Back Yard Biology

Bull island Nature Reserve in Dublin, Ireland

Sue — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:21:15 +0000

We visited Bull Island on the east coast of Dublin one cloudy morning last week. This “accidental” sand spit was created about 200 years ago when a wall was placed at the entry to Dublin Bay to prevent silt accumulation in the bay. And now the sand island hosts a diversity of wading birds during migration, breeding sites for birds and seals, as well as two golf courses (where the British Open has been played). It’s a multi-purpose nature area.

Screenshot

Between the sand spit and the mainland, on the left of the photo, is a shallow saltwater pool and salt marsh, where we found some waders and ducks. The clubhouse of the Royal Dublin Golf Course is in the foreground, and the course lies beyond it next to the salt marsh. Sand accumulation from the Irish Sea, on the right side of the photo, has created small grassy dunes and a wide expanse of sandy beach that is very popular with summer bathers here. The beach and dune area beyond the causeway in the middle of the photo are protected areas for breeding birds and seals in the spring and summer.

A male red-breasted Merganser swam right up to us in the shallows next to the salt marsh.

A Long-billed Curlew and several Redshanks were hunting in the sandy areas exposed by low tide.

Oystercatchers were finding some long worms in the seaweed exposed at low tide.

There weren’t many birds to see in the grassy dune area of the island on this cloudy, windy day, but we could hear Skylarks singing above us, and I had to try to photograph them fluttering in the breeze.

This Skylark was probably 100 feet above my head, singing his heart out. On a better day last spring, we found Skylarks actually singing on the ground in Valencia, Spain.

Even though the temperature hovered in the high 40s and with chilly breezes blowing in from the ocean, two queen Buff-tailed Bumblebees were working the flowers of this carrot relative plant (perhaps called Alexanders).

We walked back to the main road over the causeway in the middle of the island and found this fantastic wood sculpture right at the intersection of the main roads. Called the Peace Tree or the Tree of Life, it was created by sculptor Tommy Craggs with a chainsaw from a dying Monterey Cypress. Coming from the other direction, this sculpture would mark the entrance to the nature preserve across the street.

The Tree of Life took three years to carve from the massive cypress and represents life in the water, on land, and in the air—with sea life emerging from the wood of the base of the tree, turtles and land mammals in the next third of the tree, and birds in the top third of the tree.

Viewed from the side, the 33-foot wood sculpture reveals even more animals at each level. I was also impressed with the decorative, animal-themed trash cans in this area!

Birding the Booterstown strand in Dublin, Ireland

Sue — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 12:36:10 +0000

We made an impromptu trip to Dublin, Ireland to scout out chemistry grad school programs with eldest grandson, and of course, we had to check out the local birding hotspots. Our hotel just happened to be down the street from the Booterstown marsh and the beach beyond it. (Booterstown is the anglicized name for the Irish version of “Town on the Road”, and has nothing to do with getting evicted from the area.)

One of the first birds we saw in the marsh was a familiar one that we see in Minnesota in the summer, Green-winged Teal. In Ireland and the UK, they are the only teal species, so they are known as just Teal.

Redshanks are common birds of all wetlands, and easily recognized by their bright orangey-red legs.

Redshanks viewed up close. I have only ever seen these birds one at a time and from a long distance, so this was a treat.

A few dozens of Black-tailed Godwits mostly resting in mid-afternoon.

A little closer view reveals the black-tail. Hooded crow flying over the few Godwits.

In flight, the Black-tailed Godwits have a striking wing pattern.

There were also dozens of Oystercatchers on the beach, some probing for invertebrates, and some just resting.

Oystercatchers are striking in flight with their bright orange beaks and legs and black and white plumage.

Brant geese are medium sized geese (much smaller than Canada Geese) that spend the winter along temperate zone sea coasts and fly to the high arctic areas to breed.

Beautiful birds on the ground and in flight.

I had lots of opportunities to photograph birds in flight, thanks to a Border Collie making the rounds along the edge of the beach.

My bird chaser friend.

We had a long walk along the beach photographing the birds and didn’t pay much attention to the tide moving in. This beach is so flat that just one inch of water coming in floods a huge section of the shore. As a result, we had to scramble up on the rocks, holding on to the wall that separates the beach from the train track in order to get back to our passageway across the tracks. A scary moment.

