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ePostcard #168: There She Blows!
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict. A mother gray whale and her calf rest and breathe at the surface in Laguna San Ignacio.THERE SHE BLOWS! “All my means are sane, my motive and my object mad.” ― A reckoning quote from Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s...
ePostcard #167: A Naturalist’s Bookshelf (Eye of the Whale)
A NATURALIST’S BOOKSHELFI subscribe to the stewardship vision best expressed by the great Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum—we are moved to conserve what we understand and love. Every so often, in researching topics for our ePostcard series, I discover or am...
ePostcard #166: Ocean Sleepers
Photo Credits: All photographs are courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict unless otherwise credited.OCEAN SLEEPERS Trying to understand—fathoming—the lives of cetaceans (whales, dophins and porpoises) deepens our connection with the natural world. Their remarkable...
ePostcard #165: Eavesdropping on the Brain: Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises
Photo Credits: All photos, except where noted and credited, are courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict. Sleeping gray whale in Laguna San Ignacio, Baja del Sur, Mexico.SLEEP PATTERNS IN WHALES, DOLPHINS AND PORPOISES The Cetacea—whales, dolphins and porpoises—are...
ePostcard #164: Eavesdropping on Blue Whales
Photo Credit: Courtesy of photographer Mike Johnson and the Australian Antarctic Program.EAVESDROPPING ON BLUE WHALESBlue whales are the largest animals ever to live on our planet. Adult blues may reach 110 feet in length and weigh up to 330,000 pounds. They feed...
ePostcard#163: Eavesdropping on the Brain: Marine Mammals
Photo Credits: All photographs in this ePostcard series unless otherwise credited are courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict. Female Cape fur seals (above) napping together. (Namibia, 2012)EAVESDROPPING ON THE BRAIN: MARINE MAMMALS All mammals and birds sleep, benefiting...
ePostcard #162 Sleep Matters!
Photo Credit: Dr. Dan Jensen, Sound Sleep Medical (Sound-Sleep-Medical-The-Evolution-of-Sleep)THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEPEven a soul submerged in sleep is hard at workAnd helps make something of the world. HERACLITUSWe are all guilty of sacrificing a few hours of sleep to...
ePostcard #161: Earth-Sun Orbit and Circadian Rhythms
Photo Credits: All photographs in this ePostcard are courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict. Illustrations and diagrams are credited where included.Having spent several weeks in the Southern Hemisphere at the end of 2022, and specifically exploring New Zealand and...
ePostcard #160: Earth’s Journey Around the Sun
Photo Illustration Credit: Courtesy of NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring. This extraordinary image of the Earth—the 'Blue Marble’ that is our home planet—was captured in 2012. Scanning down the left side of the photo you see the west coast of the United...
ePostcard #159: Beringia Revealed
Artist Credit: Courtesy of the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre and paleoartist George Teichmann (Yukon and Czechoslovakia iceagebeasts.com). Born in Czechoslovakia and trained at the People's School of Art in Bohemia, George Teichmann began drawing ice age beasts...
ePostcard #158: Voices Across the Tundra
Photo Credits: All color photographs in this ePostcard are by Audrey DeLella Benedict (unless otherwise noted) and are from a 2009 Cloud Ridge Naturalists trip to the Russian Arctic and Wrangel Island with Heritage Expeditions. The archival black and white photographs...
ePostcard #157: A Naturalist’s Bookshelf
Archival Photo Credit: Self-Portrait of Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952). Created: circa 1889 date QS:P571,+1889-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 to 1899 (Public Domain (File:ECurtis.jpg). Published in The American Magazine, December 1910; The Seattle Star. November 2,...
ePostcard #156: Raven-Walking
Photo Credits: Haida artist Bill Reid’s cedar sculpture, The Raven and the First Men, shows Raven releasing humans from a cockle shell. The image is courtesy of photographer Kimon Berlin (CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via...
ePostcard #155: A Voyage to Haida Gwaii
Note of Acknowledgment: Cloud Ridge’s May 2022 voyage to Haida Gwaii—the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Haida people—enriched our understanding of the uniqueness of Haida Gwaii and the Haida culture. Visitors to the archipelago are asked to sign...
ePostcard #154: A Naturalist’s Bookshelf
Illustration Credit: Courtesy of the Human Origins Program, and adapted from the United States Geological Survey and Visible Earth, NASA. This wonderful ammonite-like representation shows the geological time scale, with the Anthropocene Epoch (starting time before...
ePostcard #153: Extinction Matters
Illustration Credit: Woolly Mammoth painting courtesy of artist Mauricio Anton and Ecology Letters. DOI: 10.1111/ele.13911. UNDERSTANDING EXTINCTIONAsk any child to name an extinct animal, and most will tell you the name of their favorite dinosaur. But if you ask them...
ePostcard #152: Humans and Megafauna
Photo Credit: Courtesy of José Iriarte.ROCK ART EVIDENCEDateline: December 3, 2020. A major discovery at the archeological site of Cerro Azul in the Serranía La Lindosa, Colombia, provides proof that the Amazon rainforest’s earliest inhabitants lived alongside...
ePostcard #151: The Armadillo Bestiary
Photo Credit (above): Courtesy of Fernando Trujillo for IUCN. The Giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) is one of the largest species of armadillos, and ranges in length from 2 to 3 feet. It is easily recognizable due to its powerful, enlarged central claw and the...
ePostcard #150: Darwin’s Megafauna
'It is impossible to reflect without the deepest astonishment, on the changed state of this continent. Formerly it must have swarmed with great monsters, like the southern parts of Africa, but now we find only the tapir, guanaco, armadillo, and capybara; mere pigmies...
ePostcard #149: A Naturalist’s Bookshelf
Photo Credits: All photos courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict and they were taken on Cloud Ridge Naturalists trips. These are Red-Legged Cormorants at their nest on a cliff near Puerto San Julian in Argentine Patagonia. When the geology is as vibrantly colored as the...
ePostcard #148: Darwin’s Sloth
When I view all beings not as special creations, but as the lineal descendants of some few beings which lived long before the first bed of the Cambrian system was deposited, they seem to me to become ennobled. CHARLES DARWIN, On the Origin of the SpeciesPhoto Credits:...
ePostcard #147: Darwin’s Megafauna Bestiary (Part 1)
Image Credit: Courtesy of Sci-News (http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/megatherium-fossil-argentina-09315.html) This life reconstruction of Megatherium by Sebastián Rozadilla honors the latest discovery in Argentina of what is thought to be one of the oldest-known...
ePostcard #146: Reading the Rocks: Cañadon de los Fosiles (Fossil Canyon)
Rock carries its own epithets,Its own refrains. — John McPheePhoto Credits: This 2009 photograph is courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory archives. You are looking down from space on the Upsala Glacier and its three glacier tributaries (Bertacchi, Cono and Murallón)....
ePostcard#145: Darwin, Geologist!
