Natural History Journal

Spring.  This is the Valley at its best.  The color pallette is glorious: green and blue, white and gray, subtle and brilliant all at once.  And the birds!  The birds are at their best as well, as colorful neotropic migrants arrive: orioles, grosbeaks, tanagers, warblers and others that have spent the last five or six months in the New World tropics.  Resident breeders are busy as well, defending territory, courting, nesting and beginning to incubate eggs and raise young.   The wetlands and riparian forests that make up the Central Valley's San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge are full of song and color and movement this time of year, a true delight for the senses!   A couple of days ago, I spent the morning slowly wandering and delighting in the birds and the clouds.  I invite you to check out a few of the photographs I came home with, captured moments showcasing what I believe to be the very best of this humble but very special piece of the Valley. The wetlands at San Joaqu

*This is an edited re-post from last Easter.  Life.  New life.  Abundant life. There is so much life all around us, and I delight in it!  Birds and wildflowers, biology, ecology, the environment, the entire natural world around us: it's all about life.  And there is no better season to celebrate new life than spring, as buds break open, wildflowers bloom, birds fill the air with song and adorable baby animals pop up all over the place!   In the spring, we celebrate as Life is resurrected, miraculously reborn, all over Creation! On Easter, Resurrection Sunday, it is appropriate to celebrate this new life.  But let's not forget the One who makes it all possible, the One who paid the penalty for our sins and defeated death, once and for all, so that those who believe in Him can experience both abundant life now and eternal life in the future. Jesus tells us, "I am the way and the truth and the life."  (John 14:6) This spring, this Easter, as you celebrate new life, remem