Final reflections

Sue — Fri, 06 Feb 2026 22:41:24 +0000

I admit it—we took a Caribbean cruise in January to escape. We have always taken what I would call “active vacations”, meaning go-go-go every waking minute, every day, to maximize the seeing, learning, and doing while in a new environment. This January cruise was not that! In fact, it was large quantities of enforced relaxation on sea days, and pushing 80 now, I found that quite acceptable for time away from the winter blahs (and cold). By the time we got home, though, Minnesota was under attack, and the Twin Cities were occupied by a hostile group from our own federal government. And that was the end of a relaxing January.

Birding in the Costa Maya resort on the Yucatan coast of Mexico was challenging. The resort was walled off from the surrounding area, which made it difficult to leave the beach, but we persisted and eventually found some natural vegetation and some of the local avifauna on roads leading in and out of the resort.

This Black-headed Trogon sat very quietly in vegetation at a forest edge. The species has a very limited distribution in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and the coastal forests of Central America, where it lives in semi-open habitats including banana and cacao plantations. It forages on fruit and insects, catching the latter like a flycatcher by sallying out from a perch.

An Orange Oriole (new bird for me) is orange all over except for a black face, bib, wings, and tail. It is found only on the tip of the Yucatan peninsula and feeds specifically on the fruits of two native trees. Its “orange-ness” is dependent on its diet.

Groove-billed Ani is actually a member of the cuckoo family and gets its name from the ridges on its mandible (upper part of the beak). They usually occur in shrubby or brushy habitats throughout Central America, especially where there are cows. They travel around in small flocks that tend to scare insects into flight as the birds move noisily through the vegetation.

Social Flycatchers are widespread from Mexico to northern South America, and are so-named for their gregarious habit of traveling around in small family groups. Although these flycatchers feed mostly on insects, they also consume a lot of berries and seeds.

Tropical Mockingbirds are a little smaller and a little grayer than their North American cousins, and are also commonly found around human habitations. They forage primarily on the ground, feeding on a variety of insects, fruits, seeds, small lizards, bird eggs, etc. This bird was actively searching around its perch, and eventually flew across the road and began a dispute with a neighbor.

A “Mexican stand-off” between the neighbors ensued. There was a lot of posturing and then some attacks.

After a few tussles like this, then both birds flew off into the bush. It wasn’t clear who won the battle.

Unfortunately, our field trip in Costa Maya came to a sudden end when we were discovered by one of the supervisors of the local work crew, who informed me that we had trespassed into a demolition zone.

Bananas, sloths, and rainforest in Puerto Limón, Costa Rica

Sue — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 23:25:58 +0000

After our brief stay in the Canal Zone, our ship headed for Puerto Limón, Costa Rica. This moderately-sized city is Costa Rica’s primary Caribbean port, and is also the gateway to Costa Rica’s beautiful rainforest preserves. Costa Rica has more than 30 National Parks, which combine to protect about 25% of its total land area (compare that to the less than 1% of land area in Madagascar and only 13% in the U.S. that is protected in National Parks).

Looking out on the city from the ship is a scene of colorful, one-story buildings typical of smaller Costa Rican cities. Flying overhead are a dozen or more Magnificent Frigatebirds, a welcome sign that we are indeed in the tropics.

The female Frigatebird (left) has a white head and breast; males (right) are solid black with a red throat patch. They swoop and soar without ever flapping their wings.

Frigatebirds spend most of the day in flight, looking for fish or invertebrate prey, and spend the night in trees or on cliffs.

We set out in a bus for an hour+ trip inland to visit first a finca (farm) that offers rainforest tours, boating, lodging, and food, and then a banana plantation.

A sleepy and very wet sloth was spotted high up in a tree along the roadside. Everyone peeled out of the bus to take a look.

We had a short hike in the rainforest to see sugarcane processing and various agricultural plantings.

Along the way, someone spotted a Boat-billed Heron, a bird that looks very much like a Night Heron whose bill got flattened in a press. These herons are nocturnal and have very large eyes; they live in mangroves and estuaries but nest in mangroves.

They forage in shallow streams and lagoons, going after pretty much everything that lives there smaller than they are. They use that enormous bill to scoop up creatures in the surface water, typically hunting in complete darkness.

Young bananas grow from the roots of ones that have been cut down during the banana harvest.

A grove of cacao plants showed pods of different ages. The seeds are covered with a slimy white membrane that is tasty to eat, but the seed is bitter before it is roasted. The seeds are mature once the pod turns yellow-green.

A Scarlet-rumped Tanager flitted through the vegetation, chasing something, then stopped and posed nicely. They are often found in places like this semi-forest, semi-garden habitat, eating fruit and insects.

