Morgan Spring: Life and Wildlife Near the Edge of the Grid

Fulfilling a wish to live in a remote location and the great luck of finding Morgan Spring was a dream come true. The author and Linda, his childhood sweetheart, quickly realized Morgan Spring was a perfect place for retirement and an extended honeymoon. Morgan Spring opened its pages to teach about the day-to-day living where mail came three days per week and where the water was beyond quenching. Their little spot, surrounded by a meadow often filled with elk and a forest with breezes singing through the needles of evergreen trees, offered habitat for wildlife precious to dangerous, from mushrooms to birds, wildflowers to backyard skunks. Thinking of birds invited forays into how some birds acquired their names and occasional swoops into bird business such as catching flies. Morgan Spring is witness to a rich geological history beginning in the shadow of Mount Mazama of the Cascade Mountains. The richness of human history ranges from bad to good and entertaining. The health of the ecology of Morgan Spring country is also varied, but its outcome hopeful. We rarely saw neighbors. When we did, it was a delight knowing that they also loved Morgan Spring.

M. Ralph Browning is retired from the Biological Survey at the Division of Birds at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. He is the author and coauthor of numerous papers on the taxonomy and nomenclature of birds and the author of the books Rogue Birder and Morgan Spring.