Spanish Needles – IUCN Conservation Status: Insufficient Data Spanish needles can reach a max of five feet tall This pollinator friendly plant goes by many names. Common names include butterfly needles, shepherd’s needles, tickseed sunflowers, stick weed, pitchfork weed, and beggar-ticks. Although this plant may look pretty, many consider it a weed. It is an annual or short-lived […]
Chukar – IUCN Conservation Status: Least Concern The chukar is an upland game bird that belongs to the pheasant family This photo was taken while Jill and I were walking around the top of Haleakala after having watched the sunrise on her birthday. We were in Hawaii for our honeymoon, staying on Maui. We woke […]
Cades Cove is an expanse of cascading mountains, lush fields, and dense forests. I was awestruck upon seeing this view of McCampbell Knob from Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Jill and I had just completed our hike to Abrams Falls via the comically named Wet Bottom Trail. As we stepped out […]
Kampinos National Park is a sister park to Indiana Dunes National Park I took this photo while on a work trip to Warsaw, Poland. I had been cooped up in a hotel in downtown Warsaw, and I decided that I wanted to go explore nature in this new country. I took a 45 minute Uber […]