Early morning in Rovinj, Croatia

Self Reflection

I just updated my Hawaiian Islands map page with two new maps. They replace an older watercolor map and hopefully depict the islands better than I did before. As far as I know, there is no map of the full archipelago online that names (almost all) the rocks, islets, atolls and pinnacles.

One of the strange things about Baja is how it makes the world can feel uninhabited. Isla Carmen, Baja California Sur #photography

A flash of blue and yellow through the leaves — Yucatán Jay.

Still water, old stone, and the first light of day — Venice.

Green hairstreak, Cap de Creus, Spain. A flash of emerald in the coastal scrub.

The backstreets of Rovinj

Blue and turquoise door, Sidi Bou Said

Shorebirds in flight, Oregon Coast.

Male Black-crested Coquette, Cartago Province. One of the tiniest hummingbirds at just 2.5–3 inches, somehow one of the most ornate. Everyone notices the crest, but it’s the gold orbs on his chest that steal the show. #hummingbirds

Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, short-lived desert pools catching the last light of day.

Thick-horned nudibranch in a Cannon Beach tidepool. One of the strange little wonders of the Oregon coast.

Lake Manly has returned to Death Valley. And with it, the old fight over a one-inch fish. “The Pupfish Wars of Death Valley” — a full update to one of my oldest stories on Notes from the Road. www.notesfromtheroad.com/desertsouthw...

Morning light at Ridgefield NWR. Washington does this sometimes.

Euljiro after the machines stop. #Seoul

Bleached trunks standing in the lagoon beside Tuheiava Pass, the only entrance to Tikehau’s lagoon. www.notesfromtheroad.com/oceania/tike... #FrenchPolynesia #Tikehau

Sunset across the hoodoos of the Bisti Badlands, New Mexico. www.notesfromtheroad.com/desertsouthw... #NewMexico #Geology

A narrow alley in Rovinj, Croatia. Laundry lines, cobblestones, and centuries of Adriatic history.

One of the best things you’ll read this year. This is the final post in a three-part series on the hidden system that keeps civilization running—starting with insects along a river in Costa Rica. www.notesfromtheroad.com/neotropics/r... #biodiversity #naturewriting

Evening over Birgu, Malta. The limestone towers catch the last pink light above the Grand Harbour before night settles over the old city. From my Malta series: www.notesfromtheroad.com/europa/malta... #malta #travelphotography

Morning light catching the gorget of an Anna’s hummingbird at Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. #Oregon #BirdPhotography

I took this in Detroit, Oregon after the 2020 fires. A washing machine melted into something unrecognizable. Soil sterilized. This is the reality Patrick Moore waves away in Chapter 9 of his anti–climate change book. Read my full rebuttal: www.notesfromtheroad.com/roam/patrick...

Shiprock rising from the high desert of New Mexico.

A drop of pond water can hold entire ecosystems. Predators, grazers, microbes—life building the hidden infrastructure of the biosphere. New essay: A Drop of Water and Lago Angostura Part IV of V in the Turrialba series. www.notesfromtheroad.com/neotropics/l...

A classic Tunisian doorway in Sidi Bou Said. #Tunisia

1956 neon sign at the Siesta Motel in Durango. While these old beauty is well-preserved, other #AtomicAge and #Googie signs are being removed. In fact, I just learned that some of these signs I photographed or sketched in Las Vegas a few years ago are now gone.

Forbes retracted Chris Dorsey’s polar-bear article 48 hours after my rebuttal went live. Dive in: www.notesfromtheroad.com/roam/chris-d... #polarbears #climatechange #factcheck

Mount Adams rising beyond the blooms of Snowgrass Flats. #washingtonstate

Before tonight’s #SOTU narratives settle in timelines, here’s something grounded in documented events: An accounting of Trump-inspired violence — chronologies, sources, dates: www.notesfromtheroad.com/roam/trump-v... Because the public record is part of the conversation. #sotu

Cuban Café, Cuba, #NewMexico. An early-1960s Atomic Age roadside sign. This #Googie style has been disappearing throughout the southwest as neon and hand-built steel give way to LED boxes, earwax-colored boxes and corporate fonts. I started this in Fresco and finished it in watercolor and Copic.

Full moon over Badwater Basin. The continent’s lowest point, lit by Earth’s oldest witness. #photography

Deep-Blue Eyed-Metalmark (Necyria duellona). Proof that the rainforest runs on neon. Cartago Province, #CostaRica.

You can stare at ice and call it stable. Or you can measure it. In Forbes, Chris Dorsey chose anecdotes. I chose Arctic data — with Dr. Julienne Stroeve and Kiliii Yuyan. #ClimateChange #PolarBears Full debunk: www.notesfromtheroad.com/roam/chris-d...

When your job is drilling trees for snacks. Red-breasted Sapsucker, #Portland #Oregon

The Dark Divide, Washington: still wild, still roadless, still public. A roadless area is national forest land kept free of roads, logging, and industrial development to protect wildlife, clean water, and intact ecosystems. The Trump administration is working tirelessly to remove these protections.

A 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air cuts through #Havana, still rolling after 70 years.

A Lesser Violetear pauses between flowers in the Santa Marta Mountains of Colombia, carrying pollen, altitude, and evolutionary history on a body built for precision. #birds

Neon-lit side streets of Myeongdong after dark. #SouthKorea

Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, transformed into Lake Manly after rare, heavy rains pooled across the salt flats and a large swatch of Death Valley becomes a shallow lake, hinting at the much larger Ice Age lake that once filled the valley thousands of years ago. #photography

Sauvie Island Bridge, Sauvie Island, #Portland, #Oregon

Hanging by a single strand of silk on a rainy night at Rancho Naturalista, this inchworm-like caterpillar turned out to be Simena luctifera, a Neotropical erebid moth in the family Erebidae. #costarica

Alien Egg Factory in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness, #NewMexico

Quiet alley in Sidi Bou Said, #Tunisia

A spiny-headed treefrog, watching over her tadpoles in a bamboo stalk. A reminder that civilization rests on systems most of us never see. www.notesfromtheroad.com/neotropics/t... #turrialba #costarica #frog

A blue gallarija stacked above a classic Maltese door, color meeting limestone.

Alley in Piran, #Slovenia

A large leaf has caught freshly fallen Tree Heliotrope flowers, #Tikehau Atoll, French Polynesia

A Violet Sabrewing at Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica — the largest hummingbird in North America. Massive by hummingbird standards, intensely territorial, and impossibly luminous. May the new year bring you something of its power and light.

Winter turning glass into a temporary map. Multnomah Village, #Portland.