July 2015 ~ We are having a lovely visit in the mountains of central Japan this week. We came to Japan to scuba dive and were fortunate enough to have time for a side trip to the Joshinetsu Highland National Park, located about a half-hour drive from the Kosatsu Onsen (mineral springs) where we are staying….
Beyond the Back Yard
Blossoms & Bugs – DC Edition
We’re just back from a speaking engagement at the National Zoo in Washington so I thought I’d share some of the bugs and flowers I saw in the lovely yard of our hosts, who live just outside DC. They had several small ponds, one of which had a beautiful lotus blossom. The yard was full…
Roatan Agouti
June 2015 – Roatan, Honduras – We just returned from Roatan, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, where I fell in love with these little agouti, which I believe are the endemic Roatán Island agouti, Dasyprocta ruatanica. They were about ten to twelve inches long. The folks at the resort called them rabbits and…
Road Trip: New Mexico
This week’s Photo Friday Challenge is “Road Trip” which is timely since we just made a road trip to New Mexico to visit family. We always look forward to the 40-foot-long giant roadrunner sculpture made of recycled refuse, that is perched on a hill overlooking I-10. We took the boys to Rockhound State Park for…
Spring – Almost Gone!
What happened to spring? It seems the robins were just passing through and the wild azalea tree was blooming. Now it’s hot, most of the visiting birds around the lakes at the St Augustine Road Fish Management Area are gone, and by afternoon we’re having to close up the house and turn the air con…
Burrowing Owls!
March, 2015 ~ No, these little burrowing owls aren’t from Jacksonville, but it should be obvious from the grass, that I’m not not out in the wilds, stalking elusive beasties. These were in a park – a very suburban, landfill-turned-city-park – in South Florida. A couple of weeks ago, when our friends Ken and Tammy…
Photo Friday – Leaves
Here is my entry to the latest Photo Friday challenge: Leaves. A few years ago, we visited Papua New Guinea to scuba dive. Between dives, our guides showed us these amazing insects that have evolved to mimic leaves.