Earth Explorations

One would think that summer time is the best time to be out and about exploring. And one would be right. My summer starting on June 6 or thereabouts included trips to DC, the Badlands (three times!), Jackson WY and Yellowstone National Park, Kyle SD, the South East passage of Alaska, and Omaha. All but one were work related though they were all pleasure trips as well. I took pictures whenever time and setting allowed. I even added a few observations to iNaturalist from my travels. I am back home and will be for a while yet. I don't know when or if I will travel like that again. Fortunately, being an explorer doesn't rely on traveling as  much as it does on observing. Today I took my camera out and about to see what I could see. And I saw quite a bit. The list includes - A bumblebee with red stripes. I'm thinking it's a Hunt's Bumblebee. (Update: Hunt's Bumblee ID confirmed by an iNaturalist curator). - Pelicans - Norther Flicker - A cicada molt - A c...

I recently posted about how explorers and adventurers both seek after awe but that explorers don't have to rely solely on the "blockbuster" kinds of experiences to get to it. Exhibit A of a "small" experience that yielded big awe was finding this wildflower while hiking around Badlands National Park. This is the Fritillaria atropurpurea  more commonly known as the  leopard lily. A now retired botanist told me they are hard to find. The guidebook Plants of the Black Hills and Bear Lodge Mountains which includes many prairie plants despite its title states "Leopard lily also occurs infrequently in the prairie surrounding the (Black) Hills area but nowhere is it common in the region." Coming across an infrequent and uncommon plant feels like a gift. Literally on my knees and prostrate before this fading plant to take photos, I felt gratitude that I got to see this small thing that most people in the world will never see. And when I consider that the...

NY Times caption :  A steady stream of mountain climbers lined up to stand at the summit of Mount Everest, on Wednesday. (5/22/2019) Edited to add: Photo Credit Nirmal Pirja of Project Possible. This photo has been heavily shared in traditional and social media  with most of the articles discussing the impacts-including higher death toll-from the increased popularity of and access to climbing Everest. I'm not here to add to that particular discussion but with a blog title like Earth Explorations I feel like I would be remiss if I failed to address this picture. In the About section of this blog, I make the following statement: Being an explorer is mostly about having an approach to life that is based on curiosity about the unknown. That's the core requirement. The other things like travel to exotic places are nice but not necessary. And it's really not necessary to climb a mountain or traverse a polar region. That's being an adventurer which is different than b...

Central South Dakota is a hotbed of bird migration and May is peak season. My bird photography skills (which I practiced all winter) are still meh. It's hard for me to get good photos of birds flittering about which means all the pictures of warblers look like this one. See the tail feathers off to the center right of the photo? Maddening. I have been able to capture a few photos of birds that are ground foragers. They tend to be a little easier to photograph because they are on the ground (no craning my neck) and they also take longer pauses between flits or hops looking for insects. I'm very pleased with this photo. Thank you, White Crowned Sparrow. Your black and white crown feathers are so fetching.

About a month ago several people whom I know from different areas of my life, without collusion or coordination as far as I know, told me that I needed to read Braiding Sweetgrass. My track record with books others tell me I must read is a little spotty. I don't always like them which makes for awkward conversation. Them: "How did you like that book that was terribly meaningful to me?" Me: "Oh, uhm... it wasn't bad." Our library had an e-version of Braiding Sweetgrass  so I put myself on a wait list. I was hesitant to spend money on a book I was almost certain I wouldn't like since it would be too woo-woo and possibly cringey. Well. Every once in a while a book comes along at the exactly the right moment and influences your thinking to a profound degree.  Braiding Sweetgrass is for me one such book, taking me further along a road I began when I read Song of Trees by David George Haskell and before that Other Minds by Peter Godfrey Smith. Th...

I've been at this blogging thing a while. Every once in a while, I go back to an old blog on a different platform to revisit my posts and say hello to past Me. I'm always a little surprised at what I find. You do forget details. For example, I'd forgotten that I took this photo with my phone, a low end Samsung. Not a bad photo. It's not a great photo either but it makes the case that you don't need even a middling good camera like the one I have now, the Lumix, to take pictures that help tell the story of an experience. The experience was detailed in this long form piece, A Cold Night, A Long Hike, A Good Story.  This photo was taken at the end of my unintentionally long hike at the Castle Trail head. Good times.

Robins have been slow to make themselves known this year. I blame the snow and the cold. They started to get active a couple of times earlier in the month and whoom! a storm would move in. I can't blame them for being hesitant. But lengthening daylight and more seasonal temperatures are prevailing, causing them to spread out and start occupying territories even if they aren't in full voice yet. My robin watching network on FB has been reporting robin activity for a week and a few days ago I saw one for myself as I left for work. After work today, Lu and I went out for a walk about the property (aka my front and back yard) to try my hand at robin photos. I actually had to leave the property (i.e. walk halfway down the block) to get a  photo even though I eventually did see a male in the trees on my front lawn. ƒ/4 1/400 ISO100 106.6mm I did not filter or edit this photo. It could probably use some cropping though I like the way the tree branches frame the bird with t...