It is an old story, but not the less wonderful, to hear of shells, which formerly were crawling about at the bottom of the sea, being now elevated nearly fourteen hundred feet above its level. — Charles DarwinPhoto Credits: All courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict....
ePostcard #144: A Naturalist’s Bookshelf
A NATURALIST’S BOOKSHELFI subscribe to the stewardship vision best expressed by the great Senegalese environmentalist Baba Dioum—we are moved to conserve what we understand and love. Every so often, in researching the topics for our ePostcard series, I discover a book...
ePostcard #143: Fire and Ice: Volcán Osorno
Photo credits: All Volcán Osorno photos are courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict. This 8,724 foot high (2659 m) stratovolcano and its lava-bench waterfall are located in the stunningly beautiful "volcano country” of the Chilean Lake District.FIRE AND ICEWhen viewed...
ePostcard #142: Patagonian Glaciation
Photo Credits: All photos courtesy of Audrey Delella BenedictPATAGONIAN GLACIATIONThe extraordinary ice-sculpted scenery that captures the heart and imagination of everyone who visits Patagonia is the legacy of millions of years of glaciation and erosion. The...
ePostcard #141: In Darwin’s Footsteps–Icefield Snapshots from Space
Photo Credits (above and below): Courtesy of Audrey DeLella Benedict. There are only a few places on Earth where you can imagine the ground shifting beneath your feet, where the dynamic natural forces shaping our planet are never at rest. Patagonia is one of those...
ePostcard #140: In Darwin’s Footsteps–A Naturalist’s Journey to Patagonia
Photo Credits: All photos courtesy of Audrey DeLella BenedictIN DARWIN'S FOOTSTEPSFor the naturalist, the dramatic coastlines, windswept steppes and spectacular cordilleras of Patagonia need little introduction. From Ferdinand Magellan to Charles Darwin and beyond,...
ePostcard #139: A Naturalist’s Bookshelf
Photo Credit: Courtesy of photographer Guido Mocafico and the Natural History Museum of Ireland. This Blaschka masterpiece in glass is of a type of sea slug called the spotted sacoglossan (Caliphylla mediterranea),A NATURALIST’S BOOKSHELFI subscribe to the stewardship...
ePostcard #138: Windows on the World
"Among the many thousands of things I have never been able to understand, onein particular stands out. That is the question of who was the first person who stood by a pile of sand and said ‘You know, I bet if we took some of this and mixed it with a little potash and...
ePostcard #137: Life in Glass Houses (Part 3)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Hans Hillewaert and Wikimedia Commons. This amazing photograph of a tube-building marine worm (Lagis koreni) from the Oostendebank (Belgium) in the southern North Sea. The photo shows the sand grain-built tube and 24 mm-long trumpet worm that...
ePostcard #136: Life in Glass Houses (Part 2)
Scientific Illustration Credit: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain. Ernst Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1904), plate 71: Drawings by artist and zoologist Ernst Haeckel of the silica exoskeletons of Stephoidea (radiolarians). The individual radiolarian...
ePostcard #135: Life in Glass Houses (Part 1)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program, Gulf of Mexico 2012 Expedition (Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic License). Golden crab (Chaceon fenneri) and a colony of Venus flower basket glass sponges (Euplectella...
ePostcard #134: Glass in Nature (Part 9)
LIGHTNING STRIKES & FULGURITES “Fulgur” is the Latin word for lightning. Cicero, a philosopher of the Roman Empire era, used the expression “condere fulmina,” meaning “to dig up thunderbolts” —indicating early Romans had knowledge of fulgurite formation in sandy areas...
ePostcard #133: Glass in Nature (Part 8)
Photo Credit: Popigai diamonds courtesy of The Siberian Times (siberiantimes.com).DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGHThroughout its history, Earth has been repeatedly hit by large meteorites. Of the more than 60,000 meteorites that have been discovered on Earth, most come from the...
ePostcard #132: Glass in Nature (Part 7)
Illustration Credit: Courtesy of the Deccan Herald and Detlev van Ravenswaay/science source. https://www.deccanherald.com/content/549533/learning-impact-changed-life-earth.html This illustration is an artist’s rendering of the 100-mile-wide asteroid strike...
ePostcard #131: Glass in Nature (Part 6)
Photo Credits: Artist’s conception of meteorite courtesy of researchers from Tohoku University, Hokkaido University, JAMSTEC, and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. A research team from Japan and the USA investigated carbon-rich meteorites and found ribose and other...
ePostcard #130: Glass in Nature (Part 5)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of NASA's Antarctic Search for Meteorites program and Daniel Glavin. NASA Goddard astrobiologist Daniel Glavin poses in 2002 next to a meteorite he had just found during an expedition in Antarctica.ANTARCTICA’S ASUKA (A)-12236 METEORITEDuring a...
ePostcard #129: Glass in Nature (Part 4)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Kelly Carroll and White Sands National Park (NPS).This stunning photo of the Milky Way over the dunes of White Sands National Park was part of an invitation to join park rangers in August 2021 to observe this year’s spectacular Perseid...
ePostcard #128: Glass in Nature (Part 3)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Icelandic Meteorological Office (via phys.org). Dateline: Reykyavik, Iceland March 20, 2021.This dramatic image captures volcanic glass in the making in Iceland! A long-dormant volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland...
ePostcard #127: Glass in Nature (Part 2)
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Brandon Markin, James Zigras and Avant Mining (Blue Springs, Arkansas). The "Bouquet" quartz cluster photographed here is displayed at Avant Mining, which has become the largest quartz crystal mining company in the world, with over 11,400...
ePostcard #126: Glass in Nature (Part 1)
Photo Credit: NASA/SOFIA/Lynette Cook. Artist’s impression of the collision of two protoplanets.BORN OF EARTH & FIREGlass is born of earth and fire, and our modern world would be unrecognizable without this remarkable material in our lives. Most people think of...
ePostcard #125: Sea Glass Lessons
Photo Credit: Sea glass photograph courtesy of the North American Sea Glass Association (NASGA) and Jane Claire McHenry (sea glass from Islamorada in the Florida Keys).When I was growing up, collecting sea glass was a favorite beach pastime in New England, the...
ePostcard #124: The Plastic Tsunami
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Florida Sea Grant. THE PLASTIC TSUNAMI Sea turtles have spent the past 100 million years roaming seas free of plastics. Today, the global impacts of plastic pollution on marine biodiversity are among the greatest environmental challenges of...
ePostcard #123: On Thin Ice!
