Notes from the Field
Western Fairy-Slipper Orchid
Last week was my first official orchid-hunting expedition of the year, and I followed the suggestion of a fellow orchid-hunter to check out a new area (for me) - Fidalgo Island near Anacortes, Washington. In most places that aren't very remote, it can take a bit of...
Chocolate Lily!
One of my very favorite groups of wildflowers to find in the wild belong to the lily family: Liliaceae. These include tiger lillies, camas, trilliums, and mariposas. A few days ago while hunting wild orchids on Fidalgo Island near Anacortes, Washington I found my very...
A Botanical Walk in the Woods Around Deep Lake
Spring has arrived here in the Pacific Northwest (finally!) and last week I took a detour on my way home from a hike in the Cascade Mountains scouting for wildlife opportunities in a very remote part of Pierce County, Washington to one of my favorite places somewhat...
Three Species of Florida Native Turtles!
The sign of any healthy body of water is the presence of turtles. Of the 327 species alive today, 60+ of those are found living in the wild in the United States. The fossil record shows that turtles are at least 157 million years old in what we would recognize today...
The Sparrow and the Hummingbird
Yesterday I was in Bellevue, Washington working as a Master Naturalist in an area where I work frequently pulling out invasive bindweed and blackberry plants to make room for native species, and I brought my camera along with me. Unusually sunny and bright for such a...
That *$*#@(#*&@ Red-breasted Nuthatch!!!
For the past couple of years there has been a red-breasted nuthatch that lives near my house that is almost always visible until the moment I have a camera in hand, and it's been driving me crazy. It was funny at first, but after months stretching into years, it has...
Florida’s Wild Native Orchids – Cymbidieae
One of my very favorite types of wild native orchids I've found in the wild are those belonging to the tribe Cymbidieae, all of which are found in the tropics or subtropics. Not only are the flowers spectacularly colorful and often large, each plant often has many...
Snoqualmie Pass Winter Hike
Today's set of images are what I hope to be a very enjoyable and relaxing series of eight images from a recent hike high up in Washington's Snoqualmie Pass. I was following a beautiful snow-covered mountain stream called Humpback Creek on the Annette Lake Trail....
The Bigger Picture – Panoramic Landscapes
While definitely not a new technology, panoramic photography has been with us since the mid-nineteenth century. What is new however, is the ability to digitally stitch multiple images together to create a much larger, super-wide image that exceeds the abilities of a...
Most Beautiful of all American Butterflies: Gossamer-wings! (25 Photos)
The gossamer-winged butterflies - sometimes called gossamer-wings - are in the family known as Lycaenidae, are a large group of butterflies found all over the world (over 5000 species), and they also happen to be some of the smallest of butterflies. Most of them share...
Pacific Banana Slug
If you've ever hiked or visited the Pacific Northwest, you've undoubtedly come across this majestic mollusk - the Pacific banana slug. While most people take a look and say, "cool!" and continue hiking, these slugs are actually very interesting and worth learning...
The Chisos Mountains of Old West Texas
The Chisos Mountains are old. REALLY old for the Southern United States. These mountains were pushed up to elevations of more than 5,000 feet above sea level by a great deformation during the Cenozoic era (66 million years ago to present). Other geological uplifts...