By Marcy Axness, TME

“Nature is often overlooked as a healing balm for the emotional hardships in a child’s life,” wrote Richard Louv, author of Our Wild Calling, The Nature Principle and his best-known book Last Child in the Woods.

Louv would surely agree nature is a balm for people of all ages, and here in the Mountain Communities, we are blessed with nature gifts all around us!

Louv wrote, “You’ll likely never see…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Above left: Environmental biologist Lynn Stafford tells us this is ruby-crowned kinglet in a bladderpod bush. It is a winter visitor to the Gorman Post Road sag pond, where Bill Buchroeder photographed it on Nov. 13. Only the male kinglet has the red head patch, and it keeps it hidden until excited, said Stafford.

Above right: This ferruginous hawk was snapped by Buchroeder in Cuddy Valley Nov. 16. Lynn Stafford explains that this is an uncommon winter visitor to open areas in our region. He agrees with Liz Buchroeder’s observation that the yellow line, called a gape, running back across the cheek from the mouth, is an excellent identifying mark.  Like many Buteo hawks, it has both light and dark forms, he said; this is a light one.

A female phainopepla

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This is part of the November 27, 2020 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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