Since 1970, April 22, a date generally between spring break and final exams in schools, has been designated as Earth Day. The brainchild of Senator Gaylord Nelson of Wisconsin and prompted in part by an oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, the date is set aside for raising awareness of environmental issues we face on our one and only little planet. In 1990 Earth Day went global and is now recognized in nearly 200 nations worldwide.
While I’m far from qualified to preach to anyone on environmental concerns, I love nature and feel truly blessed to live in an area where I can be immersed in it within minutes of my front door. Therefore, instead of bloviating about said concerns, I thought I’d share a few fairly recent images from my little slice of the planet that deserves humanity’s love and respect (and doesn’t always get enough of it).
I’ll start with a quite recent image from a wonderful camping trip I took this past March with a friend of mine who lives in Quincy, California. We had an unseasonably warm winter in these parts so we were able to get into Bucks Lake in Plumas County far earlier in the spring than is typical. On our first morning in camp, I thought I had a bear outside my camp trailer in the 4:30 AM darkness. It turned out just to be my buddy banging around outside his camper. Noting how clear the sky was, I walked down to the lakeshore and saw that the galactic core of our little galaxy lined up wonderfully with the mouth of Mill Creek where we were staying. By the time I could scramble to get some gear out of the pickup and get down there, “astro darkness” was technically over, but we were still deep enough in twilight to capture an image with nice detail in the Milky Way core. A bit of “light painting” with a handheld flashlight over a few frames provided some detail in the shoreline….
My wife and I took a trip to the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge during the middle of this past winter. Winter is one of the best times to go due to the plethora of migratory birds that stop over in Glenn County, California. Over the course of a few days there, I got several images I like.
An American bittern — the first either of us had ever seen…..
Snow geese at dawn….
Snowy egret doing a balancing act….
Black-necked stilt….
Last December I spent a wonderful evening on the eastern shore of Eagle Lake, northern California’s second largest natural lake (behind only Clear Lake down in Lake County).
I enjoyed the view so much I went back the following morning…
Last fall my wife and I stayed at Burney Falls for a few days. Once school is back in session the campground there is very quiet and peaceful. One morning I went down and had the 8th Wonder of the World (according to Teddy Roosevelt) all to myself…
On the same trip we made it to Potem Falls, another lovely little cascade that I hadn’t been to in probably 30 years. We had it to ourselves as well…
I’ll close with another fun image from Eagle Lake. This time I was on the south shore when Comet C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) was setting just after dark…
I could go on and on but I’ll close here for now. I urge everyone to take every chance they get to get outside and enjoy this beautiful planet of ours and take care of her so others can enjoy her as well.
Until next time, be well and safe!