ON THIN ICE! When I need to recover my bearings as a science writer, I often circle back to my fascination with polar regions. Sea ice has been very much on my mind lately, and especially the prospect of an ice-free Arctic in the not so distant future. The extent and...
ePostcard #122: Fisheries Bycatch
Photo Credit: Courtesy of NOAA. A juvenile loggerhead sea turtle escapes a trawler net that has been quipped with a Turtle Excluder Device (TED). These sea turtle "escape hatches” were originally developed to benefit both the commercial shrimp fishery and the marine...
ePostcard #121: Cold Stunning
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald (MIGUEL ROBERTS AP) Thousands of Atlantic green sea turtles and Kemp's ridley sea turtles suffering from cold stun are laid out to recover Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021 at the South Padre Island Convention...
ePostcard #120: A Flipper of Hope
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Tim Briggs, Northeastern University (Marine Biology), and the online journal Massive Science. (Green sea turtle, San Diego Bay) If there is danger in the human trajectory, it is not so muchIn the survival of our own species as in the...
ePostcard #119: Sea Turtle Magnetism (Part 5)
#1. Photo Credit: Satellite-tagged loggerhead photo courtesy of Argos System (argos-system.org). Loggerhead sea turtles begin their lives by migrating alone across the Atlantic Ocean and back. Eventually, after more than two decades, the females return to nest on the...
ePostcard #118: Nightwatch: Hatchlings Away (Part 4)
Cover Photo (above) Credit and Caption: Having finally reached the wet, surf-hardened sand, this hatchling is in fast-forward mode on its final sprint to the sea. (Photo courtesy of Courtesy of Boca de Tomates Turtle Camp and Red Tortuguera A.C.)ePostcard #118:...
ePostcard #117: Nightwatch: From Sand to Sea (Part 3)
Cover Photo (above) Credit and Caption: Courtesy of Florida Fish & Wildlife. A “boil" of green sea turtle hatchlings emerges en masse from their deep nest hole in the sand. At hatching time, usually as the sun sets and the warm sand begins to cool, turtle...
ePostcard #116: Nightwatch: Sea Turtles Are Ecosystem Sentinels (Part 2)
ePostcard #116: Nightwatch: Sea Turtles Are Ecosystem Sentinels (Part 2) Sea turtles are ecosystem sentinels—critical threads in the complex tapestry of global biodiversity. For sea turtle recovery efforts to succeed globally, we must ensure that the far-flung...
ePostcard #115: Nightwatch–Sea Turtles at Risk (Part 1)
ePostcard #115: Nightwatch--Sea Turtles at Risk (Part 1) Nearly all sea turtle biologists, sooner or later, become turtle conservationists …Peter Pritchard, “The Conservation of Sea Turtles,” 1980 The future of some of the Earth’s most incredible, resilient...
ePostcard #114: Nightwatch
ePostcard #114: Nightwatch “Managing darkness has to be an integral part of future conservation planning and illumination concepts.” Dark Sky Association The natural world is a busy place at night! As our human viewshed darkens, the mysterious sounds and...
ePostcard #113: The Black Marble
ePostcard #113: The Black Marble To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings. Wendell Berry Experiencing the magic of a...
ePostcard #112: Builders and Renters (Tierra del Fuego & Patagonia)
ePostcard #112: Builders and Renters (Tierra del Fuego & Patagonia) In the mountains where I live in Colorado, one of my favorite springtime traditions was visiting an elegant ponderosa pine snag on the ridge above my home, where generations of woodpeckers and...
ePostcard #111: Aspen Leaf Dance
ePostcard #111: Leaf Dance Introduction: Before returning to our exploration of Tierra del Fuego, I want to step back to September and celebrate my home landscape in Colorado and the golden autumn that preceded our immersion in smoke and loss. These aspen photos are...
ePostcard #110: A Burning Testament (Terry Tempest Williams)
ePostcard #110: A Burning Testament (Terry Tempest Williams) Photo Credit: This photo of the “tail" of the Troublesome Fire was taken yesterday evening by an unidentified woman on a domestic airline flight from Denver across the mountains. You can’t see the “head" of...
ePostcard #109: Secrets of the Nest (Magellanic Woodpeckers)
ePostcard #109: Secrets of the Nest (Magellanic Woodpeckers) My first trip to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego was in the austral spring of 1999. It was not a Cloud Ridge trip, but I certainly had one in mind for the future. Our guide was the inimitable Carol...
ePostcard #108: Do Woodpeckers Get Hammer Headaches?
ePostcard #108: Do Woodpeckers Get Hammer Headaches? Woodpeckers are unique among birds, and indeed in the whole animal kingdom, in producing rhythmic instrumental sounds by drumming their bill on a resonating "sounding board," such as a patch of bare wood, a...
ePostcard #107: Leave it to Beaver (Tierra del Fuego)
ePostcard #107: Leave it to Beaver (Tierra del Fuego) When you think about it, and despite our wildly divergent evolutionary lineages. beavers are among our closest ecological and technological kin. While all organisms have evolved to fill naturally-provided niches,...
ePostcard #106: Skua Drama (Estancia Harberton, Tierra del Fuego)
ePostcard #106: Skua Drama (Estancia Harberton, Tierra del Fuego) Estancia Harberton is rich in history, but most visitors today come to see its penguins. Isla Martillo, one of several small islands belonging to the estancia, was originally used for grazing sheep, but...
ePostcard #105: Lichen Forests (Tierra del Fuego)
ePostcard #105: Lichen Forests (Tierra del Fuego) Exploring the beautiful lichen gardens that grace the trees and forest floor of the Magellanic rainforest in Tierra del Fuego opens a window on an amazing world. If you were able to count all of the different kinds of...
