Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go and do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~Dr. Howard Thurman
It happened again. Ten months go by, another 100 blog posts. So, as I have done in the past, I mark this passage of time with a brief review of some of the highlights from the last one hundred blogs. I suppose it is an excuse for me to look back and remind myself of how lucky I am, how much is out there to observe and enjoy, if I only make the time to get outside.
The third one hundred started with a trip to the Low Country of South Carolina.
Botany Bay (click photos to enlarge)
Botany Bay turned out to be as beautiful as images I have seen…I need to go back when low tide is at sunrise.
River Otter with fish
As always, Pocosin Lakes and Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuges provided many highlights of my last one hundred posts.
Tundra Swan at sunrise
Bald Eagle stirs up a flock of Snow Geese
This is especially true during the winter months, when the area’s lakes and farm fields fill with wintering waterfowl…
Young Black Bear pulling at a Cross Vine
Red-winged Blackbirds create a feathered tornado
Gray Fox waking up from a nap along Wildlife Drive
…and other wildlife.
Spring Peeper calling
Dwarf Crested Iris
Pine Warbler male in blooming Redbud tree
Spring brought lots of amphibians, wildflowers, and beautiful colors…
Bald Cypress along Conaby Creek on the Roanoke River
Prothonotary Warbler male singing at nest cavity
…along with a couple of canoe camping trips along the Roanoke River.
Eastern Chipmunk in the yard
Spider just after molting
And I spent a lot of time wandering the yard, discovering what my wild neighbors are up to.
Carolina Chickadee bringing food to nest box
Four Wood Thrush nestlings
I was happy to help provide some footage of nesting birds and what they feed their young for Hometown Habitat, an upcoming educational video on the importance of native plants.
Pronghorn Antelope at sunrise
Great Gray Owl chicks
Grizzly siblings
Rainbow in Hayden Valley
And I was lucky enough to spend another wonderful couple of weeks in my favorite place, Yellowstone, leading a trip and observing some of the magnificent wildlife of the region.
Black Bear cub watching us from a tree
Young bear looking down as I walk through the forest
I spent a lot of time with bears these past few months, watching them, and being watched. A very good year for bears, I must say.
Red-spotted Purple butterfly egg
Silver-spotted Skipper larva
As the summer ends and BugFest approaches (September 19 at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh), my thoughts, and camera, seem to turn to caterpillars and all things Lepidopteran.
Copperhead closing in on a cicada (too late, it dropped from its shed)
Phidippus putnami – close up of eyes
Eastern Dobsonfly male
Freshwater Jellyfish in the local pond
As always, I discovered some fascinating things as I wandered, and this has been a very productive few months for those “ah-ha” moments…Copperheads following cicada nymphs up into trees when they are emerging in order to dine on them; cool spider eyes; weird insects in the yard and at the moth light; and the return of the jellies to my swimming hole…wonder what the next one hundred will reveal? I can’t wait…
Roads End Naturalist 
Congratulations & thanks! What a special collection of great memories and stunning images you’ve shared in these postings.
Thanks, Petra. I think you might have been on a couple of the trips when the posts were experienced first-hand. It has been another good ten months out in the field, for sure.
Thank you for the previous 100’s…and we also can’t wait to see the wonders in the ones to come!
Congrats! Great achievement; keep up the lovely work. Love seeing pictures and stories from a far… 🙂
Thanks, Vivianne and Elise. I learn so much when I research these little snapshots of nature…guess I will keep doing them.