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Author Archives: Kim Smith
Holy Lupines, Batman! (aka Blue Week)
Today marks the end of the annual celebration known as Blue Week here in the Oak Openings region of northwest Ohio. Blue Week is an event of the Green Ribbon Initiative, a consortium of local organizations working to protect the … Continue reading
Falling in Love…with Beetles
I might be in the early stages of a love affair…with beetles. A sort of beetle-mania, so to speak. I was aware that there are more species of beetles than plants on our planet, but hadn’t paid any special attention … Continue reading
Dandelion Delight
Yes, you read that right — I said, “Dandelion Delight,” alright. Many people despise these little yellow flowers that pop up in lawns in early spring, and do everything they can to eradicate them. In fact, there may be no … Continue reading
Posted in Insects, Ohio, Toledo
Tagged butterfly, dandelion, flower fly, hoverfly, insect, pollinator
6 Comments
Spring Ephemerals
I spent last Saturday in Dayton, Ohio, attending a spring wildflower symposium. After the day’s events concluded, I spent a couple hours photographing wildflowers in the area. Dayton is about 150 miles south of Toledo, and so things bloom earlier … Continue reading
Posted in wildflowers
Tagged ephemeral, flower flies, Goll Woods, hover flies, insects, nature, Ohio, wildflowers
12 Comments
Dork Alert – Galápagos, Part 4
Maybe I should have titled this, “Birder True Confessions,” because I’m going to admit to some embarrassing things that happened on this trip. The first is that I sometimes get excited about birds that other people don’t. I wrote about … Continue reading
Penguins and More – Galápagos, Part 3
On the morning of March 12, the ship anchored off the coast of Isabela Island near Elizabeth Bay. We piled into the zodiacs in groups of about 15 people, and headed off to explore the beautiful and peaceful mangrove lagoon. … Continue reading
Posted in Birds, Insects, Travel
Tagged conservation, cormorant, endemic, flightless, Galápagos, lagoon, odonata, penguin, Travel, turtle
4 Comments
Pirates of the Sky – Galápagos, Part 2
In my first post about the Galápagos trip, I showed you photos of the beloved and iconic blue-footed boobies. Most of those images were made on North Seymour, a small island that’s host to large colonies of the boobies as … Continue reading
Posted in Birds
Tagged birds, booby, frigatebird, Galápagos, kleptoparasitism, North Seymour
8 Comments
And…We’re Back – Galápagos, Part 1
Well, that went by quickly, didn’t it? The anticipation of the Galápagos trip lasted for months, and then it was all over in a flash. I’m editing hundreds of photos and struggling with how to write about it. There were … Continue reading
Destination: Zero Degrees Latitude
Yep, that’s right, I’m headed for the equator! If all goes as planned, by the time this post is live on the blog, I’ll be 30,000 feet above the planet in a giant metal tube, headed for the Galápagos. If … Continue reading
Posted in Travel
5 Comments
Odes in Winter: Where Are They Now?
Here in northern Ohio we’ve entered a period of the year that I think of as, “Is It Time Yet?” We’ve been through the depths of a frigid winter and have been treated to some brief warmups in which all … Continue reading