ePostcard #104: Witches’ Brooms & Rust Cups (Tierra del Fuego)
ePostcard #104: Witches' Brooms & Rust Cups (Tierra del Fuego) Rust fungi get their name because they are most commonly observed as deposits of powdery rust-colored, yellowish or blackish spores on plant surfaces. Rust fungi are obligate plant pathogens that only...
ePostcard #103: Under the Mistletoe (Tierra del Fuego)
ePostcard #103: Under the Mistletoe (Tierra del Fuego) The traditional yuletide mistletoes that most of us are familiar with are the native European species, Viscum album, and the native North American species, Phoradendron leucarpum. References to mistletoe date back...
ePostcard #102: In Darwin’s Footsteps: Pan del Indio
ePostcard #102: In Darwin's Footsteps: Pan del Indio Darwin's famous fungus, ‘Pan del Indio’ (Indian Bread) in Spanish, belongs to a highly evolved group of parasitic fungi that grow exclusively on species of southern beech (Nothofagus spp.). As my photographs...
ePostcard #101: Exploring Magellanic Temperate Rainforests
ePostcard #101: Exploring Magellanic Temperate Rainforests Tierra del Fuego is a land of striking contrasts—cool-temperate rainforests, miniature bryophyte forests, elegant orchids, the snow-capped Andes, azure-tinted glaciers, Magellanic penguins, Andean condors,...
ePostcard #100: Celebrating Magellanic Clouds
ePostcard #100: Celebrating Magellanic Clouds #1. Photo Credit and Caption: Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO. The VISTA (the acronym for Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy) is the most famous telescope at the Paranal Observatory. The observatory is located on...
ePostcard #99: Strait Through: Magellan’s Voyage (Part V)
ePostcard #99: Strait Through: Magellan's Voyage (Part V) By Magellan’s calculations, the expedition was months behind schedule. They should have found the strait by now and been on their way to the Spice Islands. On October 18, having been bedeviled by foul weather...
ePostcard #98: There Be Giants: Magellan’s Voyage (Part IV)
ePostcard #98: There Be Giants: Magellan's Voyage (Part IV) We rejoin Magellan’s Armada de Molucca in late February as it continues south along the coast of Argentina in search of the elusive strait—if it even exists. Magellan has now adopted measures to ensure that...
ePostcard #97: False Passage: Magellan’s Voyage (Part III)
ePostcard #97: False Passage: Magellan's Voyage (Part III) Magellan wasn’t bluffing when he told Spain’s King Charles that he absolutely knew where to find the strait. Although his plans were veiled in the competitive secrecy of the age, Magellan had a specific...
ePostcard #96: Magellan’s Voyage (Part II)
ePostcard #96: Magellan's Voyage (Part II) Sea Passage to Rio de Janeiro It was only the first leg of the voyage and the Armada de Molucca had already weathered 60 days of furious and unrelenting storms at sea. The men were exhausted, much of the expedition’s food...
ePostcard #95: Magellan’s Voyage into the Unknown (Part I)
ePostcard #94: Magellan's Voyage into the Unknown (Part I) Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães In Portuguese) was only 12 years old when Christopher Columbus landed in the New World. Born into a family of minor nobility, Magellan served as a page in the royal...
ePostcard #94: Magellan’s Chronicler: Antonio Pigafetta
ePostcard #94: Magellan's Chronicler: Antonio Pigafetta On September 8, 1522, the crew of the Victoria cast anchor in the waters off of Seville, Spain, having just completed the first circumnavigation of the world. The rest of the fleet was gone: the Santiago...
ePostcard #93: Prologue: Magellan’s Voyage into the Unknown
ePostcard #93: Prologue: Magellan's Voyage into the Unknown I was first to circle the world by means of sails,Carrying you, Magellan, leader, through the new strait.Therefore am I justly called Victoria [Victory].With sails as wings, and glory my prize, I fought the...
ePostcard #92: The Age of Discovery
ePostcard #92: The Age of Discovery Modern exploration had to be an adventure of the mind, a thrust of someone’s imagination, before it became a worldwide adventure of seafaring….The pioneer explorer was one lonely man thinking. —Daniel Boorstin, The...
ePostcard #91: Tierra del Fuego: The View from Space
ePostcard #91: Tierra del Fuego: The View from Space I am the albatross that waits for youat the end of the world.I am the forgotten souls of dead marinerswho passed Cape Hornfrom all the oceans of the earth.But they did not diein the furious waves.Today they...
ePostcard #90: Ready to Fly (Black-browed Albatrosses)
ePostcard #90: Ready to Fly (Black-browed Albatrosses) Since their first glimmerings in dinosaurs about 250 million years ago, feathers have evolved into one of nature’s most powerful and beautiful adornments. Feathered flight, of course, evolved with a suite of...
ePostcard #89: Pair-Bonding—Black-browed Albatrosses!
ePostcard #89: Pair-Bonding—Black-browed Albatrosses! We celebrate the wonder of black-browed albatrosses with our final two ePostcards from the Falklands/Malvinas. Before we go, however, we must preen our own “feathers" for the long flight to the southern tip of...
ePostcard #88: Darwin’s Stone Streams (Falklands/Malvinas)
ePostcard #88: Darwin's Stone Streams (Falklands/Malvinas) Among the most spectacular landscape features of the Falkland Islands are the vast periglacial blockfields and patterned ground, which occur on such a large scale that their extent can only really be...
ePostcard #87: Charles Darwin, Geologist
ePostcard #87: Charles Darwin, Geologist Credit: Charles Darwin’s portrait was painted in 1840 by George Richmond, four years after he returned from the Beagle voyage. Charles Darwin took his boyhood love of collecting pebbles, his astonishing geologic fieldwork...
ePostcard #86: Adobe Ingenuity (Black-browed Albatross Nests)
Sitting at the edge of a black-browed albatross colony on Steeple Jason Island in 2009, I watched as an albatross added freshly collected chunks of mud to the thick walls of its pedestaled and well-proportioned bowl nest, using its large bill to press each addition...
ePostcard #85: Life in the Rookery (Falkland Black-crowned Night Herons)
ePostcard #85: Life in the Rookery (Falkland Black-crowned Night Herons) My first memory of watching the ghostly silhouette of a black-crowned night heron flying across the night sky goes back to my childhood and a 'hornpoutin’ fishing trip with Grampa Roy. In the New...
