Happy New Year dear friends. Here are some photos from America, coast to coast in all the seasons–12 nature moments in 2025. I am hoping you, too, have embraced beautiful sights in 2025.
JANUARY—We came upon this river otter while birding the Pacific Flyway winter migration in the San Joaquin Delta of California. Lontra canadensis.
FEBRUARY—The northern elephant seals (12 or more seen here) were tending their newborns on this chilly day at Drake’s Beach, Pt. Reyes, California. Mirounga augustirostris.
MARCH—A pair of mallards on the frigid water of the Chena River, Fairbanks, Alaska.
APRIL—Signs of spring at Abbotts Lagoon in Pt. Reyes, California. Wild douglas iris (Iris douglasiana).
MAY—A quiet boat ride down the Suwannee Canel at Okefenokee Swamp. Mossy cypress trees, black water, alligators silently traversing too.
JUNE—Spring emergence of the California Tortoiseshell butterflies on Mt. Ashland in Oregon. They were gathering sustenance from the tiny bell flowers of a blooming manzanita tree. Nymphalis californica.
JULY—Rural Illinois on a summer day, storm brewing, knee-high patches of wild prairie flowers between corn fields and farmhouses.
AUGUST—A boat ride on the San Francisco Bay at Tiburon, California, we were headed for a day of frolicking on Angel Island. Mt. Tamalpais reigning in the background.
SEPTEMBER—Breathing in the Pacific sea air at Bodega Head in Bodega Bay, California, as we waited for the fish shack to open for lunch.
OCTOBER—A cawing raven telling of the upcoming storm on this autumn day at Pt. Reyes, California. Corvus corax.
NOVEMBER—A foggy winter Wednesday on the Mendocino Coast, California. My birthday.
DECEMBER—A bird species we welcome in the winter at Pt. Reyes–the Say’s Phoebe, taking a momentary break from hawking insects. Sayornis saya.
Thank you, dear readers, for your visits and comments and interest this past year. A special thanks to my fellow bloggers for sharing the marvels of this planet with me.
Cheers to a new year ahead filled with more beauty…and the gifts to see it, smell it, hear it, feel it…hold it.
Written by Jet Eliot.
Photos by Athena Alexander.
Jet Eliot 