Last week, I wrote about the bad news: that monarch butterfly populations have been plummeting since the 1980s. The good news is that a revolutionary new tracking device may help those populations recover. Naturalists have been trying to track monarchs for nearly a century, but mass ID-ing (with tiny stick-on tags) only began in large […]
Life + Outdoors
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Get to Know Your Tits
Small, round and bouncy, they never fail to draw attention. They’re family Paridae, the vocal and acrobatic passerines that across the pond are known as tits. In North America, of course, they’re our chickadees and titmice, once collectively referred to as tits or titmouses. “Tit” is from Old Norse meaning “small,” while “mose,” which eventually […]
Posted inSeriously?
Asking for an Administration
Thank you for taking the time to complete this brief survey. The questions that follow are purely hypothetical and part of a study you absolutely don’t need to worry about for a think tank focusing on outside-the-box solutions to our political divide. And by “the box,” we mean accountability. Please read the scenarios below — […]
Posted inField Notes
Monarch Butterflies
Part 1: Migration Magic It’s not easy being a monarch butterfly these days. Your caterpillar’s essential milkweed food is no longer abundant; illegal logging and beetle infestations threaten your main winter roosts in Mexico, and climate change is playing havoc with nectar plants on your migration routes. Where hundreds of millions of monarchs roosted annually […]
Posted inHumboldt Nature
The Queen Bee’s Winter Visit
When gardening, you have probably seen large, fuzzy, yellow and black bumble bees zipping from flower to flower, collecting pollen and nectar to bring back to their nests. Perhaps you have also seen them in January or February and wondered what business a bee has flying around in winter. Nearly all the approximately 1,600 bee […]
Posted inField Notes
In the Beginning
“A good scientific theory is one that allows us to calculate the results of many observations from few assumptions.” — Physicist Sabine Hossenfelder Hossenfelder’s concise statement explains why the Genesis account — Earth and Heavens created out of nothing in six days — has no appeal for scientists looking to understand the cosmos. And why […]
Posted inGet Out
A Running Legacy at the Trinidad to Clam Beach Run
The 60th annual Trinidad to Clam Beach Run in Honor of Ford Hess returned Feb. 7, followed by a party for the roughly 1,000 who ran, jogged or walked the scenic 5.75-mile course beginning at Saunders Park in Trinidad. Participants crossed very little water this year in Little River at Moonstone Beach, and finished at Clam […]
Posted inField Notes
Cermeño’s Shipwreck
The European settlement of what we now know as the city of Trinidad began when two Spanish Navy captains, Bruno de Hecata (commanding Santiago) and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (commanding Sonora), landed there on June 9, 1775. Two days later on Trinity Sunday — hence the name — they erected a wooden […]
Posted inWashed Up
Moon Snail Pie
I was walking along Humboldt Bay when I heard, “Psst. Hey!” A Lewis’s moon snail (Neverita lewisii) was calling me from a shallow pool in the tidal mudflat. The snail said, “I want to enter the big baking contest. But those jerk-offs will never let a snail win. So, can you pose as me? Plus, […]
Posted inField Notes
Coincidences (Not That Amazing)
“It is no great wonder if in the long process of time, while fortune takes her course hither and thither, numerous coincidences should spontaneously occur.” — Plutarch “I’ve been looking for you my whole life!” I chortled, running around the table to give my birthday twin a big embrace. She reciprocated, but barely — she […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
A Colorful Winter Garden
Winter is here on the North Coast, and with it come cloudy days, bare-branched deciduous trees, and a muting of nature’s hues. But we can still enjoy our gardens and yards throughout the year by making December through February more colorful and interesting with some carefully chosen native plants (and one non-plant). While most conifers […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Imagine Possibilities. Keep Them Real.
Do you already have a wish for your outdoor activities in 2026? In this column three years ago, I proposed to toss the word “resolution” in favor of “wish” (“Make a Wish Instead of a Resolution,” Jan. 5, 2023). While both require some work on our part, making a wish offers a more positive perspective. […]