The falls. Another view. Seen from this angle gives Yosemite another perspective and it is an amazing place. No shortage of people that agree however. Albert Bierstadt – Merced River, Yosemite Valley Viewed at The Met – NYC on 01/24/2026 Date: 1866 Dimensions: 36”x50” Bierstadt’s take on it.
Leopard catches Bateleur Eagle
The athleticism of cats and big cats is always a marvel. Bateleur Eagle
Pencil leads
In the 16th century, a violent storm uprooted an English oak tree to reveal a freak geological anomaly: the only large-scale deposit of solid graphite ever found on Earth. The deposit was located in Borrowdale, a valley in the Lake District. Locals quickly realized the dark substance left remarkably permanent marks, and its discovery completely …
Yellowfin Cutthroat
Somewhere in Colorado’s backcountry, biologists are actively searching for a fish everyone assumes is extinct. In 1889, ichthyologist David Starr Jordan documented a massive golden trout at Twin Lakes, Colorado, up to 12 pounds, with a bright yellow stripe down its flanks. He collected seven specimens. Within 15 years, rainbow trout were introduced, the population …
Windswept musk ox, etc
Windswept musk ox carved by Inuk artist Joe Kavik (born 1950) from Rankin Inlet (Kangiqiniq), Canada. Amusing and it works. Nice piece. A different art form but with cultural affinities. Local Song A throwback to one of my first posts.
Birding Changes
Virtually all of the 20 or so birders and bird-adjacent professionals I spoke with attributed the shift to two watershed events. The first is the coronavirus pandemic: At a moment when many Americans spent far too much time anxiously bouncing around their own home, birding represented a low-stress, low-screen, outdoor activity that could be done without …
Little Smarties
River otters at a Northern California lagoon have learned to climb onto resting brown pelicans, grab them by the neck, drag them underwater, and hold them there until they drown. The behavior was first documented in 2006. By 2024 the otters were taking multiple pelicans in a single hunt. Abbotts Lagoon sits inside Point Reyes …
Uh-oh
they discovered that the minerals at this site contain record-breaking concentrations of gold, reaching as high as 1.9 wt% (19,231 ppm). Scientists strike invisible gold in the deep sea—locked inside fool’s gold How long before they are down there trashing everything.
Tehipite Valley
Yosemite is undoubtedly beautiful, but it’s also incredibly crowded. But what if I told you that another nearby valley was just as beautiful, yet received virtually no visitors. Often referred to as the “Forgotten Yosemite,” the Tehipite Valley is a remote, rugged, and impressive valley located in Kings Canyon National Park. Despite being dubbed …
Pigeon with head-mounted camera.
Source I worked as a falconer before graduate school, so I was familiar with falconry hoods. I sewed many different sizes of hoods to hold the camera in place on the pigeon’s head, along with little backpacks for the rest of the equipment, and tried them on the pigeons until I found the perfect fit. …