What’s So Special About Seahorses? With the head of a horse, the eyes of a chameleon and the tail of a monkey, it’s no wonder seahorses have captured our imagination for millennia. Cultures have memorialized them worldwide, from 8,000-year-old cave paintings in...
John Muir’s description of the Water-Ouzel One might think that California’s most treasured naturalist; John Muir, who was instrumental in founding the Sierra Club and inspiring the establishment of the National Park Service, would count as his favorite...
A Glow in the Dark Sea Creature Next time an evening stroll takes you to the seashore, your wet footprints may surprise you by glowing in the dark! Though many marine organisms have the ability to glow, called bioluminescence, it’s likely that the single-celled...
May 16th is designated as Love A Tree Day! How are you celebrating it? I’m sharing a few images of favorite trees I’ve met in my travels to Peru, Honduras, Mexico, Borneo, Sicily and the Pacific Northwest!...
Below you’ll find some favorite quotes that inspire me when out in the field sketching in my journal. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A PAGE OF NATURE QUOTES FOR YOUR JOURNAL “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may...
The video below introduces a movie by the folks at Frog Rescue and Jonathan Kolby, a National Geographic Emerging Explorer who is studying threatened frogs in remote regions of the world. Learn more about his Honduran Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Center. ...
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. Their strong bill helps them to...
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...
An inventory of my 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...
The Darlingtonia Midge & Its Murderous Accomplice Who would believe that an insect and an insect-eating plant could have a mutually beneficial relationship? Surprisingly, that’s exactly the case in the unlikely union between the mosquito-like midge and the...
