By Elizabeth Enslin on March 20, 2009
I grew up an introverted, only child. With my cat or rabbit stretched out beside me, I spent many evenings curled up in some cozy corner, thumbing through animal books…
...read more
Posted in Biodiversity, On Blogging, Species of the Week, Writing
| Tagged books, creative nonfiction, introductions, nostalgia, species
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on March 20, 2009
Right on schedule for the spring equinox, Pseudacris regilla arrived several days ago in my backyard pond here in Portland, Oregon. I haven’t seen him yet, but I hear him every night inviting females to join him in his half wine barrel.
...read more
Posted in Around the Northwest, Biodiversity, Seasons and Rituals, Species of the Week, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged climate change, frogs, nature, nostalgia, ponds, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on March 27, 2009
For writers, the birds inside the head can sometimes be as lively as the ones outside the window. I’ve had a twenty-two pound bird with a ten-foot wing span squawking and flapping in my imagination for awhile now…
...read more
Posted in Around the Northwest, Biodiversity, Species of the Week
| Tagged endangered species, nature writing, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on April 2, 2009
Out of some 850 species of tarantulas worldwide, the genus Aphonopelma includes the four dozen or so species native to the United States. Aphonopelma chalcodes – the Desert Tarantula – is the one I’ll be most likely to meet in Arizona…
...read more
Posted in Southwest Travel, Species of the Week, Travel, Wildlife Encounters, Writing
| Tagged desert, nature, sex, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on April 11, 2009
Lizards, lizards, lizards. I love lizards. I’m not sure which came first: my nickname – Lizzy the Lizard – or my love for reptiles. I like snakes and amphibians too, but lizards make me especially happy…
...read more
Posted in Southwest Travel, Species of the Week, Travel, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged childhood, lizards, photography, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on April 17, 2009
I suppose it’s inevitable that a temperate forest-dweller like me would be amazed by the oddities that grow in the desert. It’s been two weeks since I returned home to Portland, Oregon from a brief trip to Arizona, and I’m still sighing over the blooms I saw in the desert…
...read more
Posted in Southwest Travel, Species of the Week, Travel, Wild Plants
| Tagged desert, nature writing, photography, plants, wildflowers
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on April 27, 2009
They may be common and caricatured, but ladybugs (or as some scientists prefer, lady beetles) still give me a thrill. Because I’m a kitchen gardener, I’m especially excited to see ladybug sex. I found these two Coccinella septempunctata going at it in my herb bed last weekend. I tore off my gloves and ran inside for the camera, thinking they’d finish and fly away soon….
...read more
Posted in Species of the Week, Sustainable Gardening, Wildlife Encounters, haiku
| Tagged invertebrates, nature, photography, sex, Sustainable Gardening
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on May 5, 2009
About a month ago, I wrote a post on California condors, birds that had been haunting my imagination for some time. While browsing information for that post, I learned about the plight of carrion-eaters once common in the plains of Nepal, Pakistan, and India.
I lived in the plains of Nepal for three years in the late 80s and early 90s and also traveled through India during that time. I remember seeing parakeets, egrets, mynahs, and many colorful songbirds. But even though I must have passed by them hundreds of times, I don’t remember seeing Gyps bengalensis, the White-Rumped Vulture (also referred to as the Oriential White-Backed Vulture). Nor do I remember associated species, such as G.indicus (Long-billed vulture) or G.tenuirostris (Tender-billed Vulture). And they were all probably abundant….
...read more
Posted in Biodiversity, Cultural Diversity, Species of the Week
| Tagged cultural anthropology, nature, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on May 12, 2009
Growing up in Seattle on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, I always thought of ponderosa pines (Pinus ponderosa, also sometimes called Western Yellow Pine) as exotic trees. They belonged to what we called “the other side of the mountains.” Whenever we drove over Stevens Pass or Snoqualmie Pass, the first glimpse of ponderosa pines thrilled me. I knew we had left behind the rain and dense undergrowth of douglas fir forests (which I also loved) to more open stands where I could wander miles without a trail…
...read more
Posted in Around the Northwest, Species of the Week, Wild Plants
| Tagged childhood
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on May 19, 2009
I’ve been planting fruit trees, digging up sod, preparing vegetable beds, and planting seeds on our property in northeastern Oregon. But especially on hot days, it’s tempting to wile away the hours in the shade of some old apple trees downhill from our yurt and watch the birds – yellow-bellied sapsuckers, bluebirds, sparrows, wrens. Each of the ten or so trees has at least one cavity that contains an active nest. I’m especially intrigued by the pygmy nuthatches (Sitta pygmaea)….
