A New Goal

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Everyone should set a new goal from time to time, don’t you think? One day in 2017, I stepped out the front door of my house to go to the mailbox. And the moment I came out from under the carport roof, I froze, almost in mid-stride. What is that incredible sound? Birds! Birds singing their hearts out!! I have always been partial to birds, but for years I paid little attention to them because, as my hearing loss progressed, I could not hear them. Thus it was in 2017, when I finally got hearing aids (what was I waiting…

September: Who can resist?

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This annual review will be completed before the end of the year. Pinky promise! Once a month I serve a little church in St. Joseph, Louisiana. Occasionally, I leave after coffee hour, go just a tiny jog back south on Hwy 65 to head west on Hwy 4 to enter the southern most edge of Big Lake WMA and meander north toward home. So it was that September 7, 2025, the road ditches were full of blooming Ironweed (Vernonia spp.) and other wildflowers. Butterflies were everywhere. I did not actually count individuals, but a quick search of iNaturalist shows me…

May: Dauphin Island Adventure

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In May, I spent a few days on Dauphin Island–always a good time! But that trip I had a cold that wouldn’t quit, so one afternoon, instead of walking beaches and bird sanctuaries and neighborhoods as usual, I went to the marina and got on a “Lighthouse, Shrimping, Dolphin” boat tour. Turns out the dolphins were all vacationing in the Bahamas and the sea was too rough to go out to the lighthouse. Nevertheless…. it happened that the smallish group on the boat included a family of seven: mom, dad, a babe in arms, and four kids ranging in age…

January: Birds & Beaches

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It’s really late to be starting my #YearInReview series, but I’m going with “better late than never”! Winter is birding season and January 2025 I participated in the Lake Claiborne (State Park) Christmas Bird Count for the first time. Claiborne is in the northwest corner of the state, so two birding and butterfly counting friends and I met at a nearby hotel the night before so we could begin counting early the designated day. I’m sorry to say, I did not save documentation of the count totals to my computer, but I do recall that the three of us identified…

#AdventWord #Mother

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We were traveling by pontoon boat down the Sierpe River that flows through the largest mangrove swamp of the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica into the Pacific Ocean. Me, several other photographers and our boat captain and a guide were all scanning the shoreline for birds, crocodiles, iguanas, snakes, monkeys–you name it. The Osa Peninsula is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. I’m not sure who first spied the baby Green Heron (Butorides virescens), still covered with down, struggling among the mangrove and ficus roots along the bank. But no sooner had the shout gone up and…