Those who fish — and I’m sure it’s true of those who hunt and hike — have a habit of naming familiar places in the great outdoors, branding them in some personal way. Gunpowder River Along the Gunpowder River in northern Baltimore County, most anglers know where to find Whale Rock. Given the large boulder … Continue reading An old tradition: Naming places on rivers and trails
An osprey awaits an easy meal
It’s speculation on my part, but I suspect that the osprey perched high in a tree above the river was hoping for an assist from the two anglers down below. The bird was no freeloader, just an opportunist looking for an easy meal. Consider that this "fish hawk" had picked a spot directly above a … Continue reading An osprey awaits an easy meal
The best three-fish day of fishing ever
Fishing Journal Entry: Sept. 1, 2025, Labor Day Sometimes you just want to write things down so you don’t forget them, and that’s the case today: I just need to describe what the day was like and how it ended so that my son and I will have a record should one day memory fail … Continue reading The best three-fish day of fishing ever
Roadside assistance for a fellow angler who “ain’t from around here”
I had just come from the river when a big man in a big pickup truck pulled suddenly off the main road after spotting me in the parking lot, where I was about to take my waders off. He stopped in a cloud of dust and rolled his window down.“How’d ya do?” he asked, which … Continue reading Roadside assistance for a fellow angler who “ain’t from around here”
Afishionado: A ‘large minnow’ that builds and shares a spawning bed
It’s always the first example of an oxymoronic phrase — jumbo shrimp. Here’s a new one — large minnow. Yes, there is such a thing. It’s called a fallfish, a silvery species that swims in rivers of the U.S. Northeast and Canada. It’s a chub of the family Cyprinidae, and the largest minnow species native … Continue reading Afishionado: A ‘large minnow’ that builds and shares a spawning bed
The Susquehanna Swarm
It might seem like a freak of nature, a bizarre phenomenon set off by the latent effects of the Three Mile Island nuclear accident 50 miles (and more than 46 years) upstream. But it’s actually a natural phenomenon and a sign of environmental health. Workers at Conowingo Dam, on the Susquehanna River, were recently awed … Continue reading The Susquehanna Swarm
A century-old sycamore: Pardon me while I stare
There are some old photographs, hanging in libraries and published in books, of the final days of giant trees that lived hundreds of years in the East before the pioneers and colonists arrived, before the farmers and lumberjacks, before the railroads and the highways -- way back, in the words of Gordon Lightfoot, "when the … Continue reading A century-old sycamore: Pardon me while I stare
Beginner’s luck at hand-feeding a chickadee
On a whim of the moment, I put some black-oil sunflower seeds in my right hand and held them out with the hope that a black-capped chickadee might take them. I stood between a bird feeder and a hemlock tree. Two chickadees darted through the air and landed in the hemlock. This is how they … Continue reading Beginner’s luck at hand-feeding a chickadee
A Bridge Too Far in Western Maryland; the fight for hemlocks and history continues
In the far western corner of Maryland, Steve Storck (photo above) keeps fighting for the old hemlocks in Swallows Falls State Park. As I reported a couple of months ago, the plan to replace a single-lane bridge over the Youghiogheny River, near the entrance to the park, with a wider parallel span would cut into … Continue reading A Bridge Too Far in Western Maryland; the fight for hemlocks and history continues
Robert Frost and Climate Change: ‘Who do we think we are?’
After discovering a Robert Frost poem from 1921, "On a Tree Fallen Across A Road," it struck me that the poet probably never heard much about climate change. Respecting or fearing the tempest is as old as the human race. But nature forever altered and angered by an industrialized human race -- what we call … Continue reading Robert Frost and Climate Change: ‘Who do we think we are?’
Dan Rodricks 