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The thrashers make up most of the species in the mimics; the Mimidae. Gray Catbird and the mockingbirds round out this noisy family. They are best known for their long and loud songs usually utilizing repeated phrases and sometimes copying the songs of nearby species. There are more thrashers in the southwestern US than anywhereContinue reading “Thrashers and the Evil Eye”

On our first visit to North Carolina many years ago the Lovely Frances (Gramma Fran to the North Carolina children) was struck by the Cherokee Indian story and purchased a book called The Trail of Tears. She has yet to finish it. However we still visit North Carolina and travel throughout the state though mostlyContinue reading “Judaculla Rock, Sylva, NC”

June 8th, 2014 was quite a lovely day. On a sunny June day with flat seas and gentle breezes what better thing is there to do that spend about eight and a half hours at sea looking for those migratory giants our marine mammals and the feathered assemblage of creatures that also migrate here toContinue reading “Whales, Dolphins, and Basking Sharks”

While taking a week in the mountains of western North Carolina Fran and I had a chance to get down to one of the states newest parks; Gorges State Park down near the Georgia state line in the town of Sapphire. This is a large park along the edge of the east-west running escarpment thatContinue reading “Gorges State Park, North Carolina”

The waters surrounding New Zealand, whether north or south – cool or equatorial, are full of marine life. I’ll start with the sea birds and finish with other vertebrates on another page. The sea birds run the gamut from petrels to albatrosses to terns to gulls to jaegers to shearwaters to prions; and most ofContinue reading “Albatross are Amazing”

The previous page looked a bit at the origin of the Galapagos archipelago. This page will look at some of the features that are approachable and intriguing. Volcanic debris is highly variable. the flowability (viscosity) of the material varies with chemistry and temperature. Some volcanoes explode others ooze. Some make solid mountains other collapse inContinue reading “The More Local Galapagos Geology”

There are a few things that you might want to look up as you peruse this page: hot spot, tuff, lava, uplift, and plate tectonics come quickly to mind. However, once you start on these topics and begin to see the earth’s surface as a living, moving, dynamic skin you may not find time toContinue reading “A Look at the geology of the Galapagos Islands”

Mammals make the top ten list, or at least the African Big 5 list. The lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and African buffalo are the usual animals listed as the Big 5. No one ever puts ostrich or crocodile on those lists. Nope they are dominated by mammals. The list was contrived by the great whiteContinue reading “More mammals of Southern Africa #2”

Mammals are the second most attractive group to travelers – well, maybe the first – I favor birds but most people want to see cats and hyenas, and antelope and elephants. Birds are everywhere and they are quite stunning in many cases. In other cases they are rather utilitarian, but still cool. Okay, back toContinue reading “The Mammals of Southern Africa – #1”