I went for a short hike along a stream and heard this bird singing “Kiskadee” before I saw it — a Great Kiskadee.

Sitting on branches over the stream was a Green Heron, a friend from home (maybe…)

After lunch and another hike, we drove to a banana plantation where bananas, cacao, tobacco, coffee, and pineapples were being produced for commercial sale.

These banana plants were actually 15-20 feet tall. Each plant produces one flower stalk from which the bananas develop (top right).

Once the bananas are ripe, the whole plant is harvested, the banana stalk is bagged, and attached to a long pulley line that carries it to a warehouse. This saves workers from having to haul each heavy bunch of bananas separately.

It wasn’t coffee flowering or berry time, but this scene must be beautiful when it is.

Pineapples are actually bromeliads (plants that often grow on other plants), characterized by spiky leaves formed in a rosette, that will produce a single fruit from many flowers.

The incredibly elongate leaves of a tobacco plant were a surprise. Supposedly, the greatest concentration of nicotine is in the base of the leaf.

A large lump high on one of the bare trees among the banana plants started to move around, and when it finally shifted toward me, I got some nice images of a two-toed sloth.

A charming face any mother could love.

Check out those very sharp talons on their toes. There is a slight greenish tinge to the fur on its back and sides; this is algae that grows well in the damp conditions of the tropical forests where sloths live, and they may actually ingest it while grooming to provide a little extra source of nutrients..

Sloths have made a commitment to hanging from trees; in fact, their musculature is designed to resist pull. But on the ground, the muscles to support their body weight on four limbs (pushing muscles) are very weak, and thus, sloths only come down to the ground to defecate once a week.

After our brief encounter with the Costa Rican tropics, we’re now off to drier places in Mexico and the islands of the Caribbean.

The islands of Gatún Lake, Panama

Sue — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:01:53 +0000

Lago Gatún was created when engineers dammed the Chagres River in the Panamanian Isthmus to provide a water source for the locks in the Panama Canal. This large reservoir is approximately 85 feet above sea level, and ships in transit from the Pacific to the Atlantic, for example, are raised via the Pacific set of locks to pass through the lake, and then are lowered to the Atlantic sea level via the Atlantic locks. Construction of the reservoir created numerous islands that were simply flooded mountain tops, and these islands have become a popular tourist spot, in addition to the canal itself. Small boats, like the ones in the photo below, carry visitors around the islands to view wildlife.

We departed from a dock near the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve on the Chagres River and made our way out to the Canal channel that led to Lake Gatun.

It took us 15-20 minutes to cruise the canal and get to the lake from the dock, and we were going fast enough to send up significant spray (note for the future: don’t sit in the back of the boat when it’s going fast!)

The forested islands along the Canal are a rich mixture of deciduous trees and palms that create a distinct layering of the vegetation into near-ground, middle height, and tall canopy treetops.

Several islands lie right at the entrance to the lake, and we explored these in a much slower fashion, checking each cove for monkeys and birds. The monkeys have become quite used to boats full of curious humans, because they often get fed fruit by the guides. In fact, they are so tame and a little greedy that they come right onto the boat and beg.

“Give me the fruit”, says the White-faced Capuchin monkey.

Black (or Black and Gold) Howlers are the largest monkeys in Latin America, and they usually live in small family groups of a single male, multiple females, and offspring. Fully adult males lose their golden brown fur and are solid black. Females are grey to golden brownish. Black Howlers are primarily leaf eaters, but they like fruit as well.

Their name comes from the male’s ability to vibrate his hyoid (throat) bone to create a resonating chamber that produces deep and very loud, guttural roars. The howl is most often used as a territorial display as well as keeping the group “within shouting distance”.

On other islands, we found the medium-sized White-faced Capuchin monkeys, who are highly social and live in large family groups. These monkeys have a varied diet of plant material, fruits, invertebrates, and some small vertebrates like lizards, birds, and rodents.

These are the “organ-grinder monkeys”, easily tamed and long-lived in captivity. They are native to the Central American rainforests and are thought to be essential in the ecology of the forest for their role in seed and pollen dispersal. Capuchins are one of the most intelligent monkeys and have been studied for their ability to make tools to better exploit food resources.

Geoffroy’s Tamarin is a small monkey (tamarin, actually) that lives in small family groups of 3-5 individuals. Usually, only one female of the group is reproductively active at a time, and she mates with all the other males and usually produces a set of twins. Males contribute significantly to infant care, carrying the infants when the female is not nursing, until they reach reproductive age at about two years.