ePostcard #84: Mystery of the Curious Wolf
click images to enlargeePostcard #84: Mystery of the Curious Wolf Charles Darwin regarded the Falkland Island wolf as a compelling biological mystery to be solved, and his observations would set the stage for what would become one of the most amazing natural history...
ePostcard #83: Penguins & Countershading (Falklands/Malvinas)
click images to enlargeePostcard #83: Penguins & Countershading (Falklands/Malvinas) The stunning diversity of animal species that Charles Darwin observed during his five year voyage aboard the HMS Beagle provided the research inspiration for his theory of...
ePostcard #82: Imperial Cormorant (Carcass Island)
click images to enlargeePostcard #82: Imperial Cormorant (Carcass Island) Cormorants, sometimes referred to as "sea ravens” or “shags” colloquially, are fish-eating waterbirds belonging to the order Pelecaniformes and are in the genus Phalacrocorax, which includes...
ePostcard #81: Nesting Gentoo Penguins (Falklands)
click images to enlargeePostcard #81: Nesting Gentoo Penguins (Falklands) Admittedly, I have a soft spot for gentoo penguins! Maybe it is the patch of “snow" and the sprinkling of “snowflakes” on their heads, their stoic demeanor in the presence of skulking Johnny...
ePostcard #80: Johnny Rooks (Falkland Archipelago)
click images to enlargeePostcard #80: Johnny Rooks (Falkland Archipelago) In the austral spring, Steeple Jason, a tiny island along the northwest edge of the Falkland Archipelago, teems with birds. As you now know, the island is home to the world’s largest breeding...
ePostcard #79: Kelp Goose (Falkland Archipelago)
click images to enlargeePostcard #79: Kelp Goose (Falkland Archipelago) Charles Darwin was impressed by the enormous flocks of waterfowl he saw in the Falklands/Malvinas and wrote in The Voyage of the Beagle, “Two kinds of geese frequent the Falklands. The upland...
ePostcard #78: In Darwin’s Footsteps (Falkland Archipelago Birds)
click images to enlargeePostcard #78: In Darwin's Footsteps (Falkland Archipelago Birds) On March 1st 1833, the HMS Beagle dropped anchor in Berkeley Sound and the young naturalist on board gazed for the first time on the shores of the Falkland Islands. Charles Darwin...
ePostcard #77: Falkland Archipelago
click images to enlargeePostcard #77: Falkland Archipelago Winging westward, it climbseach step up to the naked blue:the entire sky is its tower,and the world is cleansed by its movement.—Pablo Neruda, Art of Birds The exquisite beauty of Steeple Jason Island would be...
ePostcard #76: Frank Wild and the ‘Boss’
click images to enlargeePostcard #76: Frank Wild and the ‘Boss' “I must go down to the seas again to the lonely sea and the sky,And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.”John Masefield “Sea Fever” In the history of polar exploration few...
ePostcard #75: The ‘Boss’ Goes Home!
Photo #1, above: Honoring Endurance! This photo was taken by Frank Hurley when the crew put the sails up trying one last time to free Endurance from the sea ice of the Weddell Sea. As we know, this and other attempts failed, and realizing the ship wasn’t moving Hurley...
ePostcard #74: The Final Rescue!
click images to enlargeePostcard #74: The Final Rescue! “Not a life lost, and we have been through Hell!” Ernest Shackleton This opening photo by Frank Hurley takes us back to where it all began—South Georgia. You can see the Endurance, dwarfed by her mountainous...
ePostcard #73: 2013 James Caird Voyage Re-enactment
click images to enlargeePostcard #73: 2013 James Caird Voyage Re-enactment On our 2003 expedition to the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and the Falklands, a much-anticipated stop at Elephant Island was foiled by stormy weather. The ship’s captain, knowing how...
ePostcard #72: Across South Georgia!
click images to enlargeePostcard #72: Across South Georgia! It is impossible to describe the grueling, non-stop 36-hour alpine traverse of South Georgia without turning to the profound power of Shackleton’s own words. Shackleton, Crean and Worsley set off from...
ePostcard #71: South Georgia Bound!
click images to enlargeePostcard #71: South Georgia Bound! The perilous voyage of the James Caird from Elephant Island to South Georgia is ranked as one of the greatest boat journeys ever accomplished and is an achievement unique in the history of exploration....
ePostcard #70: Elephant Island!
click images to enlargeePostcard #70: Elephant Island! After months spent in makeshift camps on the northward drifting pack ice, the situation for Shackleton and his men had become increasingly dire. At Patience Camp in early March (photo #1; left to right: Wild,...
ePostcard #69: Drifting On Ice!
click images to enlargeePostcard #69: Drifting On Ice! By October, ceaseless pressure from pack ice would force the crew to abandon the Endurance. I can’t imagine what a profoundly emotional departure that must have been. With the ruin of their ship looming behind...
ePostcard #68: Endurance in a World of Ice!
click images to enlargeePostcard #68: Endurance in a World of Ice! The expedition arrived at South Georgia on November 5th 1914, and Shackleton and his men would learn much from the whaling captains about the conditions in the Weddell Sea. The would also receive the...
ePostcard #67: Endurance Underway!
ePostcard #67: Endurance Underway! As Germany declared war on Russia, August 1st, 1914, Shackleton left London on his ship the Endurance intending to be the first to successfully complete a trans-Antarctic expedition. It took 4 months to reach a whaling yard in South...
