Illustrations
MICROBURST. Highly localized weather leaves there marks on the landscape.
CODE OF THE FIREFLIES. Silent, shining love letters in the Summer nights darkness.
PLIGHT OF THE PLOVER. At one time, this once ubiquitous shorebird can be found pretty much all over the World. But seaside use and development have been putting pressure on them and earned them a spot on Federally list of threatened and endangered species in 1986.
BIG CATS ON THE PROWL. The North American Bobcat population is growing every year. Increasing calls for hunting and trapping and a public anti-hunting outcry turn the volume up on the politics of population control. But how many bobcats is too many?
NUTS. Most oak trees will produce few acorns for several years and then suddenly they will produce a 100 times as much. The mechanism remains a mystery but one theory is that this behavior helps manage the surrounding fauna, including predatory insects and mammals like disease carrying ticks and mice.
KARNER BLUE butterfly, named by Vladimir Nabokov in 1944 and described in his 1957 novel, "Pnin". For the Appalachian Mountain Club publication, "AMC Outdoors".
DEFUNDING THE ARTS
NO FLIES ON ME.
JUMP RIGHT IN! THE WATER'S FINE!
THE MIGHTY BEAVER. Saving the world, one dam at a time.
Travel light and bring something to read. The Northeast elk of Pennsylvania were hunted to extinction in the 1870s. In the 1920s, Rocky Mountain elk were brought in to repopulate the species.
SNAGS. Standing dead trees provide home and food for a variety of wildlife, from birds to insects.
GOD EMPEROR OF TRUMP.
APOLOGIES TO AUDUBON, or the care and maintenance of feathers.
SOMETIMES IT'S JUST ONE OF THOSE DAYS.
THE PECKER RIDER. There was this funny video of a chipmunk riding a woodpecker a few years back. I thought it was funny, so here's my take on it.
DINING ON HEMLOCK The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid is an invasive species of insect decimating North American hemlock plants since accidentally brought over from Japan in the 1950s
SOUNDS OF SPRING, or PEEPERS A POPPIN'
The spring peeper is named for its most distinctive feature. This small woodland frog makes a high-pitched mating call that is inextricably tied to the end of winter—and is very loud.
GHOST MOOSE
Moose in northern New England are dying off in startling numbers. In some areas of New Hampshire and Maine, as many as 70% of moose calves and 20% of adults have died in a single recent year.
BIG PREDATORS IN NEW ENGLAND
Writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau famously mourned how tame the wilderness of his day had become. On his rambles in mid-19th century Massachusetts, he saw no cougar, wolf, bear, moose, deer, beaver, or turkey. These and other animals had been displaced or killed outright, their forested habitats transformed into active farmland.
DISCERNING THE LEMMING.
To understand where northern bog lemmings live and how many there are, researchers have traditionally looked for signs including green pellets and grazed runways. But these methods cannot distinguish between the rare northern bog lemming and its more common southern cousin. To make that distinction, scientists traditionally have had to capture and handle the lemmings... ...plans to test the DNA of the lemmings’ green pellets to distinguish whether they came from northern or southern bog lemmings... ...“This kind of CSI for wildlife can help us learn where they are, which is a first step to protecting them.”
WATER STRIDERS and their robot overlords.
NATIONAL WILDLIFE Magazine (Aug/Sept 2015 issue. "PURGING TROUT TO SAVE FROGS". Invasive species of brook trout, introduced into the Sierra Lakes ecosystem since the late 1800s have decimated local species of mountain yellow-legged frog.
The Mushroom King
Skunk Cabbage in Winter
"I AM..."
COVER ART for a research proposal. The Earth overlaid with a matrix of thin lines out of which an 8-pointed star emerges. The 8-pointed star or rose is a traditional Ukrainian symbol that has several meanings, but among them, “life, the giver of light, and knowledge,” the concentric rings represent the ongoing global search for the cure for cancer.
"LEAPING RED FOXES!"
Many red foxes are not indigenous to the New England area but were brought over from England in the 1700s for sport. The resilient animals found a home in the early New England wildlands. Today, the elusive, solitary Red Fox can occasionally be spotted loping through suburban backyards.
"THE CLOCKWORK MIGRATION"
This is an illustration for a story about why birds migrate.
"The SUPER MOUSE"
Cover illustration about genetic research for therapies to treat cancer and other illnesses.
Preliminary concept sketch for "THE SUPER MOUSE".
Alternative concept sketch for "THE SUPER MOUSE".
"DO THE WAGGLE!"
Honeybees give directions through what’s called the waggle dance. This performance communicates the distance, direction, and richness of sites that offer everything honeybees need—nectar and pollen, water, tree resin (used for sealing hives), and locations for new hives.
