Amateur naturalism, part three


Our next topic in the series is reptiles – you can also refer back to the posts about insects and birds if you like.

Reptiles (and amphibians, which I’ll also refer to here but will use the same term for each just for convenience) are perhaps the most misunderstood of animal classes, which is unfortunate because they’re actually pretty cool. They become more prevalent with warmer read more

Do you like exploring?


Google Earth is a fun program, allowing the user to examine just about anyplace on earth (and elsewhere) from the vantage of aerial and satellite photos I spend no small amount of time checking out areas of interest, finding places I’ve been and little curiosities.

Along those lines, I finally finished a project I’ve been planning for a while, which is to upload some Google Earth placemarks read more

Sylvan Heights continued

And so, our saga resumes where it left off, with our heroes trapped within the confines of a completely non-treacherous and non-threatening bird park…

As I mentioned before, Sylvan Heights Bird Park provides great opportunities for close encounters, and to the photographer, the urge to do personal portraits of the birds is practically irresistible. read more

Too cool, part 11: Sylvan Heights Bird Park


As I indicated in the previous post, we had a trip planned that might produce some new images, and while I’d like to build the suspense to the point of frustration, I find this a hard thing to do, especially when I lead the post off with a header photo. So yes, we did get some useful stuff, and this will be another multiple post.

Nature photographers, as well as amateur naturalists and simply read more

That’s not right

I’ve had this image kicking around for a few years now, so I figured I’d feature it as a bump while I’m away, hopefully getting some new images.

In nearby Duke Forest, there’s a tree that developed in a rather curious way, one that (as a complete non-botanist or -arborist or -treeist,) I cannot attempt to explain. Perhaps someone has been dumping cthulhu into the creek. Anyway, read more

‘Tis autumn, methinks


I’ve got, believe it or not, three book reviews (well, two and a half) coming up, that I want to space out, but at the moment I have nothing else handy to post. So we’ll go with some recent pics and soft music in the interim. You’ll have to provide the music.

At left, a visitor just across the road late one night, who knew I was there but wasn’t too concerned – it’s read more

Amateur naturalism, part two


This follows on from the series I began here – the topic of this installment is birds. There are some basic observational guidelines contained in that first post, so I’d recommend skimming that one too, even if bugs aren’t your thing (sounds strange, I know, but the possibility exists.)

Now, bird-watching is a common activity, and it’s easy to find plenty of sources that tell read more

Amateur naturalism, part one


In an earlier post, I mentioned encouraging kids to keep a journal about their insect observations, and at that point (the first draft of this is being typed immediately after I published that post) decided to create a series dedicated to this subject. So, welcome to the first of read more

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