The Black-headed Grosbeak is a handsome bird with a lovely melodious song that I never tire of listening to. In spring these birds return from their wintering grounds in Central America to nest in the western half of North America. We’ve been watching this pair since May as they built their nest in a healthy stand of […]
A story by John Muir John Muir’s favorite bird was the ‘ Water-Ouzel’, better known nowadays as the American Dipper, to which he devoted an entire chapter of his book The Mountains of California, published in 1894. The dipper is also my favorite bird of forested mountain streams, so I created this audio-visual reading of Muir’s […]
Celebrate Bats on April 17th National Bat Appreciation Day occurs annually on April 17th. April is the best time of the year to observe bats, as they are now beginning to emerge from hibernation. National Bat Appreciation Day is also an excellent time to learn about the role bats play in nature. One important reason […]
Celebrate Orchids on April 16th Contrary to popular belief, wild orchids are not confined to the wet and steamy tropics but are found from Patagonia to the Arctic Circle. I’ve been lucky to see native orchids throughout the US, from Alaska to Florida, but also in Mexico, the Caribbean, Honduras, and Borneo. I’ve created this […]
Identifying Those Pesky Warblers! Includes a downloadable Warbler Identification Infographic and a step-by-step video on how to sketch warblers. One of the most challenging bird families to identify are the Parulidae; known as wood-warblers or simply warblers. Many, like the Yellow-rumped Warbler flit about high in the canopy for which birders acquire ‘warbler neck’ from straining upwards […]
Celebrate Charles Darwin’s Birthday Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who forever changed our view of life on earth, was born on February 12, 1809. Like Darwin, I was a shy and quiet child, with an insatiable curiosity for the natural world, spending my childhood collecting grasshoppers, fireflies and crawdads in the meadows and rivers of […]
A story I wrote while conducting research in the Colorado Rockies Each evening at dusk I take a stroll to burn off dinner in hopes of having room for dessert. Tonight I crossed a bridge over the East River and followed a tributary upstream. I soon happened upon a small pond, then a larger pond, and […]
Learn how to make a spore print Making spore prints is a really fun activity to do with kids and some prints are even pretty enough to frame! (Download my one page cheat sheet on how to make a mushroom spore print.) And if you would love to learn to identify and even possible consume wild mushrooms, then making […]
A Cabinet of Curiosity As an artist and naturalist, I’m an inveterate collector of dead things cast off by the living. Many of life’s most beautiful objects were once alive and are just as beautiful and intriguing when not. My home is like one big 19th Century Victorian cabinet of curiosities. Such ‘cabinets’ or rooms […]
Boo and happy All Hallows’ Eve to you! I’m a little jet-lagged, as I’ve just returned last night from Borneo where we were scouting for next year’s wildlife and birdwatching tour (you’re invited!) As a naturalist, Halloween is my favorite holiday and there’s no better place to spend it than deep in a spooky rainforest jungle. We […]