Encounters with wild animals generally fill me with gratitude and happiness, none more than encounters with birds. But whenever I’m out and about with binoculars and camera looking for feathered friends, I also pay close attention to the presence of other creatures. Occasionally, I am lucky and see furry fauna besides our ubiquitous (albeit still-appreciated) … Continue reading Barking Dog
For humans, the term snowbirds designates individuals who try to escape winter and snow by moving to warmer, more temperate climes for a period of time. In the avian world, John James Audubon applied the name Snow Bird (Fringilla nivalis) to what has since been renamed Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis). Etymologically, both species names are … Continue reading Snow Birds
Nature speaks more eloquently than words and here are some wintry impressions (or expressions) from two different January visits to one of my favorite local destinations, Fountain Creek Regional Park, where Fountain Creek reigns supreme and showed itself from its fabulously frosty side. To enlarge a photo, click on it.
World Wetlands Day has its origins in the 1971 Convention of Wetlands and started to be celebrated officially in 1997 each February 2, the anniversary of the original convention. Since 2021, it has also been adopted by the United Nations. From the World Wetlands Day website comes the following information: Nearly 90% of the world’s … Continue reading World Wetlands Day
Growing up in Germany, I never thought about the dark, damp, and dismal weather that characterizes—oh, roughly 6-plus months out of each year. But that’s no longer true and if I had no family obligations, I would not spend late autumn or winter in central Europe. When we visited in November 2023, we hardly saw … Continue reading Remedy for the Winter Blues in Germany
tanja britton 