...read more
Posted in Species of the Week, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on May 26, 2009
I hate lawns. I dug up most of mine on a city lot in Portland, Oregon and replaced it with fruit trees, berries, vegetables, and flowers. In the parking strips, I planted drought tolerant species. Now on our property in Northeastern Oregon, I’m battling a much larger swath of smooth brome and other introduced pasture grasses to establish an orchard and kitchen garden.
...read more
Posted in Species of the Week, Wild Plants
| Tagged beauty, Sustainable Gardening, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on June 9, 2009
In three months of writing this series, I have yet to cover a mammal, or any species with big teeth or claws. So this week, I ponder a mammal with both. It’s the land animal with the largest range in the Americas, from southern Canada to to the southern tip of the Andes: Felis concolor, more commonly known as cougar, mountain lion, catamount, or puma.
...read more
Posted in Biodiversity, Species of the Week, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged nature, predators, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on June 17, 2009
The garden is in now, so it’s time to get back to working on my ethnographic memoir on living as a family member and anthropologist in Nepal. I’m currently revising the chapter where I describe an encounter with an enormous hibernating toad. My six-year old son and his Nepali uncle and cousin almost hoed it in half as they weeded around a lemon tree. My son called me from my academic writing to see it. I picked the sluggish toad out of its burrow and prodded it to hop off to a safer spot. Then I decided to pitch in to help prepare a vegetable garden and discovered a passion for growing food (and a lack of passion for academia) that continues to this day.
...read more
Posted in Species of the Week
| Tagged amphibians, cultural anthropology, nature writing, Nepal
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on June 24, 2009
Living off-grid in a yurt is mostly wonderful, at least this time of year. I know that spending time in such a beautiful place is a luxury not everyone can afford. So please understand, I’m not complaining….
...read more
Posted in Homesteading, On Blogging, Species of the Week, Yurt Living
| Tagged beauty, Homesteading, patience, species
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on July 8, 2009
A number of small, brown songbirds have enlivened my spring and early summer on a daily basis. One is the chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina)
...read more
Posted in Biodiversity, Species of the Week, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged inspiration, photography, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on July 22, 2009
One of the things I like about writing regular posts on various species is that it challenges my own tendency to overlook or take for granted species that are common, mundane, or unpopular. Last week, I had the good fortune to take a brief vacation in the high desert country of Central Oregon. I decided it was time to learn more about a plant I see everywhere throughout the Great Basin but know little about: Artemesia tridentata, or sagebrush.
...read more
Posted in Species of the Week, Wild Plants
| Tagged desert, exploration, nature, photography, plants
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on August 11, 2009
I had originally planned to post on another species this week. In fact, I have a backlog of species that have been inspiring and distracting me. But rattlesnakes have a way of making themselves heard above the din of all else
...read more
Posted in Biodiversity, Species of the Week, Sustainable Gardening, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged photography, Sustainable Gardening, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on August 26, 2009
I first heard the strange noises in late June: whistling squawks that sounded like sea gulls five hundred miles off course. The calls began at sundown every evening and continued throughout the night. I couldn’t imagine what besides an owl would make so much noise after dark. But owls hoot. Right? Couldn’t possibly be owls, I thought….
...read more
Posted in Around the Northwest, Species of the Week, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged nature, species, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on September 25, 2009
On our Northeast Oregon property, we have an old house that’s rotting. It has little historic or architectural value, so we’ve been leaning towards tearing it down. Then my nephew, Gerek, found the bat in the closet….