#66: Shackleton’s Endurance
ePostcard #66: Shackleton’s Endurance “We all have our White South.”Ernest Shackleton The harrowing tale of British explorer Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–1917) has haunted me for nearly 40 years. Most historians regard it as the last...
ePostcard #65: Tern, Tern Tern!
ePostcard #65: Tern, Tern Tern! Turn! Turn! Turn!To every thing there is a season, A time to be born, and a time to die.A time to mourn, and a time to heal. A time to break down, and a time to build up.A time to weep, and a time to laugh,A time to embrace, and...
ePostcard #64: Albatross Morning (South Georgia)
ePostcard #64: Albatross Morning (South Georgia) Albatrosses are some of the most iconic species in the Southern Ocean, but they also serve as sentinels for the challenges faced by albatross populations worldwide. South Georgia is home to globally significant...
ePostcard #63: Chinstraps on Ice (South Georgia)
ePostcard #63: Chinstraps on Ice (South Georgia) Chinstrap penguins, and their close relatives the Adélie and gentoo penguins, are members of the brush-tailed genus Pygoscelis. The great antiquity and fossil record of penguins has always intrigued me and I’m hoping...
ePostcard #62: South Georgia Pintail
ePostcard #62: South Georgia Pintail The endemic South Georgia pintail duck is the world’s most southerly waterfowl species. This beautiful pintail resides on South Georgia and nearby Bird Island year-round and is non-migratory, well-adapted to some of the most...
ePostcard #61: Glaciers in Retreat
ePostcard #61: Glaciers in Retreat Isolated in the Southern Ocean, South Georgia is truly a sentinel at the leading edge of global climate change. South Georgia is known for its ice caps and glaciers, and over the last few million years they have sculpted some of the...
ePostcard #60: Rock Fugue (South Georgia)
ePostcard #60: Rock Fugue (South Georgia) Shaken, not stirred.—James Bond To a geologist, rocks are richly-illustrated narratives—stories of deep earth cataclysm and landscape transformation over billions of years. To a biologist, rocks and landforms provide...
ePostcard #59: Appreciating Scavengers (Northern Giant Petrels)
ePostcard #59: Appreciating Scavengers (Northern Giant Petrels) Our task must be to freeourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embraceAll living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. —Albert Einstein This quote from Albert Einstein speaks...
ePostcard #58: Whale Tears (South Georgia)
ePostcard #58: Whale Tears (South Georgia) The total harvest of marine mammals around South Georgia represents a slaughter which has never been matched around the world. The whaling stations built by the Norwegian and British whaling industry were large-scale...
ePostcard #57: Whaling Rust
ePostcard #57: Whaling Rust When you first visit Grytviken you are, quite simply, stunned into silence. In November of 1904 the Norwegian, C. A. Larsen, with experience whaling in Arctic waters, established the first whaling enterprise on South Georgia at Grytviken....
ePostcard #56: Antarctic Fur Seals (South Georgia)
ePostcard #56: Antarctic Fur Seals (South Georgia) When British explorer Captain James Cook visited South Georgia in 1775, he noted the island’s abundant population of both Antarctic fur seals and southern elephant seals. In 1788, some 13 years after Cook’s visit,...
ePostcard #55: Leopards! (South Georgia)
ePostcard #55: Leopards! (South Georgia) Spotting this young leopard seal asleep on the beach was a surprise, the cold gleam of the South Georgia sun turning its fur to burnished silver. Despite my efforts to quietly find a place to sit down and simply watch, I...
ePostcard #54: Elephantastic Pups! (South Georgia)
ePostcard #54: Elephantastic Pups! (South Georgia) Imagine for a moment that you have been at sea for several months and that you are returning to South Georgia in late August (early spring) to give birth to a pup you have been nurturing in your womb for 11 months....
ePostcard #53: Sound and Fury (Elephant Seal Bulls)
ePostcard #53: Sound and Fury (Elephant Seal Bulls) On South Georgia, the first sign of the austral spring is the return of the bull elephant seals to their breeding beaches in late August. Once ashore, the most sexually mature bulls (the beach masters) begin...
ePostcard #52: Tracking Southern Elephants (South Georgia)
ePostcard #52: Tracking Southern Elephants (South Georgia) Oceanography 101: Before we begin satellite-tracking southern elephant seals on their epic migrations in the Southern Ocean we need a bit of Oceanography 101 and a good map (#2 below) to guide us on...
ePostcard #51: Bulls on the Beach (Southern Elephant Seals)
ePostcard #51: Bulls on the Beach (Southern Elephant Seals) The realm of the southern elephant seal encompasses the entire Southern Ocean. These massive pinnipeds, sometimes nicknamed “sea elephants,” are named for the male’s trunk-like inflatable snout (proboscis)....
ePostcard #50: Sentinels in the Crèche (South Georgia)
ePostcard #50: Sentinels in the Crèche (South Georgia) Sitting at the edge of a huge king penguin colony, I’m easily distracted by the overall visual magnificence of the scene and I forget that these penguins are telling me something about the state of their...
ePostcard #49: Penguins, Penguins Everywhere!
ePostcard #49: Penguins, Penguins Everywhere! Penguins undeniably assume center stage for most visitors to South Georgia, and the cast of characters includes king, gentoo, chin-strap and macaroni penguins. This pre-dawn trip (2018) to the enormous king penguin colony...
ePostcard #48: Zodiac Landings! (South Georgia)
ePostcard #48: Zodiac Landings! (South Georgia) The first surf landing in a Zodiac at South Georgia is always exciting, the beaches dotted with Antarctic fur seals and bull elephant seals defending their respective strongholds and harems, the noise of their bellicose...
ePostcard #47: Bound for South Georgia!
ePostcard #47: Bound for South Georgia! You never forget your first glimpse of South Georgia—the Antarctic oasis where alpine glaciers give way to tussock-dotted headlands and beaches covered with thousands of king penguins, elephant seals, and Antarctic fur seals....
ePostcard #46: Ice Requiem
ePostcard #46: Ice Requiem In this time of accelerating global climate change in polar regions, we need to think about the complex and interdependent ecosystems that have evolved in association with ice in all of its forms. What I’ve shared in these East...
ePostcard #45: Adélie Penguins at Risk
ePostcard #45: Adélie Penguins at Risk Understanding the impacts of global climate perturbations on penguins is especially complex in polar regions. Adélie penguins are critically important as ecosystem sentinels because they are sea-ice dependent and their survival...
ePostcard #44: Crabeater Seals (Cape Denison, East Antarctica, 2006)
ePostcard #44: Crabeater Seals (Cape Denison, East Antarctica, 2006) The Adélie penguins and crabeater seals that share the ice landing at Cape Denison (photo #2) appear to coexist as if the phrase "Peaceable Kingdom" still has some validity in the natural world....
ePostcard #43: Snow Petrels (Cape Denison, East Antarctic, 2006)
ePostcard #43: Snow Petrels (Cape Denison, East Antarctic, 2006) Seeing your first snow petrel on a trip to the Antarctic is always exciting, but for my group to see this one perched like a sentinel at the foot of the cross Mawson’s team erected at Cape Denison in...
