Sense of Place

Category: Field Notes

  •  Öskjuhlíð, Iceland

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    We woke up and took a taxi to Öskjuhlíð with a driver named Viktor. We walked the waters edge, stepped on a sandy beach, climbed rocks to photograph Campions. We explored the edge of a runway, catching sight of a Whimbrel and Meadow Pipits. We turned around, tracing our steps along with shore and walking…

  • Vigur Island Heritage Farm & Nature Reserve, Iceland

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    People have been living on Vigur Island for over 1,000 years. It’s been the site of a working farm since 1650. It’s the home of Iceland’s only historic windmill, built circa 1840/1860 and operational until 1912. The island’s house, called Viktoria’s House, was built in the mid-1800s as an engagement present from goldsmith, Sumarliði Sumarliðason,…

  • Pettigrew State Park (Creswell, NC) & Pocosin Lakes NWR (Columbia, NC)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    Each Spring, I make my way to Pettigrew State Park (Creswell, NC) to explore the rich vernal wildlife around North Carolina’s 2nd largest natural lake, Lake Phelps. Lake Phelps is one of the Carolina bay lakes – elliptical lakes aligned on a northwest-southeast axis of uncertain origin, hypothesized to have been carved out by ocean currents,…

  • Return to Flat River Impoundment (Durham County, North Carolina)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    Every September, many local lepidopteraphiles (butterfly lovers) make a pilgrimage to the Flat River Waterfowl Impoundment in northern Durham County, North Carolina. Located just north of Historic Stagville along Old Oxford Highway, the impoundment offers a gravel loop trail through wetland habitat. The area abounds with alternate wingstem (Verbesina alternifolia), passionflower (Passiflora incarnata), bitterweed (Helenium…

  • New Hope Bottomlands Trail (Durham, NC)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    The New Hope Creek Bottomlands Trail is a 2.2-mile loop located off SW Durham Drive in south Durham. At the moment, the access point at Sherwood Githens Middle School is closed. The best way to reach the trail is to park near the dumpster in the North Carolina Orthopaedic Center parking lot (3609 SW Durham…

  • Temple Flat Rock (Wendell, Wake County, North Carolina)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    Just outside Wendell, North Carolina (an eastern satellite town of Raleigh), Temple Flat Rock protects a striking expanse of exposed granite—about 5,270 square meters—that supports a specialized community of lichens, bryophytes, and flowering plants. In 1984, the Temple family donated this unusual Registered Natural Heritage Site to The Nature Conservancy. In the mid-1990s, stewardship transferred…

  • Return to Mason Farm (Chapel Hill, North Carolina)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    One evening this April, I visited Mason Farm with my dear friend gumby. As we started hiking down the grassy path, I commented on how Mason Farm was always a lucky place to find snakes, especially brown snakes, rough green snakes, and rat snakes. We were lucky to add another species to that list: redbelly…

  • Pump Station Trail, Eno River (Durham, North Carolina)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    This morning—before the sun had fully thawed the crisp air—we hiked along the Eno River on the Pump Station Trail in Durham, North Carolina. About thirty feet off the trail, beyond the crumbling remains of a towering stone dam, sits a small pond carved into Carolina mud by spillover from the old structure. In spring,…

  • Crowders Mountain State Park (Kings Mountain, North Carolina)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    The forest floor was littered with fallen leaves—some big and brown like the finely lobed leaves of chestnut oaks, others bright red like the cheery leaves of red maples. We hiked up and up, past car-sized boulders encrusted with bright green lichens. As the slope steepened, the ridge-top forest thinned and tightened: Virginia pines grew…

  • Flat River Impoundment (Durham, North Carolina)

    —

    by

    Nicolette Cagle
    in

    This past weekend, I brought my family to a lepidopteran wonderland: the Flat River Waterfowl Impoundment in northern Durham County, North Carolina. Butterflies (order Lepidoptera) abound at this small wetland rimmed with goldenrod. The impoundment was originally created to help mitigate the loss of bird habitat after the Neuse River was dammed to form Falls…