilgrimage, Gatlinburg
Sat. May 9

Secrets of Backyard Birds @ Tremont

2014
Sat. Jan 25, 2:30 PM
TN Owls & Woodpeckers @ WWW Pigeon Forge
Mon. Jan 27, 1:30 PM
Audubon's "Birds of America" @ WWW Pigeon Forge

Wed. Jan 29, 2:30 PM
Secrets of Backyard Birds @ WWW Pigeon Forge
Thurs, Jan 30, 3 PM
Ghost Birds: Tanner & the Ivorybill @ WWW Pigeon Forge
Fri. Jan 31, 12:30 PM
IDing Local Birds of Prey @ WWW Pigeon Forge
Sat. Feb 22

Rose Glen Literary Festival @ Sevierville
Sat. May 10
Secrets of Backyard Birds @ Tremont
Thurs, May 29, 6 PM
Audubon's "Birds of America"
Keynote Speaker: Friends of the Library Annual Meeting @ Sevierville Library
Tues. Dec. 16, Noon
Ghost Birds @ Knoxville Writers' Group

2013
Sun. Jan 13, 12:30 PM
Cherokee Plants & Animals
@ WWW Pigeon Forge
Mon. Jan 14, 2:30 PM
Audubon's "Birds of America"
@ WWW Pigeon Forge
Tues. Jan 15, 3 PM
IDing Local Birds of Prey
@ WWW Pigeon Forge
Sat. Feb 16, 4 PM
Attracting 20 Common Birds @ Dogwood Arts House & Garden Show
Sat. Feb 23: 10 AM
Rose Glen Literary Fest, Sevierville
Thurs, Mar 14: 7 PM
Ghost Birds for Atlanta Audubon Society @ Chattahoochee Nature Center
Tue. Apr 9: 7:15 PM
Ghost Birds @ Institute at Tremont Great Smokies
Fri. Apr 19: 6 PM
Ghost Birds @ Herndon Chapter TOS Johnson City

2012
Thurs. May 24
Keynote Speaker @ Annual Cumberland County Friends of the Library Author Luncheon: Crossville Arts Circle Library
Fri. June 1, 6-8 PM
Foothills Land Conservancy-Land Trust Day @ Mast General Store
Sun. July 8: 2 PM
Ghost Birds @ UT McClung Museum
Tue. Dec. 18: 6 PM
Ghost Birds • Foothills Land Conservancy

E-mail me for bookings

Search This Blog

Author's photo blog

Author's photo blog
My favorite photos from blog are for sale (Click photo)

Articles to look for

Articles to look for
Click cover for details

"A fascinating page-turner"

Amazon: Janet Lee

this book illustrates the hard work and frustration that goes into preserving endangered species

Choice Magazine

Well written account of another tragic disaster thanks to our lovely myopic species

Sam Moore

"This book should be read by any serious birder who has an interest in history."

Amazon review: Chris

"a fantastic read! Tanner's determin- ation in the field was inspiring"

Jim from New Jersey

"a long over due book about a man of amazing tenacity"

Amazon: Bobby

It's about pursuing a nobel project through sacrifice, disappointment and dogged persistence

Clarion County Foundation

Other reviews

  • Midwest Book Review
  • sir read alot
  • Mast General Store
  • California Bookwatch
  • Vickie Henderson
  • cyberthrush
  • kinetograph: Gene

Articles

Articles
  • News Sentinel
  • Daily Times
  • UT Press: Booknotes
  • Animals Today Radio
  • Metro Pulse
  • cyberthrush interview

Buy at Ijams or

  • UT press
  • Amazon
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Better World Books
  • United Kingdom
  • Netherlands
  • Canada
  • France
  • India
  • Germany
  • New Zealand
  • Japan
  • Hong Kong
  • Finland
  • Chile
  • South Africa
  • Croatia

Ghost Birds blog

Ghost Birds blog
(Click photo)

Ivory-bill notecards

Ivory-bill notecards
Notecards of my ivory-bill cover art are available, either singularly (with envelope) or boxes of eight cards (with envelopes) For more information, contact me.

Ivory-bill print

Ivory-bill print
11X14 prints, suitable for framing, of my ivory-bill cover art are available. For more information, contact me.

An eclectic mix of local history and natural history that informs and delights in equal measure

Mast General Store

buy at Ijams or

  • UT press
  • Amazon
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Borders
  • Books-A-Million

Natural Histories References

•
History, Myths, and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees
by James Mooney
The Trail of Tears
by Gloria Jahoda
The De Soto Chronicles
editors Clayton, Knight, Moore
Looking for De Soto
by Joyce Hudson
Tennessee: A Bicentennial History
by Wilma Dykeman
The Cherokees and Their Chiefs
by Stanley Hoig
The Southeastern Indians
by Charles Hudson
Tribes that Slumber
by Lewis & Kneberg
Pilgrims of the Wild
by Grey Owl
A New Voyage to Carolina by John Lawson
Travels of William Bartram by William Bartram

also available

also available
Natural Histories notecards with illustrations from the book

pen to paper

Written over 600 nature articles and columns for local publications: The Tennessee Conservationist, Smokies Life, the farragutpress, Hellbender Press, Tennessee Yards & Neighborhoods and national: Smithsonian magazine. Author of Natural Histories and Ghost Birds published by the University of Tennessee Press.