ePostcard #42: Mother’s Day in Adélie Land
ePostcard #42: Mother's Day in Adélie Land It is “mud season” in the Adélie penguin colony at Cape Denison. As you can see in this ridge-perched colony of Adélies, sunny spring days have left a few lingering patches of snow. As I sat and watched, Adélie penguins were...
ePostcard #41 (Mawson’s Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)
ePostcard #41 (Mawson's Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914) Dedication and Biographical Notes: This ePostcard is dedicated to the extraordinary Antarctic exploration legacy of Sir Douglas Mawson (above) and expedition photographer Frank Hurley (photo #3,...
ePostcard #40: In the Footsteps of Douglas Mawson (Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, 2006)
ePostcard #40: In the Footsteps of Douglas Mawson (Commonwealth Bay, East Antarctica, 2006) Cloud Ridge’s first trip to the Southern Polar Ocean in 2003 included the Antarctic Peninsula, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. I knew that we would go back but that I...
ePostcard #39: Introducing the East Antarctic Ice Sheet
ePostcard #39: Introducing the East Antarctic Ice Sheet I decided to travel south from the Subantarctic Islands and head to the East Antarctic for this next series of ePostcards—from megaherbs to the White Continent! Certainly a study in contrasts. With the East...
ePostcard # 38: Megaherb Discoveries
ePostcard # 38: Megaherb Discoveries You know how much I enjoy questions! Yesterday’s ePostcard #37, Megaherb Mysteries, prompted lots of questions and encouraged me to dig into the most recent literature to find out what botanists are discovering about these...
ePostcard #37: Megaherb Mysteries
ePostcard #37: Megaherb Mysteries Botanists continue to be puzzled by the prevalence of outsized leaves and flowers—the so-called megaherb flora—of the subantarctic islands. It is not known whether the megaherbs are relics of an ancient, more widespread flora that...
ePostcard #36: Crested Penguins (Royals and Snares)
ePostcard #36: Crested Penguins (Royals and Snares) Crested penguins, every species, just make you smile—you can’t help yourself! The large and fascinating genus Eudyptes includes both crested and rock hopper penguins. The first two of my photos are of royal (crested)...
ePostcard #35: Yellow-eyed Penguins
ePostcard #35: Yellow-eyed Penguins The yellow-eyed penguin is a New Zealand endemic and one of the rarest and most endangered species of penguin in the world. The Maori name for the yellow-eyed penguin is “hoiho,” which means “noise-maker.” This makes me...
ePostcard #34: Fascinating Tubenoses
ePostcard #34: Fascinating Tubenoses Seabirds live at the mercy of wind and wave, superbly adapted to thrive in one of the most demanding but productive environments on Earth—the ocean. For millions of years, the global ocean has served as “home away from home” for...
ePostcard # 33: Gray-headed & Southern Royal Albatrosses
ePostcard # 33: Gray-headed & Southern Royal Albatrosses One of the highlights of hiking up through the grass tussocks on Campbell Island, was spotting a gray-headed albatross just settling into a mixed species colony near some southern royal albatrosses. With its...
ePostcard #32: Albatrosses—Ocean Spirits
ePostcard #32: Albatrosses—Ocean Spirits I feel I have joined a higher order of mortal,having seen the albatross. Robert Cushman Murphy, author, Guide to Oceanic Birds, 1940 We spent six magical weeks aboard the Spirit of Enderby exploring the seemingly...
ePostcard #31: Introducing the Galápagos of the Subantarctic
ePostcard #31: Introducing the Galápagos of the Subantarctic To explore the magnificent ocean realm of New Zealand’s Subantarctic Islands, we must leave typical cruise routes far behind us. In December of 2006, snug aboard our 48-passenger, ice-strengthened and...
ePostcard #30: Twilight at Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile)
ePostcard #30: Twilight at Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) Ancient Polynesians lacked compasses, writing and metal tools, but they were masters of sailing canoe technology and their navigational skills were unsurpassed. By about A.D. 1200, the prehistoric Polynesian’s...
ePostcard #29: Rock-boring Sea Urchins (Easter Island, Chile)
ePostcard #29: Rock-boring Sea Urchins (Easter Island, Chile) I benefitted from lessons learned growing up in a family of sharp-eyed observers of the natural world. One of the secrets to being a good naturalist, is to be a good observer—continually honing your ability...
ePostcard #28 Rapa Nui Rock Art (Easter Island)
ePostcard #28 Rapa Nui Rock Art (Easter Island) Throughout Oceania, seabirds were seen as omens, messengers, mythical explorers, spirits of the gods, the dead, as well as a source of food. My silhouetted photo of a soaring great frigatebird, taken shortly after...
ePostcard #27: Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile)
ePostcard #27: Rapa Nui (Easter Island, Chile) Looking down at tiny Easter Island, after a 5-hour jet flight from Chile across a sapphire-blue ocean, thoughts of Thor Heyerdahl’s pioneering expedition in 1947 aboard Kon-Tiki filled my mind. His extraordinary...
ePostcard #26: The Galápagos Penguin
ePostcard #26: The Galápagos Penguin My dear friend and colleague, Dr. Dee Boersma, has been at the forefront of Galápagos penguin research for more than 45 years. Her landmark book, Penguins: Natural History and Conservation, with co-editor Pablo Garcia Borboroglu,...
ePostcard #25: Blue-footed Boobies (Galápagos)
ePostcard #25: Blue-footed Boobies (Galápagos) Blue-footed boobies live along the western coasts of Central and South America, from Mexico to Peru. The Galápagos Islands population includes about half of all breeding pairs of blue-footed boobies. These beautiful...
ePostcard #24: Flightlessness Works (Galápagos)
on ePostcard #24: Flightlessness Works (Galápagos) In his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, Darwin suggested that there were evolutionary consequences for animals resulting from what he referred to as “the use and disuse” of various anatomical parts. Unlike...
ePostcard #23: Bodacious Reds (Galapagos Islands)
ePostcard #23: Bodacious Reds (Galapagos Islands) The color red—bold and eye-catching in plants and animals—provokes our curiosity as naturalists in ways that few other colors do. Exploring the evolution and science behind how animals perceive color in their world is...
ePostcard #22: Darwin’s Islands (Galapagos)
ePostcard #22: Darwin’s Islands (Galapagos) We begin our Island Biodiversity ePostcard series with a sailing schooner voyage to the Galapagos Islands aboard the S/S Sagitta—a dream come true for any naturalist. The Galapagos Archipelago, a scattering of small...
