Osprey – IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern Osprey are apex predators and can be found along coastlines, rivers, and lakes This large raptor is built for fishing. So much so that it also goes by “fish hawk”, “sea hawk”, and “river hawk”. Not surprisingly, fish make up 99% of an osprey’s diet. These birds can be found across […]
White Mountain National Forest Mount Madison is the northernmost peak in the Presidential Range. This photograph was taken in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The cloud cover is right at the summit altitude, roughly 5000 feet. Mount Madison is the northernmost peak in the Presidential Range. Like other summits in the Presidential Range, Mount Madison has a […]
National Weather Service Clouds are described in three categories: cumuloform, stratoform, or cirroform. This month our gallery theme is “Clouds”. We will be exploring the different types of clouds that blanket earth. A man named Luke Howard was the first to publish a classification system for cloud types. He published this cloud classification system back in 1802! We still […]
National Weather Service Composing a photo can be tricky when you are contending with current, wind, and an environment that doesn’t allow you to use a tripod. For context, the foreground is the Atlantic Ocean and three seals. The land in the midground of this photo is Salisbury Beach State Park in Massachusetts. The clouds in the […]
Blue Neon Goby – IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern This species of coral looks alien, with the orange, red, and green coloration and texture. This species of coral looks alien, with the orange, red, and green coloration and texture. I’ve always enjoyed this species coral, which can grow to be quite large and live hundreds of […]
Saddled Blenny – IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern A sea rod is a soft coral that is affixed to the seafloor like a tree, with a central trunk. Corals can be separated into two categories, hard corals and soft corals. Hard corals generate a calcium carbonate skeleton and tend to be known as reef building corals. Soft […]
Rough Cactus Coral – IUCN Conservation Status: Critically Endangered Although we are too zoomed-in to tell, the rough cactus coral colony is roundish in shape. Stony coral, like this rough cactus coral, have a limestone skeleton with a fleshy, colorful, textured, outer skin. As a scuba diver, if you spend time looking closely at coral, you […]
Big Bend National Park The highest peak in the Chisos Mountains is Emory Peak at 7,825 feet This photo comes from a 2021 trip Ben, Nick, and I took to Big Bend National Park in west Texas. The photo shows the Chisos Mountains about an hour before sunset, commonly referred to as the golden hour of […]
Common Loon – IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern Loons are often confused with ducks because they are about the same size and also swim like a duck. In the remote northwestern corner of Maine is a large lake with a large name, “Mooselookmeguntic”. The word comes from the Abnaki and means “moose feeding place”. It is technically […]
Acadia National Park From the summit of Beech Mountain, you can see Echo Lake Located along Maine’s picturesque coastline, Mount Desert Island is the home of Acadia National Park. There are many trails to explore in this 49,075-acre park. There are also summits providing beautiful landscape views. The tallest mountain along the Atlantic Coast of the United States […]