On a gray morning in early September, with no cruise ships in town(!), I wandered up Basin Road and the first part of the Perseverance… Continue reading
I haven’t seen much bird activity along my mid-August trails recently, but here at home there is always something going on. The suet block, seed… Continue reading
This essay was launched by reading an almost unintelligible (to me) scientific paper about chiton eyes. Nevertheless, that paper led to others, and here I… Continue reading
LACK RAPIDS OF THE DELTA RIVER — If we climb high enough above this tumble of gray water, we can see a wedge of blue-white… Continue reading
Mid-August and the berry crops of wild currants are ripe. The stink currant (reportedly so-called for the smell of crushed leaves) sometimes bears large crops… Continue reading
I hadn’t been over there for several years, and it was time to refresh some old memories of forest walks and boat or kayak trips… Continue reading
Now as quiet as wind whispering through grass, a plateau rising from the flats of northern Alaska was for thousands of years a lookout for… Continue reading
Light rain fell as I left the Valley but, as usual, it fell more heavily as I neared the downtown area. Fog lay thick over… Continue reading
My wife and I had just moved into the Forest Service cabin and perpetual motion sent me to the lake where there were fish to… Continue reading
There are more than 20,000 species of ants, including such noticables as picnic ants, sidewalk ants, carpenter ants, and so on. Less noted by most… Continue reading
NOGAHABARA DUNES — From a molded seat of sand dug into the western rim of a 5-mile oval of desert, I’m looking out over a… Continue reading
A school of a few dozen fish moved slowly through the teal water in front of the skiff. They maintained their trajectory and tolerated my… Continue reading
Cow parsnip is known in our field guides as Heracleum lanatum, although it sometimes has other names. The flowers are typically displayed in big, flattish… Continue reading
I recently learned about a mysterious, relatively rare affliction of plants called “fasciation.” A fireweed plant at the Point Bridget trailhead had not developed the… Continue reading
To my left is a man with a thick British accent who piled a few forkfuls of eggs benedict onto the sourdough and ate it… Continue reading
From space, the Nogahabara Dunes are a splotch of blond sand about six miles in diameter surrounded by green boreal forest. Located west of the… Continue reading
The spring and summer flower show at Cowee Meadows (way out on the Point Bridget Trail) is always a treat, and the broad uplift meadows… Continue reading
Recent long-term studies revealed a three-quarters reduction of insects in parts of Germany and an 80 percent decline of pollinating flies at a field site… Continue reading
Most birds build some sort of nest where the eggs are incubated. In many species, the female does that job, and in many others both… Continue reading
Our floatplane cleared the notch in the snowy ridge then turned slightly north as the mountain dropped below us. The pilot gave Mark, Matt and… Continue reading
