Bone hunting in the city? (original) (raw)
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Nov. 24th, 2010 | 12:37 pm
posted by: 
flowerthousand in 
from_nature
I grew up in the woods, but for the past five and a half years, I've been living in cities (for college and now jobs). Needless to say, I miss the woods a lot and also being able to collect natural objects easily. Anyone else in this situation? Got any tips for finding stuff in the city?
Here's my advice: Rivers! In the last city I lived in, I was near a river, and there were several places where I could get down to the shore to scavenge. I found lots of bones washed up, in addition to other cool stuff like antique ceramic pieces, old bottles, and sometimes even parts of antique dolls. This was a smallish city, so my "hunting" grounds weren't really picked over by other people, and I had lots of access to riverfront due to it being adjacent to parks, cemeteries, and abandoned property.
Now I live in a bigger city, and I'm not having much luck! I've been down to the closest river, but it didn't look like there was anything of interest washed up, and most of the river is adjacent to commercial or private property anyway. There is a nature preserve I've been meaning to check out, but I'm feeling frustrated! So what do you guys do when you want to bone hunt in the city?
Also, a pic of my city bones behind the cut:
clockwise from top left:
-raccoon, from the river
-squirrel, found by a friend, but I assume near the road
-fish skull, river
-house sparrow skull, washed out of the gutter into my front garden
-old unknown bone fragments, found in a pile of dirt where pipes were being fixed under a parking lot
-fish pharyngeal jaws, river
-raccoon, opossum, and cat jaws, river