The Power of Collective Naturalizing

Ok, I think I just made up a new phrase. What the heck do I mean by "the power of collective naturalizing"? One of the coolest things that I do as an ecologist is get together with other top notch ecologists and naturalists around the state, and we do what we love- we naturalize. Or botanize. Or bird. To most of us, we love it all. Just being in a natural area, interpreting the plants, the animals, the ecological systems, it is fantastic. And when you're with a bunch of people, it is amazing how many new things you can learn in just a few days in the field.

I was in the field three days this past week, in two parts of the state, and all three times with fantastic naturalists. Here are just some of the things we saw. Some of these things I know to species, other to genus, and others, I don't really have a clue. I want to know what you know. Know what something is? Comment, give the number, and tell us something about that plant or animal-maybe your experience with it, whether you see it often, or maybe it is rare in your area. Let's collective naturalize through the blog. This is an experiment and something new that I've never done here, but I think it could be quite fun.


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The Fantasy Land of Seabrook Island

The island that Megan, my Mom, my brother, and myself traveled to this weekend for my cousin's wedding really was a fantasy land. A gated, private island, catering to those with more resources than ourselves! Wow, what huge houses there are on this island, built right into the dunes and and around the swales of what once was a pristine, natural area. It is still fairly intact, and the beach there is the only place along the South Carolina shore where sand is actually accumulating. These are images from our walk along the shore Saturday evening. Storms were threatening, so I left the big gun at home (my XTI and bag) and shot these images with Megan's Kodak p850, a very serviceable 5 megapixel super zoom. Take a close look at each photo. There is a life bird for me in one of them, see if you can spot it.

The Life in a Vernal Pool

Don't worry everyone, I'm going to keep this blogging thing going for a long, long time. I just love nature and natural history too much to give it up! Megan and I finally got to a vernal pool on Monday evening, and we were about two weeks late for the main migration here in central Ohio. Egg masses abounded in the darkness, the peepers were calling like mad, and a few beautiful spotted salamanders still roamed the pools. Peeper videos to come tomorrow! Stay tuned......



Tom