On Girls in the Boy Scouts – 15 Years Too Late if You Ask Me
A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Until this week, a scout was also a boy.
Yukon – First Impressions
I arrived at the airport just after midnight. My plane had chased the setting sun north from Vancouver, British Columbia to my final destination Whitehorse, Yukon. Outside, it looked like dusk had only just begun to settle in. I wouldn’t see anything darker for the next two months. This was Yukon, land of the midnight…
Antelope Canyon – An Honest Review
Visiting Antelope Canyon isn’t quite what all the pictures make it out to be.
Lost in Escalante
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is where I finally tumbled head over heels in love with the desert. It didn’t have the paved roads or towering peaks of some of the other Utah parks we visited – though it did have a gorgeous visitor center. Instead its hikes were spread over miles of rough dirt roads,…
The Great (well, weeklong) Southwest Road Trip
Wanting to travel somewhere unquestionably different from anywhere we had been, a friend and I decided to spend our spring break exploring the Great American Southwest. In 7 days and 1,598 miles we traveled to 4 states, 3 national parks, and 4 national monuments. It wasn’t nearly enough time. In our trusty Escape Campervan we…
What to do when the mountains call.. and you can’t go
Whether it’s due to a storm, a lack of finances, or the fact that you live in flat, flat Florida (like me), there are times that even the most intrepid of adventurers are forced through periods of wilderness withdrawal. This is a list for times like those. Armchair hike – Sometimes “adventures” happen when you’re…
Galapagos in Pictures
I arrived in the Galapagos Islands exactly a year ago today. Here’s a collection of my favorite pictures from my three months living on Isla Isabela and exploring the other islands of the archipelago.
A Peek at 2016
2016 is to be a year of progressions. Progressions in science, in adventuring, in my writing. In addition to (finally) turning this blog into what I’ve always wanted it to be I have a host of other resolutions. Here’s a peek… Get into grad school. Applications are in and fingers are crossed, evolutionary ornithology here…
Interesting this Week – eavesdropping wrens, glow worm caves, and epic climbs
Science News Learned Eavesdropping- In a new study by researchers at Australian National University, superb fairy wrens have been trained to recognize a foreign call as an alarm call. The wild birds were conditioned by the simultaneous presentation of a gliding predator model and a playback of the foreign sound. After just two days of training, the…
Interesting this Week – bees, babblers, travelers and bees
This will be the first in a series of weekly posts showcasing interesting nature and science links. In the News Commuting Bees – In the light of the worlds recent bee declines, citizens in Norway’s capital, Oslo, have decided to help these industrious little flyers by creating the worlds first “bee highway” through the city.…
Swimming with the Flightless
Clattering in a rickety pickup truck through the dark, sandy streets of Puerto Villamil I struggled to keep my eyes open. It was four in the morning in the Galapagos Islands, and I had woken up just minutes before. As my eyelids sunk lower and lower, the truck motored its way towards the port, occasionally…
Wingwhirrs 