In this space, I plan to record some of my thoughts, observations, and explorations in the natural world of the Santa Barbara region.
These entries may reflect current activities or they may have been written in the past. In over thirty years of keeping a nature journal, I have many wonderful adventures to share with you.
From time to time, I may include a photograph from A NATURALIST’S GUIDE TO THE SANTA BARBARA REGION. Or, I may simply include a bird list or directions to a newly discovered site.
I think the point of this space is to share with you my personal landscape. In 1908, John Burroughs wrote, “One’s own landscape comes in time to be a sort of outlying part of himself; he has sowed himself broadcast upon it, and it reflects his own moods and feelings.”
Each of us has a place in the natural world that speaks to us. More than a collection of mountains and trees, wind and sky, birds and beasts. It is a personal landscape, imbued with memories and experiences. Beyond the science, outside the data, lies a sense of belonging that ties one forever to the natural world of a particular place.
Mine is the Santa Barbara region. I’d like to share it with you.
