Photo Credit: David Wheeler

On the final day of the year, we can look back on another gorgeous year in the Dismal Swamp Conservation Area in central New Jersey. Surrounded by sprawl and suburbia in the towns of Edison, South Plainfield, and Metuchen, outsiders would hardly expect a place called the Dismal Swamp to be a nature sanctuary. Yet it is a true oasis for wildlife in a sea of overdevelopment. And over the course of a year, I got to spend much of every day within "The Diz", observing and experiencing the more subtle changes that accompany the turning of the seasons.