Where the Bluebird Sings

This blog takes its name from a collection of essays by Wallace Stegner. A Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, Stegner was a conservationist before it became fashionable. He had an abiding respect for wild places and the animals that live there. Stegner wrote mostly about the West but his message resonates through all regions of the country, including the Southeast, which I now call home.
As a volunteer at a wildlife rehabilitation center, I often see man's impact on the other animals that share his environment: geese suffering from lead poisoning, fledgling songbirds left homeless when the tree holding their nest was cut down, possums hit by cars as they rummage through fast-food containers at the edge of the road.
But there are also people who make you glad to be part of the human race: the families who disrupt their Sunday plans to help an injured rabbit; a woman who has given thousands of hours to caring for wildlife; a man who has sat up nights tending to a hairless baby possum, cupping it in his hands to keep it warm.
The purpose of this blog is to tell those stories and to share information about the care of wild animals. It also will include travels along North Carolina's hiking trails and through its state parks.
I hope to see you there.