A dark gray-black Snail Kite was perched right on the edge of the island above the water. In Florida its diet consists almost entirely of introduced Apple Snails, but in Latin America, their diet is varied with snails, crustaceans, small fish, turtles, and snakes on the list of prey. They are gregarious in the winter and form large winter roosts.

Black Vultures are omnipresent everywhere, flying overhead, sitting in treetops, and resting at the edge of the water. These birds are part of the clean-up squad, removing carrion and animal debris from the landscape, but they will also eat eggs, reptiles, or small newborn animals or afterbirth.

A Wattled Jacana begged for a closer look from its shoreline perch, but alas we were on the lookout for monkeys, not birds, on this trip.

But the Wattled Jacana deserves a closer look (thanks to a photo by Charles J Sharp, posted on Wikipedia).

Jacana females lay four mottled eggs which are then tended by the male until hatching. She is generally larger and more colorful than the male and also more aggressive. Jacanas have extremely long toes, which enable them to walk on the surface of emergent vegetation.

A monster (4-foot) Iguana rested on a branch near the shoreline of one island. The all-green female (half his size) was on a nearby branch.

We pulled up to one tree along the bank, and I thought we were looking at insects lined up on the trunk, but the telephoto proved they were tiny Long-nosed (Proboscis) Bats. Weighing less than 1/2 an ounce and measuring about 1.5 inches, these bats are nocturnal insect hunters that spend the daytime in this formation, usually on a tree hanging over the water.

This kind of adventure just leaves you wanting more, but we had to return to the ship to cruise to the next port. This was definitely a highlight of our trip for me, so far.

A day in Ocho Rios

Sue — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 15:18:47 +0000

The first port of call on our cruise was the northern coastal Jamaican city of Ocho Rios (but we didn’t even see one of the eight rivers) on our tour of the countryside. But we did see some interesting sights along the coast:

Ocho Rios is located on the northeast coast of Jamaica—the capital, Kingston is on the southeast coast. Coastal cities are vulnerable to seasonal hurricanes and Ocho Rios suffered a direct hit from Melissa in October 2025, which caused catastrophic damage and flooding, especially in scenic Fern Gully (which is home to hundreds of endemic fern species.)

Konoko Botanic garden, zoo, and waterfall (a tropical paradise to wander around for an hour or two!)

Paved walks take you around and over a small stream in this lush tropical jungle.

Red ginger is a favorite of the butterflies like these zebra Heliconias.

There are several cages of noisy parrots in the “zoo”.

Climbing the waterfall is a main attraction.

A very hyperactive Black-throated Blue Warbler has chosen to spen the winter months here before migrating through MN next spring.

This orb weaver doesn’t look too threatening until you know that it is about 3 inches long!

A Brown Anolis lizard was busily proclaiming his territory in the garden.

Of course there are a variety of beautiful hotels along the coast of Jamaica ready to welcome the snow and cold-weary Northerner. Just imagine swimming in this warm, turquoise water!

A fantastic introduction to Jamaican life! Can’t wait to come back!

Leaving Miami

Sue — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:58:14 +0000

Next stop Caribbean ports—I’ll try to capture the essence of each of our stops, but WiFi is limited.

Miami skyline in the background of the port

Nice accommodations out on the peninsula off the port!

So long, Florida and Miami coast

Our first sunset at sea

Amazing cloud formations

Clouds over Cuba

Sunset clouds over Cuba

Things I’ve seen lately

Sue — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 01:45:57 +0000

After a couple of days of wildlife viewing in the Everglades and then a couple of days on Key Largo and Long Key, I finally have a few photos to share. The wildlife here has been scarce and very quiet—no singing, no flights, no great numbers of any one thing present.

Most common bird besides Osprey: Fish Crows are smaller than American Crows and seem to be tamer. They approach and offer a bystander a low, throaty warble that does not sound at all like a crow, sort of a soft “uh-huh’-uh”, while bending their head in a bow and fluffing out throat feathers.

A Fish Crow in shaded light has almost iridescent blue-purple feathers. Note the beautiful layering of back feathers that cover the wings.

A Fish Crow bowing to give the soft, throaty “uh-huh’-uh” call. The bird did this continually while it walked a few steps, peered at me, and walked on another few steps. But I don’t speak crow, sorry!

The Everglades – the place where rivers of fresh water out of Lake Okeechobee run through marshlands and grasses toward the sea.

A typical landscape on the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park.

A Tri-colored Heron showing off its richly hued plumage stalked one of the marshes on the Anhinga Trail.

