field notes

You know how when you're a kid you want to climb everything? Tables, curtains, trees, chicken coops, cars -- you name it. Well, that inclination never really left me, and in August 2012 I was able to satiate those childhood urges under the guise of "work!" Leaving the Florida summer behind, I packed all my … Continue reading Into the Trees

Click map above for enlarged image I spent the first half of 2012 wandering Florida's Lake Wales Ridge, an elevated, sandy spine that runs for 115 miles through the center of the state. A million years ago when peninsular Florida was largely underwater, higher elevations on the Ridge resulted in a series of islands which, … Continue reading Life in the Scrub

Here is the (largely pictorial) summation of my last wanderings in the desert; please forgive my extreme procrastination.   Mexican Campion, Silene laciniata.  You can see a closely related N.C. species (Silene virginica) in my July 2011 post about the Southern Appalachians. Forefront: Century Plant, Agave havardiana In mid-October Ben, Alex and I headed up … Continue reading Last Days in the Desert

Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucantham) The Silver Creek area of Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge So, what makes a desert? Lack of water, right? But why exactly do deserts lack water? There are a few possible explanations. Firstly, the simple fact of being far from the ocean, which is where most of the world’s atmospheric moisture originates, … Continue reading Rattlesnakes and Jewel Bugs