Each page of the 2027 calendar A Closer Look is a moment in time, a remembrance of a place, and a photograph of an experience and wonder in nature. May these photographs encourage you to see the wonder in nature right where you are, and perhaps record your own experiences on paper or in your memory. Cover: My husband (Jay) and I ventured to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama. We saw thousands of Sandhill Cranes, and even two endangered Whooping Cranes. Their

A male Common Loon floats quietly on a pond in Caratunk, Maine. "What as that?" my husband, Jay, asked one night as we were falling asleep in our tent in Mira River, Nova Scotia. The eerie call was one with which I had only recently become familiar. The cry of the Common Loon, previously only a descriptive line in books based in the Northwoods, was becoming a mysterious soundtrack of recent sightings on this trip. The first sightings were on Harvey Lake in Northwood, New H

I always knew I would be excited if I ever got to see a whale. I had no idea that the power of smell would be part of the sensory experience... It truly was an emotional-sensory experience from beginning to end: visiting with my niece and getting to see Humpback Whales with Petit Passage Whale Watch in the Bay of Fundy. There was the bone-deep excitement in advance that I might get to see a Humpback Whale. (This has been a strong desire since my teenage years of John Denver s

Outside our second-floor bedroom window stands a Water Oak tree, its thick trunk and long branches quietly telling me that it is older than my 64 years. In line with the window is a large hole in the tree's trunk, made when one of its strong branches came down decades ago. The scar in the bark is now well-healed. To my human and wishful thinking, the hole would make the perfect nesting place for a pair of owls. I look every day to see signs of activity when Barred Owl nest-bu

Ollie and Jerry looked out from the cozy owl box. Their Barred Owlet sister, Tinkie, was already out on a limb. "How did she get out there?" they asked each other. Jerry decided he would find out later. He hunkered down and took a nap. Ollie, however, was just so curious. He had to find out. "Tinkie, how on earth did you get out there?" Ollie finally asked. "Well..." replied Tinkie, thinking back with a bit of trepidation. "It was like this:" "I put my left foot in..." "I p

Finding the Nature that is Right There The cheeping couldn’t be ignored. What kind of juvenile songbird was it? Precisely from where was it coming? The questions jumped from my awareness and into my curiosity. I had to go look. A few years before, I never would have heard the cheeping. I certainly wouldn’t have been walking around this abandoned parking lot looking for it. Finding Nature Right Where You Are There are times in our lives when we don’t notice nature unless

(And How the Various Birds Feed There) "Jay! Quick! Can you please turn the car around?" We were driving down the Overseas Highway in the Florida Keys, Jay at the wheel and I looking out the window. We'd crossed over bridges and passed miles of mangrove bushes and roadside marshes, barely a bird in sight. Then through another curtain of mangroves I suddenly noticed flashes of white patches through the leaves. Jay did turn the car around and parked on the side of a quiet road.

A small portion of the Sandhill Cranes at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge, Decatur, AL, 01.13.26 The Sandhill Cranes were calling me. Thousands of them were reported to be at Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in Decatur, Alabama, and I'd missed seeing them in their abundance last year. A deep longing within drew me to try again...and hopefully to see a few of the rare Whooping Cranes that had also been recorded. As we drove up to the national wildlife refuge, the corn fields

The mixed media piece created from this photograph includes brush strokes of acrylic layers, adding texture to the image. This photograph was shared in my Saturday nature email, "A Closer Look," on 12/20/25. It was sent amidst a holiday season recognized differently the world over, in which light and darkness and stars play a part. It also was the day before the solstice, marked everywhere. The photo is also one that I had recently turned into a mixed media piece, applying br

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It all began with walking and photographing in the neighborhood...then sharing what I observed with others. I long for all of us to see...