There were a few Double-crested Cormorants lined up on a branch, but these were the only cormorants we saw while walking the trail.

The Anhingas were also few in number on Anhinga Trail. When we visited here last year, both anhingas and cormorants were numerous and actively building nests and hunting fish in the marshes.

It almost seemed like American alligators were more plentiful than the birds on the Anhinga trail in the Everglades.

A Florida softshell turtle surfaced briefly to look around in one of the marshes on the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades.

Long Key – one of a series of coral islands that form an arc around the tip of Florida.

A small sailboat had run aground just off Long Key beach. Boulders of coral along the shore of Long Key won’t stop surging waves from a tropical storm or hurricane like the mangroves do.

We found a juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron hiding in a thicket on the shore of Long Key. I poked the camera through branches and managed to get most of the bird in the shot.

The bird stared intently at the water for a few minutes and then stabbed at some debris under the water. I’m not sure there is anything edible in there.

Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers, as tiny as a small warbler, move constantly and erratically through vegetation, and are almost impossible to photograph.

But the much more sedate Eastern Phoebe posed very nicely in between darting flights to chase a bug.

I asked a wildlife guide what the name of this lizard was — can you guess from looking at it? I felt like saying, “well duh”, when he told me. It’s a Curly-tailed Lizard, a member of a family that is restricted to the West Indies, making this an introduced species in Florida.

Mangrove Skipper on Sea Lavender

This very dark brown, rather large (2-3 inch) butterfly is a Mangrove Skipper. Usually the dark brown scales are highlighted with a layer of blue on the hindwings, but it seems that most of the blue scales have worn off this individual. These are fast flying butterflies, but this one was happily foraging on sea lavender flowers for several minutes.

and lastly, some Nurse Sharks, seen while eating a fish dinner on Key Largo

Even though there weren’t many animals to admire, you can’t beat the warm weather and sunshine in Florida in the winter.

A Raptor-ous morning

Sue — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 20:12:10 +0000

Once again, we’ve fled the icy cold northland for the warmth of sunny Florida, and we’re on the hunt for some birds to see. Where better than the Everglades National Park, right at the end of the road at Flamingo. And yes, there were raptors galore, more than there were small songbirds, which were in short supply.

Ospreys and Turkey Vultures dominated the raptor scene, almost always one or two of them in sight.

Those big feet, with rough scaly pads on the underside. Osprey in Florida don’t seem to be as shy as the ones I see in Minnesota in the summer. They sit quietly while we walk right under them.

Quite a regal-looking Osprey, this presumed male was perched close to its nest, where it’s presumed mate was incubating eggs —as seen in the next photo.

This nest was much bigger than the typical Osprey nest, and I wondered if it had been used by Bald Eagles in the past.

Every few minutes an Osprey flew over at the campground area at Flamingo.

Turkey Vultures were commonly seen flying overhead, but there were also a few at the campground, and this one perched nicely in a shaded spot.

There were also a few Black Vultures hanging out at the marina at Flamingo. These birds are slightly larger (and better looking) than their cousins.

Red-shouldered Hawks are probably the most commonly seen big hawk in Florida, because they like to sit and wait in roadside trees for some unsuspecting prey to wander by.

This little female Kestrel preened itself for about 20 minutes, digging and scratching at its plumage, but every now and then, it would perk up and look around.

We saw quite a few Northern Harriers flying over the coastal prairie and grassy areas, but most were too far away (and too fast-moving) to capture.

What a great introduction to birding in Florida, and how nice to be out walking around in warm weather without worrying about tripping on the ice!

(Almost) Forgotten Photos of 2025

Sue — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 14:32:42 +0000

Traveling as much as we have the last few years, and shooting as many photos as I do on those trips, I accumulate many more images of what we saw than I am able to post on this blog. So this post is an opportunity to share some of those “other, almost forgotten” photo experiences from 2025. Use the links below to go back to the original posts about the places we visited.

Florida in January —an idyllic three weeks of non-stop gorgeous landscapes and birds, and a few unusual sightings.

Space X launch Merritt Island FL

The first successful SpaceX launch for the Starlink mission seen from Merritt Island FL, on Jan 6.

Sunset at Palmer’s Resort, Little Torch Key, FL

Everglades, Flamingo Lodge

Looking into the Gulf in the Everglades at Flamingo Lodge, FL

Scroll down from this page to see the rest of January 2025

Morocco in April with mountains, desert, Sahara, and coastal landscapes and birds (and quite a few goats)

Public campground on the shore of one of many lakes in the Atlas Mountains near Marrakech.

