Entries by Steve Jones

April Mid-day Reflections at Hays Nature Preserve along the Flint River!

Big Cove Creek and the Hays Preserve   April 13, 2023 I visited Huntsville, Alabama’s Hays Nature Preserve, focusing my limited wanderings near where Big Cove Creek enters the Flint River. Big Cove Creek flows south (left) in a channel evidencing historic linearization, appearing more like a canal than a natural, winding stream. The creek […]

April Visit to Lake Lurleen State Park: Focus on the Lake!

April 19, 2023 I arrived about noon at Alabama’s Lake Lurleen State Park, then departed April 20 after a morning meeting of the Alabama State Parks Foundation Board. I focus this Post on the splendor of the lake the first afternoon and snippets I captured at sunrise the next morning during a quick encounter lakeside […]

March Bluff Trails at Joe Wheeler State Park

March 16, 2023 I co-led (with Mike Ezell, AL State Parks Naturalist Emeritus) a Nature walk at Joe Wheeler State Park for members of the Huntsville LearningQuest class that had just completed a seven-week course on the State Parks of North Alabama. I sauntered the woods for an additional two hours after the formal field […]

An Unanticipated Setback to My Nature Wanderings: Triple Bypass!

This Post takes a different approach: not just Nature’s contribution to the quality of my life, but a medical intervention intended to keep me in the game of life! Scheduled for left knee replacement surgery, doctors suggested a ticker evaluation. Here’s the resultant life-awakening sequence:    Warning: June 5 — stress test    Danger: June […]

Wetlands Restoration at the Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary

Because I had been teaching a seven-week Huntsville LearningQuest course at the Residences at WellPoint in Hampton Cove, Alabama, I visited the nearby Goldsmith-Schiffman Wildlife Sanctuary four times from late-January through March (1/31; 2/14; 2/21; 3/24), focusing the latter three visits on the ongoing wetlands restoration project underway by the City of Huntsville, the proprietor […]