It's the time of year when dead, dried remnants of winter are sharing space with new life.  It seems like the trees have started budding just in the last 24 hours - fruit trees are starting to flower, and the oaks have reddish buds on the tips of their branches.  I even found these daffodils…Read more Old and New

Spring is approaching, but as the temps warm and we get outside, we're seeing a lot of what's left over from the winter cold.  This eastern box turtle didn't make it, and we'll never know whether it was the cold, a fox, or something else that got him.  But death is a part of life,…Read more Circle of Life

Something about this just appealed to me - taken last weekend, it's a dried flower from a Tulip Poplar (or Yellow Poplar) tree that finally got blown down out of the top of the poplar, only to get stuck on a shrub about 3 feet off the ground.  The poplars will soon be leafing out…Read more Last Year’s Relic

Found this guy on a ramble through the woods near the house on Sunday.  Like us, this Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus) was out enjoying the 65 degree day, and probably looking for a meal.  Spring is coming...

One of the boys enjoying meeting some mallards, at 5 years old.  He's prudent though.  Wasn't going to take that glove off!

Blooming Ironwood trees light up the desert in White Rock Canyon, near Las Vegas, NV. Photo Credit - Lynn Abbott

Spring is coming - birds are courting and looking for potential nest sites, acorns are taking root, and the cattails are releasing seed into the wind. Cattails are one of the most versatile wild plants out there.  Different parts (shoots, roots, flower head, pollen) are edible year-round; the leaves make great basket material, thatch and…Read more Versatility

Tropical style - with a wild red ginger from the Caribbean. Photo Credit - Lynn Abbott

I'm really not trying to overdo it with birds, but we had had some good encounters and photo ops this weekend.  There were red-headed woodpeckers all over the place in the creek valleys of this park.  The adults were flitting around a lot and it was hard to get a good shot, but this juvenile…Read more Young Red-Head

When I was growing up near the mountains, I rarely saw herons, but always thought they were the coolest birds - so big, so patient, standing and waiting for a fish to get too close.  Now that I live near the Chesapeake, I see them almost every day, but I still think they're really neat…Read more Great Blue Heron

No, it's just 40 degrees warmer than it ought to be this time of year.  No worries, it's supposed to snow tomorrow.

It's not a cold winter everywhere.  In their northern ranges, American Alligators like this slow their metabolisms with the temperature and become very inactive, but some still prowl.  We saw this 8-footer in a pond on a South Carolina golf course. Photo credit - Lynn Abbott

Not even, really.  It's Groundhog Day!  In celebration I tried to find a good picture in my archives... of a groundhog, of course!  But the closest I could find was this cute little chipmunk, on top of a mountain in Nevada.  Happy Chipmunk Day everybody! (BTW, Phil saw his shadow - 6 more weeks of…Read more Ground-Squirrel Day?

Admittedly this is a bit random - I was trying to flip a coin on what the outcome of the Groundhog's discovery would be tomorrow, but ultimately just found a nice picture!  These are the remnants of weathered sandstone in Garden of the Gods, near Colorado Springs, CO.

Believe it or not, we're just about halfway through winter.  Soon it will be time to venture out on the Chesapeake again.  Calvert Cliffs State Park, MD. Photo Credit - Lynn Abbott