Wild Watch
Brace yourself — I did say 'cute'!
Apr 18, 2010 When did you last go out into the woods at night? In this age of media-induced fears, and with far more than half the world’s population now being urban- dwellers, fewer of us brave the outdoors even during daylight hours, let alone at night. ...
Savoring the beauty of winter's final fling
Mar 21, 2010 An indefinable quality in the light somehow signals the air temperature. Airflows from the north and northwest have, for many days this late February just gone, kept Hokkaido frigid. An intangible crispness in the atmosphere combines with the luminosity to forewarn of seriously subzero temperatures. Multilayered clothing is a must, but the static e...
Singing the praises of sparrows
Feb 21, 2010 In a rush of small wings, a fluttering, chirruping, congregation of familiar birds — Eurasian tree sparrows — descended on the bush in front of me. They chattered noisily among themselves, each shifting its position almost constantly as if unsure whether it had the right to be on any given perch. ...
'Tigers' and naturalists of many stripes
Jan 17, 2010 One person's species sighting may be no such thing in the eye of another beholder....
Tuning in to Alaskan bears
Dec 20, 2009 Katmai National Park's awesome Brown bears were wondrous to behold on a trip there this year....
Notable memories and ones forgotten
Nov 15, 2009 On my most recent journey overseas, to southern Brazil, a fellow traveler gave me a large Moleskine-brand notebook. Though grateful for the present, at first I was uncertain what to do with it. I generally use a particular-size pocket notebook to write up all my field observations, and this new acquisition clearly wasn’t going to fit into my pock...
Wildlife on your doorstep
Oct 18, 2009 Get out with your camera and your best shots could be shown here....
U.K. birders' fair shows we can all help save even LBJs
Sep 20, 2009 “Life works by making lots and lots of different kinds of living things, and every one we lose impoverishes us and the world. Every single species, obscure or common, funny or dull, gorgeous or LBJ [the bird-watchers' abbreviation for "Little Brown Job"], is a strand in the web of life: every time we break a strand, we bring the web closer to bus...
U.K. birders' fair shows we can all help save even LBJs
Sep 20, 2009 “Life works by making lots and lots of different kinds of living things, and every one we lose impoverishes us and the world. Every single species, obscure or common, funny or dull, gorgeous or LBJ [the bird-watchers' abbreviation for "Little Brown Job"], is a strand in the web of life: every time we break a strand, we bring the web closer to bus...
Back where they belong
Aug 16, 2009 Japan's magnificent and iconic crested ibis is staging a comeback from the brink of extinction thanks to dedicated international efforts....