Hi again! It’s been a while since my last post - longer than I expected. It turns out that moving to the other side of the planet and starting a new job is a bigger process than I was anticipating. In this post I’ll cover what I’ve been up to for the last 6 months or so. Then I’ll go through my new plan for the Wild Focus Project.
John Muir and the National Parks
Earlier this week, the US celebrated its 242nd Independence Day, and I kind of… forgot about it. I live outside of the US, and I’ve never really been a super patriotic person anyways, at least not in terms of the flags and the songs and stuff like that. But there is one thing that makes me very proud to be American, and that’s our National Park system…
Living Costs
After writing last week’s post about small cats, I remembered a Washington Post article from last year about bobcats. Specifically, one particular bobcat that brings in over $308,000 USD for Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area every year. … These scenarios are some of many where a dead animal may be worth some money, but a live animal can bring in a disproportionately higher amount….
James Cook: Naturalist
I was cleaning my room earlier this week when I came across a stack of paper covered in my own messy writing. Intrigued, I sat down to read. Turns out they were my notes and speculations from reading the accounts of James Cook, leader of 3 hugely influential voyages to explore the Pacific and southern oceans in the late 18th century...
The Fast, the Furious, and the Feathered
We’re back from hiatus! I took a few weeks off to focus on moving house, and to travel around NZ’s South Island for a couple weeks. We made a big loop around the South Island – from Kaikoura to Kahurangi National Park to Milford Sound – but the highlight was 4 days of tramping. And while we were out in the backcountry, we got to see New Zealand falcons! NZ falcons are rare and endemic, so getting to see one is pretty special...
Wasatch Winter Wildlife
A few weeks ago, I was looking back through some of my old photos from our family ski trips, and remembered that there’s loads of wildlife in the ski area we used to visit every year. ... They have some of the world’s best snow, plus some of the ski area is part of the Wasatch National Forest, so it’s a protected area with lots of trees and meadows – and wildlife...
A Little Too Close for Comfort
The soft, steady thudding of my hiking boots slowed to a halt. The trail wasn’t particularly steep or difficult, but when you’re surrounded by the world’s largest trees, you’ve just got to stop and look sometimes! This early in the day, the woods were relatively quiet and still. Birds chattered and branches rustled in the slight breeze, but there were no other people around – just me and my parents. They hadn’t stopped, so after a minute, they disappeared behind the next ridge. I glanced around, and then froze. Turns out that I wasn’t alone after all...
Turkey Talk
Thanksgiving might be my favorite holiday. But being an American living in New Zealand makes Thanksgiving a bit of a challenge – especially getting hold of a turkey. There’s just not that much demand for it here, which means if you want a nice big turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, you have to special order it from a farm several weeks in advance. Throughout this whole Thanksgiving prep process, I’ve been wondering about turkeys – wild ones, that is...
The Chesapeake Bay
I grew up in the suburbs of Maryland, between Washington D.C. and Annapolis. That meant that I lived within a half hour’s drive of the Chesapeake Bay, as well as four of the 150+ rivers that flow into it. My parents and I would occasionally go sailing, renting a boat for a few days out of Solomons Island at the mouth of the Patuxent River, or from Rock Hall on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. I hunted for fossils...
The Wildlife of Wyoming
I recently traveled to Wyoming to see the total solar eclipse across the US on August 21. Since I currently live in New Zealand, this was a bit of an ordeal... But it was 100% worth it. If I had only seen the eclipse and nothing else, it still would’ve been worth it. But luckily, I did get to see more than the eclipse – a lot more...