Sites to visit

  • okazaki fragments
  • Janet's Wood Thrush Ridge
  • Ijams Nature Center
  • Vickie Henderson Art
  • Vickie's Sketch Book
  • UT Press
  • Gene's movie blog
  • Rikki Hall
  • Hog Foot Holler
  • Garden Girls
  • Tennessee wildflowers
  • UT-Tennessee herbarium
  • great Zen blog
  • Nature Scrapbooking
  • Travels in the UK
  • Lighthearted fun
  • Nature in Colorado
  • Knox news blog network
  • Operation Migration

Click for David Keffer poem

Ten books that influenced me

•
Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
by Dee Brown
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard
Hope is the Thing with Feathers
by Christopher Cokinos
Song of the Dodo
by David Quammen
Wonderful Life
by Stephen Jay Gould
Life on Earth
by David Attenborough
Look Homeward, Angel
by Thomas Wolfe
The Power of Myth
by Joseph Campbell

Plus ten books of collected essays

•
The Immense Journey
by Loren Eiseley
Soul of the Night
by Chet Raymo
Wintering
by Diana Kappel-Smith
The Moon by Whale Light
by Diane Ackerman
The Flamingo's Smile
by Stephen Jay Gould
The Boilerplate Rhino
by David Quammen
Dragons of Eden
by Carl Sagan
The Road of a Naturalist
by Donald Peattie
Desert Solitaire
by Edward Abbey
Rarest of the Rare
by Diane Ackerman
The Unspoken Hunger by Terry Tempest Williams

Incredible journeys: 10 favorite books

•
The Path
by Chet Raymo
River of Doubt
by Candice Millard
Into Thin Air
by Jon Krakauer
The Man Who Walked Through Time
by Colin Fletcher
The Right Stuff
by Tom Wolfe
A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf
by John Muir
River Horse
by William Least Heat-Moon
Walking towards Walden
by John Hanson Mitchell
Being Caribou
by Karsten Heur
Dragon Hunter
by Novacek & Gallenkamp
Snow Leopard
by Peter Matthiessen

Science books: my favorites to look for

•
The Evolution of Beauty
by Richard Prum
The Song of the Dodo
by David Quammen
In the Shadow of Man
by Jane Goodall
People of the Lake
by Richard Leakey
The Wauchula Woods Accord
by Charles Siebert
The Invention of Clouds
by Richard Hamblyn
Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind
by Donald Johanson
A Gap in Nature
by Flannery & Schouten
The Diversity of Life
by E. O. Wilson
The Reluctant Mr. Darwin
by David Quammen
The Beak of the Finch
by Jonathan Weiner
The Ghost with Trembling Wings
by Scott Weidensaul
Unearthing the Dragon
by Mark Norell
Copernicus' Secret
by Jack Repcheck
The Map that Changed the World by Simon Winchester
The Measure of all Things by Ken Alder

Plus favorites about birds & birding

•
What the Robin Knows
by Jon Young
Atlas of Rare Birds
by Dominic Couzens
The Feather Quest
by Pete Dunne
Kingbird Highway
by Kenn Kaufman
The Bluebird Effect
by Julie Zickefoose
Living on the Wind
by Scott Weidensaul
The Wisdom of Birds
by T.R. Birkhead
The Grail Bird
by Tim Gallagher
Spix's Macaw
by Tony Juniper
Songbird Journeys
by Miyoko Coco Chu
The Carolina Parakeet
by Noel F.R. Snyder
Life in the Skies
by Jonathan Rosen
A Shadow and a Song
by Mark Jerome Walters
Return of the Osprey
by David Gessner
The Big Year
by Mark Obmascik
In Search of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker by Jerome Jackson
Red-Tails in Love
by Marie Winn

Uniquely/Oddly American: 10 favorite books

•
The Thoreau You Don't Know by Robert Sullivan
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
by Dee Brown
The Final Days
by Bernstein & Woodward
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Remembering America
by Richard Goodwin
Stealing Lincoln's Body
by Thomas Craughwell
Confederates in the Attic
by Tony Horwitz
Edward S. Curtis: Coming to Light
by Anne Makepeace
Under a Wild Sky
by William Souder
Race to Save the Lord God Bird by Phillip Hoose

Remarkable stories: 10 favorites

•
Van Gogh: The Life
by Naifeh & Smith
The Professor and the Madman
by Simon Winchester
Poe & Fanny
by John May
Into the Wild
by Jon Krakauer
Love and Hatred
by William Shirer
Mauve
by Simon Garfield
Killing Mister Watson & Lost Man's River by Peter Matthiessen
The Legacy of Luna
by Julia Butterfly Hill
The Monsters by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler

Plus 10 darn good reads, darn good

•
Kidnapping the Lorax
by Patricia Lichen
Never Cry Wolf
by Farley Mowat
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
Blue Highways
by William Least Heat-Moon
The Tao of Pooh
by Benjamin Hoff
Gift from the Sea
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
West with the Night
by Beryl Markham
Thunderstruck
by Erik Larson
My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir

Pages

  • Home
  • Wildflowers of William Hastie Natural Area
  • Trees of William Hastie Natural Area
  • William Hastie Natural Area: August Wildflowers

Photos


My favorite photos from the past posts: hors d'oeuvres

•

Thank you

Special thanks for stopping by my blog. This journal has logged over a quarter of a million page-views. Most of the visitors have lived in the U.S, but after that, nature calling has been visited by people from 107 other countries plus Antarctica. That's more places than I'll ever get to visit using my own two legs.

