Like Top Gun, But With Falcons, and On Alcatraz
A juvenile peregrine falcon flies in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. (Vishal Subramanyan) Our first sign of falcon presence is a lone pigeon feather that floats down like a sinister snowflake from the top of the Alcatraz lighthouse, the highest point on the island. “I bet that top walkway is just littered with pigeon […]
Educational Programs at a Land Conservancy • John Muir Laws
This week, our special guest Tara Laidlaw shares with us about the programs she has developed for kids using nature journaling with the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy. Tara shares about her programs, her school visits that help to set the tone for the field, the transformative field trips her students embark on with her, and […]
Ventura County in Early June – The Tidepooler
Tide Pooling Log: Ventura County in Early June June 17, 2024 Sunburst anemone (Anthopleura sola) Summer in California brings extremely low tides, but only in the very early hours of the morning. While not great for sleep schedules, these tides offer a great opportunity to see nocturnal animals you won’t see during the day and a […]
The Meaning of Dos Rios, California’s Newest State Park
A riverbank, as seen in Dos Rios State Park. (Kate Golden) On Wednesday, June 12, the state of California officially opens Dos Rios, the first new state park in more than a decade. It’s a riparian forest restoration at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers, in the Central Valley, about an hour […]
I Went to the Intertidal During a “High” Low Tide; Here’s What I Found – The Tidepooler
I Went to the Intertidal During a “High” Low Tide; Here’s What I Found July 1, 2024 During the lowest of low daytime tides, you’ll find hordes of people at popular tide-pooling locations. Everyone knows that you have to visit during the lowest tides to see the best stuff, right? Well, kinda. For the intertidal enthusiast, […]
The New Normal: Hot Bats Drop By the Thousands
It was the middle of a triple-digit heat wave in the hottest July ever recorded in Bakersfield, California. Bat biologist Erika Noel stepped beneath a freeway overpass along State Route 178, and the air felt like an oven. Forty feet above, clustered among five joints of the bridge, were thousands of Mexican free-tailed bats emitting […]
Make Your Own Field Guide • John Muir Laws
The Nature Journal Educator’s Forum welcomes guests Rachael Robbins and two of her students as we learn about a special project they did with their class: creating a local ecosystem field guide! Rachael Robbins is a fifth grade teacher at Bay View Elementary in Burlington, Washington. She uses nature journaling with her students to connect […]
Nudibranchs and Tunicates at Dawn – The Tidepooler
Tide Pooling Log: Nudibranchs and Tunicates at Dawn September 22, 2024 The lowest low tides come in cycles as many days in a row boast negative tides impacted by the moon’s orbit. If you’re familiar with the way the moon impacts the tides, ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://thetidepooler.com/2023/03/23/tides-sun-moon-tide-pooling/) this makes sense. For tidepoolers, these cycles encourage us to be on […]
California May List Ancient, Iconic White Sturgeon as Threatened
The Bay’s white sturgeon—huge, slow-to-reproduce “living fossils” that have hardly changed over their approximately 200 million years on Earth—are now facing such peril that the state of California has closed fishing for them under emergency regulations while it considers listing them as a threatened species. White sturgeon lurk in the murky bottom of San Francisco […]
Animal Three-Quarter Views • John Muir Laws
Let’s look at 3/4 views of animal faces! This is one of the most useful ways to think about drawing animal faces, because you’re more likely to see 3/4 views than any other view! This workshop includes a mini-lesson on heads of herbivores vs. carnivores and primates. (Session from 13 June 2024) Please share if […]