ePostcard #21: Protea Splendor
ePostcard #21: Protea Splendor On the southwestern tip of the African continent, South Africa’s famous Cape Floral Kingdom (or fynbos) is a center of diversity for one of the most spectacular flowering plant families in the world—the Proteaceae. The two main centers...
ePostcard #20: Rock Hyrax (South Africa)
ePostcard #20: Rock Hyrax (South Africa) If you haven’t heard of hyraxes, which are called “ dassies” in South Africa, you are not alone. Hyraxes inhabit rocky terrain across sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. At first glance, the rock hyrax appears rodent-like...
ePostcard #19: Meerkats (South Africa)
ePostcard #19: Meerkats (South Africa) My fascination with meerkats goes back nearly fifty years. Spotting my first meerkat standing “sentinel” atop a termite mound in a sea of African daisies brought me to a standstill, binoculars raised. These fascinating...
ePostcard #18: A Moment in Time (Etosha National Park, Namibia)
ePostcard #18: A Moment in Time (Etosha National Park, Namibia) Settling in at the edge of Etosha’s salt-pan for a day observing the comings and goings of a diverse array of handsome bovids is a supreme luxury! The range of variability in size, fur color and...
ePostcard #17: Bovidae Diversity (Namibia)
ePostcard #17: Bovidae Diversity (Namibia) African biodiversity has been a recurring theme throughout this series of ePostcards. With this postcard, I offer a fresh photographic canvas for exploring biodiversity within a single family—the Bovidae (antelopes and...
ePostcard #16: Nectar Lovers
ePostcard #16: Nectar Lovers When South Africa's fynbos and succulent shrublands are in full bloom, watching sunbirds is a visual meditation, their gem-like colors--emerald, sapphire, ruby, and topaz--sparkling in the sunshine. Sunbirds are members of the family...
ePostcard #15: Lions at Sunset (Etosha National Park, Namibia)
ePostcard #15: Watching Lions at Sunset (Etosha National Park, Namibia) The sublime joy of spending a sunset evening watching a pride of African lions is a profound gift. These kinds of opportunities are usually only possible in parks and preserves where both...
ePostcard #14: Hidden Water (Namibia and South Africa)
ePostcard #14: Hidden Water (Namibia and South Africa) The ability to locate a hidden spring or waterhole—reading the landscape and recognizing subtle clues—is a survival skill that must be learned by all desert dwellers at an early age. In Namibia’s northeastern...
ePostcard #13: Sociable Weavers
ePostcard #13: Sociable Weavers Sociable weavers, which are endemic to southwestern Africa, are members of a gregarious group of sparrow-like finch species. These weavers are best known for constructing—grass blade by grass blade—enormous communally-thatched nests....
ePostcard #12: Zebra Society
ePostcard #12: Zebra Society Burchell’s zebra, unlike the more familiar mountain zebra, has a stripe pattern that features a distinctive brown “shadow” stripe that can be seen between the black stripes. This pattern is especially prominent on the hind quarters. Each...
ePostcard #11: An Elephant’s Life
ePostcard #11: An Elephant's Life In Namibia’s Etosha National Park, waterholes and elephants are a magical combination when you want to observe elephant behavior. Elephants of different ages are often present and this makes it especially fun to just sit and watch the...
ePostcard #10: African Fur Seal Family Life (Namibia)
ePostcard #10: African Fur Seal Family Life (Namibia) Looking at these napping African fur seals, I’m reminded that they evolved from the same land ancestors as dogs and bears. Although these fur seals spend much of the year at sea, they never fully abandon their...
ePostcard #9: Life in an African Fur Seal Colony
#9: Life in an African Fur Seal Colony I admit to having an inordinate fondness for seals. There is nothing in the world like the total sensory experience of settling in with binoculars and camera at the edge of an enormous seal colony. I wish that I could magically...
ePostcard #8: Life in the Sand (Namibia)
E-Postcard #8: Life in the Sand (Namibia) Rows 1, 2 and 3: Travel with me to the dune country of Namibia. The dunes of the Namib Sand Sea cover most of the southwestern portion of Namibia, an area roughly 93 miles (150 km) wide and 248 miles (400 km) long. The...
ePostcard #7: Camouflage Perfected!
E-Postcard #7: Camouflage Perfected! The current standing order for “sheltering in place” takes on a very different meaning in the natural world. Survival for some animals in the wild depends on camouflage (or cryptic) coloration or patterning, an adaptation that...
ePostcard #6: Tide pooling anyone?
E-Postcard #6: Tide pooling anyone? A tide pool walk along the Cape Peninsula is an amazing experience! Patrick Cardwell, our South African guide and a naturalist in the classic tradition, opened our eyes to an extraordinary world. None of my images have been...
ePostcard #5 Spring in Namaqualand (South Africa)
E-Postcard #5: Spring in Namaqualand (South Africa) Namaqualand is a narrow stretch of semi-arid and arid country along the west coast of South Africa. The region is home to a unique assemblage of plants and its floral biodiversity is without equal among the arid...
ePostcard #4
E-Postcard #4: South Africa is famous the world over for the incredible diversity and beauty of its native flora. Although it represents less than 1 percent of the world’s total land surface, South Africa accounts for 10 percent of all known species of flowering...
ePostcard #3: Giraffes
Greetings! The excellent 2018 documentary, The Woman Who Loves Giraffes, is based on the life of Dr. Anne Innis Dagg, the Canadian zoologist, feminist and pioneer in the study of animal behavior in the wild. Dagg is credited with being the first to study wild giraffes...
ePostcard #2 Rhinos
Greetings! During my 40-year career as a naturalist guide, I’ve often been teased for my bias towards exploring remote islands in Polar regions, glaciated landscapes almost anywhere, and iceberg-dotted fjords. I’d been fascinated by Africa since childhood, but the...
ePostcard #1 African penguins at the Boulders Penguin Colony
Today’s Caption: African penguins at the Boulders Penguin Colony (South Africa). My “personal" photo memory for the day (admittedly a bit somber) is of a small “procession" of African penguins walking away after visiting the site where a colony member...
ePostcards – Intro
Greetings, I launched our Cloud Ridge ePostcard Blog in late March of 2020, as the unfolding tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic encircled the globe in a shroud of sadness. With the help of our skilled webmaster, Clyde Lovett, I wanted to provide a respite from the daily...