Larus philadelphia
Larus philadelphia, or Bonaparte’s gull. We were driving at 60 mph. Looking out the front window of the car, it was possible to see twenty or thirty gulls flying erratically overhead. As we drove forward, those gulls would disappear behind us and more would be visible in front of us. […]

I had been thinking that by now, Gorilla gorilla grauerii, the so called “Eastern Lowland Gorilla,” was extinct. There were to my knowledge only a few tiny populations of the gorillas, and they have been surrounded by warfare, rebel activity, illegal logging operations, and poaching for over a decade.
There are two major […]

Catalina Island is NOT the place to be if you are a bald eagle, apparently. Remember back when Eagles were Endangered? Before the Bush Administration Fish and Wild Life “Service” delisted them? The main (but not only) reason they were endangered was because of the widespread use of DDT. DDT was […]

There is an old idea, that no one believes anymore, that “nature” follows a pattern of succession following disturbance, such that a particular set of plant colonized the disturbed area, these are replaced by a different set of plants, and ultimately, the “climax” (final) plants emerge as the dominant form.
Something like this does happen … […]