...read more
Posted in Homesteading, Species of the Week, Wildlife Encounters
| Tagged nature, photography, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on October 27, 2009
This time of year, I’m one of many throughout the West enthralled by – and worried about – one of our most striking fall color trees: Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides ). Utah and Colorado have acres and acres of aspens. In northeast Oregon, we have smaller groves dotting the more prevalent bunchgrass slopes and ponderosa
...read more
Posted in Around the Northwest, Seasons and Rituals, Species of the Week, Wild Plants
| Tagged beauty, climate change, land stewardship
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on November 17, 2009
Yeah, I know. This is a Carolina anole, not a chameleon. When I was a kid, I lusted after chameleons. But anoles change color too, and they were cheaper and easier to find in local pet stores, so that’s what I got….
...read more
Posted in Humor, On Blogging, Species of the Week
| Tagged blogging, childhood, inspiration, species
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on November 20, 2009
It was hard to leave our yurt in northeastern Oregon with Western larch (Larix occidentalis) in full copper-yellow glory. But when the flanks of the mountains there blaze with what looks like a procession of candles, it’s time to get ready for a harsh winter or move to lower elevations….
...read more
Posted in Around the Northwest, Recent, Species of the Week, Wild Plants
| Tagged inland northwest, inspiration, seasons
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on November 25, 2009
Unlike my stepfather and his clan, numerous cousins, the son I spawned, and many friends; I don’t usually look at wild animals and think: meat. Wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), indigenous to North America, have become a recent exception….
...read more
Posted in Humor, Poetry, Politics and History, Seasons and Rituals, Species of the Week
| Tagged food, holidays, Thanksgiving, wild, wordplay
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on December 4, 2009
During the cold holiday season, I find myself remembering trips to tropical waters and the species I’ve encountered there. I may write about sea turtles, reef sharks, octopus, and triggerfish in the future, but it’s the spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris) that have been on my mind this past week….
...read more
Posted in Recent, Species of the Week
| Tagged oceans, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on December 13, 2009
Polar bears: they get all the climate change attention. So this week as negotiators meet in Copenhagen, the Wildlife Conservation Society highlighted “unsung species” that are just as vulnerable to climate change. This isn’t to diminish the grave situation for the world’ biggest bear but to make sure we don’t lose sight of less familiar – and less popular – animals….
...read more
Posted in Recent, Species of the Week
| Tagged climate change, oceans
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on December 28, 2009
I’ve spent most of my life among Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga sp.) Although I love other trees and plant communities, Douglas fir forests still speak to me of home. In the Pacific Northwest, they’re ubiquitous from the Cascades to the coast. Douglas fir and other conifers of the region are why I’ve never felt at ease in the deciduous forests of eastern North America (as lovely as they are), where bare branches in winter make me especially homesick….
...read more
Posted in Around the Northwest, Biodiversity, Recent, Species of the Week, Wild Plants
| Tagged Pacific Northwest, photography, wild
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on January 15, 2010
I’m still celebrating the publication of my first poem in the High Desert Journal and its subject matter — cows. So perhaps now is a good time to share a shaggier bovine fantasy I’ve been nursing over the last few years….
...read more
Posted in Recent, Species of the Week
| Tagged cows, Poetry, yaks
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on February 7, 2010
The calls and whistles (listen below) of the American pika (Ochotona princeps) are one of the delights of hiking into remote alpine areas — and such a refreshing escape from the noise of daily news, courtroom dramas, and political debates. Now the tiny rabbit relative may unwittingly generate press releases, research reports and legal briefs higher than its hay piles….
...read more
Posted in Recent, Species of the Week
| Tagged climate change, endangered species, mammals
|
By Elizabeth Enslin on February 19, 2010
Tomorrow, we drive to NE Oregon to spend a week or so in our yurt (and a few other places). The creature I fear most on this trip is not the cougar, wolf or porcupine. It’s much smaller. Most females and the younger males of the species could fit into the palm of my hand….
...read more
Posted in Recent, Species of the Week, Yurt Living
| Tagged archaeology, climate change, Homesteading, mammals, wild
|
Fringe Magazine
High Desert Journal
In the Mist
Opium Magazine
Oregon Literary Review
The Smoking Poet
Recent Comments