Perfect Things

We were walking past a line of shorebirds on the harbor’s breakwater when my son stopped me and pointed. “Does that bird only have one leg?” About two dozen black turnstones — I didn’t recognize them at the time, I had to use All About Birds later — faced into the wind, broadside to the […]

Happy Final Weeks of Summer Camp (to all who celebrate)

Subject: Final reminders Dear Nature Wonder Wishing Family, We’re so excited to have your child with us at Nature Wonder Wishing Camp next week. Please make sure that you read the parent guidebook and the camp code of conduct. You can find those documents in an email we sent six months ago that does not […]

The Mountains that Matter Most

Erling Haaland, the cool Norwegian soccer player, has a pretty fun and slightly unhinged social media presence. During the World Cup, a clip from his Instagram account resurfaced where he claimed, “Just raw dogged a 7 hour flight. No phone, no sleep, no water, no food. Only map. #easy” I have a confession: I, too, […]

Look up

On May 10, I leave my house in northern Washington state just after dawn. I drive alone along a braided river, over sagebrush plateaus, and through fields of golden flowers. Then one plane across the Cascades, and another across the Rockies, to finally land in my my childhood home in Colorado. I’ve come to stand […]

Birds of the District of Columbia

Birds of the District of Columbia used to be a weird little secret at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, an exhibit I often had all to myself – a bunch of taxidermied birds in old-school wood and glass cases, lining the hallway around the basement auditorium. On a recent visit to the museum, […]