Much of the Moroccan landscape between metropolitan areas looks like this semi-desert landscape.

A typical scene of goats in the desert, eking out an existence on minuscule blades of green vegetation.

Camels are all domesticated animals now, although scenes like this must have been what it was like in the Sahara Desert before people tamed them.

Click here to see more of iconic Morocco.

Road and river trips with family in June

Hiking in Oglala National Grassland, Toadstool Park, Nebraska

Riding up to the top of the bluffs in Fort Robinson State Park, NE

A trial run for the newly refurbished river boats on the Snake River in the Tetons. The weather was so clear that the Grand Tetons stood out from a great distance.

Click here to read more about our visit to the Grand Tetons

Six family members “braved” the unknown while floating down a section of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument (there were no rapids).

The famous White Cliffs section of the Upper Missouri did not disappoint with its scenery and wildlife.

Time at campsites was idyllic and relaxing after a few hours of floating on the river each day.

Click here and here to read more about our first-ever visit to the Upper Missouri River Breaks.

South Africa in late August (my favorite travel destination)

Winter rains in Namaqualand on the northwestern coast of South Africa produced a super-bloom of wildflowers in August and September this year. At other times of the year, this area is a dry, rocky, semi-desert with the only notable vegetation being the Quiver trees in the background.

A rarely photographed landform called Boesmanskop (Bushman’s head) is clearly a man lying down at the top of this rocky ridge near the town of Kamieskrön. An internet search turned up only 1 other image of this formation!

Bird Island Nature Reserve in Lambert’s Bay, northwest of Cape Town, is an important breeding site for endangered Cape Gannets, which gather here in the thousands, packing themselves tightly together on a spit of sand. The noise and the smell were overwhelming! The guano excreted by the birds was harvested for fertilizer here until 1990.

We’re driving up the road to the gondola that will take us to the top of iconic Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. Erosion-resistant sandstone (quartzite sandstone) makes up the top of the cliffs that dominate the southern coast of South Africa.

From the top of Table Mountain, you can look down on Table Bay harbor and Cape Town with a 360-degree view.

Click here to see more of the Namaqualand wildflowers

Namibia in September

Whether you call this mountain of sand Big Mama or Big Daddy, it is the tallest sand dune (1200 feet) in this area called Dead Vlei, and is popular with climbers. The dunes were created by offshore winds that carried sand inland along the west coast of Namibia. In this particular area, the dunes cut off a river that fed a forested lake. The trees died and dried without deteriorating and remain as signs of the previous life here.

Pre-dawn scene of our Dead Valley Lodge near the Sossusvlei area of Namibia. Dead trees make interesting images.

Another example of dead tree art at Dead Valley Lodge — a mythical creature arising from the sand at sunset.

There is more wildlife to see than just the Big 5 – elephants, giraffe, rhino, cheetah, etc. in Namibia. Banded Mongoose are curious animals that run around the camps exploring the leaf litter and cabin exteriors for insects or small vertebrates.

Waterholes attract a great diversity of wildlife in the dry season, and also create opportunities for picturesque photos, like this reflection.

Namibia is a major stronghold for white rhinos, boasting the world’s second-largest population, with conservation efforts focused on anti-poaching, community involvement, habitat protection, and innovative programs like the Rhino Momma Project. Programs were designed to combat escalating poaching threats, particularly for the illegal horn trade, with organizations like WWF and Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) partnering with the government to secure their future. Every rhino in this reserve has a “minder” (like the man standing next to the door of the truck) that follows the animal 24/7 to make sure it is safe. They carry radios to alert each other to the location of the animals.

There are numerous blog posts on our travels in Namibia, which can be found by just scrolling back from this post, or clicking on “Previous” at the top right of the blog page.

Temperance River State Park, MN, in October

Temperance River State Park, Lake Superior, MN

Outflow of the Temperance River into Lake Superior in northern Minnesota. The river was supposedly named for the fact that its current is so strong that it prevented the formation of sand deposits at its mouth by the lake; hence, no (sand) bar was meant to be a play on words for no bar equals temperance.

Temperance River MN

The Temperance River gorge, like those of the other rivers that empty into Lake Superior, is steep and narrow and made of billion-year-old rocks laid down during the Mid-Continent Rift.

And now it’s time to move on from this old, worn-out year of 2025, and hopefully move on to something much better in 2026. Happy New Year to all of you from BackYard Biology.