So I still don't feel like going to the mountains is like going home, but I have been spending a lot more time there recently and seem to be collecting more than my usual share of scrapes, bruises, burns, lacerations, hypothermia, and idiotic accidents. At home, I have to worry about broken glass, power tools, kitchen knives, carbon monoxide, fires ( Read more... )

Squirrels burying acorns ( Read more... )

The world is very large and very strange. Sometimes I stare in awe at the patterns forming themselves on my retinas and am astounded that they all come from the same planet. Being raised in Maryland, my optical cortex was fed on rolling hills, deciduous forests, sand beaches, and suburbia. And yet, you can go down into a cave not two hours from ( Read more... )

There is not much to occupy my eyes while driving through Kansas and Eastern Colorado. Corn field gives way to corn field which yeilds to sod farm or, if you are really lucky, a cow pasture. Howeer, during one long stretch of highway 40, the "Sunflower State" lived up to its nickname, giving me fields of sunflowers. Vast seas of nodding blossoms ( Read more... )

So, I am about to embark on a journey out of suburbia, across the Mississippi, rocketing across the Great Plains, meandering through the Rocky Mountains, discovering ancient kivas in the mesas of Colorado, driving through the deserts of Utah, plunging into the basin and range or Nevada, and tracing the footsteps of the Donner Party through the ( Read more... )

A lot of people say a lot of things about the beauty of birdsong, with me usually first among them. The Montezuma's oripendulas which served as our alarm clock in Belize were surreal, the meadowlarks of the plains of Idaho were worthy or orchestration, the robins and morning doves of suburban Maryland make me think of home, and even the francolins ( Read more... )

( List of things I saw in Africa )

It felt familiar, somehow. The flatness of the Kalahari scrubland with its dry winds so like southern Idaho (except with acacia instead of sage and kudu instead of pronghorns). The rocky hills near Gaborone so strangely similar to the foothills of eastern Oregon (except you have to watch out for rhinos instead of bears when going for a hike). A ( Read more... )

I leave Florida tomorrow! There is a lot of good nature in Florida, but it is best enjoyed sometime other than the summer. I saw a lot of birds. For those interested, they are listed below, with an asterisk indicating birds that I saw eggs and or chicks of:

( my birdie list )

I like a nice rainy day in most situations (so long as there aren't too many of them consecutively), but they reasons why depend on the situation. In the winter, I like a rainy day because I can sit inside and drink hot cocoa and watch the raindrops run down the windows until they spill into the gutter and join the ephemeral rivers running toward ( Read more... )