WILD INDICATIONS
Wildflowers are not only beautiful; they also tell us a lot about where they—and we—live.
“If you’re walking through the woods and you see a pretty dramatic change in the plant community,” says AMC staff ecologist Doug Weihrauch, “take a look around and try to figure out why.” Changes in the wildflowers will often reflect differences in the soil, or in the climate and topography of the area.
VERNAL POOLS
If you’re hiking in late March or early April and you hear a sound like ducks quacking in the woods, you’re probably close to a vernal pool. The sound is the courtship call of male wood frogs, who gather to reproduce in this ephemeral but vital habitat each spring.
UNDER THE SNOW
Small rodents like mice, moles, voles, and shrews all enjoy the relative warmth and safety of this seasonal habitat, called the subnivean zone. The network of small open spaces and tunnels between the snowpack and the ground gets it name from the Latin “sub” (under) and “nives” (snow).
HUMAN INDUSTRY
La Calaca Festival 2013, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
I produced this skull illustration to be displayed as part of an art installation at the La Calaca Festival. It was projected onto an 8-foot tall skull.
BATS TO BONES
The bat population in the Northeast United States continue to be decimated by the White Nose Syndrome, a fungal infection that strikes hibernating bats.
SPEEDY SPECIES
The peregrine falcon catches prey by ambushing it from on high and may reach speeds of 200 miles per hour as it dives.
THE WASP'S NEST
Wasps and hornets create hives from paper pulp that they make with bits of weathered wood and saliva.
BIRDSONG
The syrinx, a dual voicebox, allows songbirds to produce two independent, simultaneous notes, allowing for intricate, beautiful calls.
TO BE SORTED
The classification of new species is explored.
GETTING THE DRIFT
Continental plate tectonics and the echoes of Pangea.
THE LICHEN AND THE PRION
BITTERSWEET
WILD DESCENDANT
SHOCK AND THAW
The melting polar icecaps will have a terrible impact on all ecological systems as well as on human civilization.
HELL O' WEEN WITH THE OL' GANG
SNAKE IN THE GRASS
DUPLICITOUS PAWNS
'NITE GARDEN
Winter is coming and it's time to prepare your garden before the first blanket of snow.
THEFT AT THE SNOWFLAKE MUSEUM
THE ART OF BREATHING
Trees play a major role in reducing carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, and yet the rate of deforestation increases as wilderness is replaced by commercial and residential development.
ROCK OF AGES
Hand-built colonial fieldstone walls still mark the New England landscape.
BUNNY BAILOUT
MAKING MY WAY TO BIRDLAND
I MISTOOK HER FACE FOR THE MOON
SHELL SHOCK
INTO THE WILD
BREATHTAKING VIEWS
Haze obscures the once crystal-clear views of our natural landscapes. The increase in atmospheric pollutants and resulting degradation of air quality may make those once beautiful vistas a thing of the past.
HIGH INFIDELITY
Monogamy isn't in the cards for our wild, furry friends. It's estimated that only 3 percent are truly faithful to their partners. The rest are just party animals.
BIRD BY BIRD
TURN ON THE TAP
THE BIRDS AND THE BEES AND THE DRACUNCULUS VULGARIS
FINDING FAULT
MUSSEL BUILDING
Northeast freshwater mussels are an indicator species pointing to the health of its local habitat and the broader ecological condition.
DOLLARS FOR PORKIES
The great porcupine hunt of 1909
USEFUL BONES
A LIFE FIT FOR A QUEEN?
WORTH A DAM
THE LUNCHEON IN THE GRASS
LOOKIN' AT LICHEN
What is this stuff? Harder survivors can weather extreme environments, and yet are quite sensitive to changes in air quality.
WE COME IN PEACE.
SCATTERED MEMORIES
Squirrels use sight and smell to recover their scattered hoards of nuts and seed.
SEND IN THE CLONES?
Can cloning be used to preserve our historic "witness trees" like the Liberty Tree elm? And if so--should we do so?
STATE OF GRACE AT THE END OF TIME
BEAUTIFUL AND BOMB PROOF
"JE MEURS!"
WISE EYES
With eyes ten times more sensitive to light than human eyes, and too large for eye muscles, the barred owl can turn its head 270 degrees and tilt a full 90 degrees to find their prey, even in near darkness.
OH, BEE-HAVE!
THE MODERN PROMETHEUS
Inspired by Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein's Monster"
Inspired by Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein's Monster"
THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
GYPSY TRAVELS
BIRDS OF A FEATHER
IT MAY ALL BE OVER BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS...
THESE FIRES ARE NO ACCIDENT