--

--
Thank you for stopping by
Locations of visitors to this page

Recent visits from

• Klang, Malaysia
• Arica, Chile
• Tallinn, Estonia
• Bondy, France
• Zaventem, Belgium
• Bangalore, India
• Karachi, Pakistan
• Ryde, New South Wales
• Göteborg, Sweden
• Khabarovsk, Russia
• Bekasi, Indonesia
• Robilante, Italy
• Maastricht, Netherlands
• Smethwick, GB
• Brasília, Brazil
• Kiev, Ukraine
• Shanghai, China
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Zagreb, Croatia
• Vihtavuori, Finland
• Pazardjik, Bulgaria
• Taichung City, Taiwan
• Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Quezon City, Philippines
• São Paulo, Brazil
• St. John's, Newfoundland
• Luanda, Angola
• Phnom Penh, Cambodia
• Cebu, Philippines
©2019, Stephen Lyn Bales
Thank you for your interest and for sharing this site with others. All original photos, illustrations and text are the work of the author and cannot be reproduced without written consent.

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At Crossville Library

At Crossville Library

At KTOS-IJAMS Hummingbird Festival

At KTOS-IJAMS Hummingbird Festival

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    • Unicorn Moth caterpillar ( Schizura unicornis ) This is another example of a caterpillar that is far more spectacular than the moth...
  • is it a sign?
    • Dare we look for a sign? Dare I give financial advice? Dare I think about anything financial since I work at a non-profit and write books ...

Favorite quotes

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"There are only two ways to live your life: as though nothing is a miracle, or as though everything is a miracle." Albert Einstein.

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The world, I have come to believe, is a very queer place, but we have been a part of the queerness for so long that we tend to take it for granted. We rush to and fro like Mad Hatters on our peculiar errands, all the time imaging our surroundings to be dull and ourselves quite ordinary creatures." Loren Eiseley from "The Star Thrower."

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The naturalist's journey has only begun and for all intents and purposes will go on forever...as the exploration is pressed, it will engage more of the things close to the human heart and spirit.
- from Biophilia by E. O. Wilson
(b 1929)


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Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all. Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Nature is the standard for truth and beauty. - Bernd Heinrich

"It's a strange fact about science that until an object or a phenomenon receives a name in some way it does not exist. Names really matter. They retrieve something from the endless chaos of anonymity into a world of lists, inventories and classification. The next stage is to understand their meaning." - Richard Fortey, Horseshoe Crabs and Velvet Worms: The story of the animals and plants that time has left behind.

Life is most precious when its unity and rarity are recognized, and we are among the rarest of things." - from "Written in Stone" by Brian Switek

"And some certain significance lurks in all things, else all things are little worth, and the round world itself but an empty cipher, except to sell by the cartload, as they do hills about Boston, to fill up some morass in the Milky Way." - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

The naturalist's journey has only begun and for all intents and purposes will go on forever...as the exploration is pressed, it will engage more of the things close to the human heart and spirit.
- from Biophilia by E. O. Wilson
(b 1929)
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But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things. -
Vincent van Gogh
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To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.
- from Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
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Ecstasy is identity with all existence. - from The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen (b 1927)
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The unexamined life is not worth living. - Socrates

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Find the good, and praise it. - Alex Hailey

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Together, we resolved that a great nation must care for the vulnerable, and protect its people from life's worst hazards and misfortune. - President Barack Obama.

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Almost everything in nature is so much more awe-inspiring than it first appears. - Julie Zickefoose

• I'm never at a loss for things to study or topics to write about: everything in the natural world is fair game. If I'm not intrigued and excited every time I step outside, it just means I'm not paying attention. - from Feathers by Thor Hanson

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“To live within limits, to want one thing, or a very few things, very much and love them dearly, cling to them, survey them from every angle, become one with them—that is what makes the poet, the artist, the human being.”
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)


“We are not rich by what we possess but by what we can do without.” - Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724–1804)

“Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.” - Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (1724–1804)

“To us also, through every star, through every blade of grass, is not God made visible if we will open our minds and our eyes.” - Thomas Carlyle

I am going to refresh, to rejuvenate myself in nature. - Vincent van Gogh

"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars, And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, And the tree-toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest." - Walt Whitman

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama

The history of beauty in nature is a vast never-ending story. -The Evolution of Beauty: Richard Prum

"Chase your dreams as long as they'll let you." Adam Vinatieri, NFL placekicker

“No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.”
--Danny Thomas

Il s'agit de saisir ce qui ne passe pas, dans ce qui passe.


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and a bit more

and a goodbye from Emmylou