Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Trail Log, 2024
In 2024, Tyler and I traveled the country and saw 549 different bird species! If this were an official “big year,” that would be the most important number of the year. As we have tried to convey throughout the year, our “moderately sized year” has always been about more than the numbers. We want to experience and enjoy each sighting; we’ve even tried to glean lessons and enjoyment from missed sightings and close encounters. Here, in honor of the joy of the broad diversity that we observed this year, is a non-comprehensive list of sightings of other animals, the non-avian species, we encountered over the year.
Animal sightings, in order of first appearance: California ground squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) Western gray squirrel (Sciurus griseus) Mohave ground squirrel (Xerospermophilus mohavensis) Desert cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus audubonii) Black-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) Bobcat (Lynx rufus)
Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) California sea lion (Zalophus californianus) Round-tailed ground squirrel (Xerospermophilus tereticaudus) Wild donkeys Arizona gray squirrel (Sciurus arizonensis)
Skunk sp. Gopher sp. Chiricahua leopard frog (Lithobates chiricahuensis) Javelina or Collared Peccary, (Tayassu tajacu)
Painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) Barbary sheep (Ammotragus lervia)
Fireflies! Hispid pocket mouse (Chaetodipus hispidus) Texas tortoise (Gopherus berlandieri) Texas spiny lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus) Whiptail lizard sp. Catfish sp. Green anole (Anolis carolinensis) American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) Feral hogs Little brown skink (Scincella lateralis) Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Manatee (Trichechus manatus) Bats! (several species unidentified) Florida softshell turtle (Apalone ferox)
Florida red-bellied turtles (Pseudemys nelsoni) Channeled apple snail (Pomacea canaliculata) Gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) Green iguana (Iguana iguana) Wild horses Common watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) Ratsnake sp. American toad (Anaxyrus americanus) Southern chorus frog (Pseudacris nigrita) Nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus) Virginia opposum (Didelphis virginiana) Eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus) Three-toed box turtle (Terrapene triunguis) Red-eared slider (Trachemys scripta elegans) American bison (Bison bison)
White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Raccoon (Procyon lotor) Black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) Long-tailed weasel (Neogale frenata) Western terrestrial garter snake (Thamnophis elegans) Woodhouse's toad (Anaxyrus woodhousii) Ord's kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ordii)
Spiny lizard sp. Common side-blotched lizard (Uta stansburiana) Elk (Cervus canadensis) Least chipmunk (Neotamias minimus) Golden-mantled ground squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis) Uinta ground squirrel (Urocitellus armatus) American black bear (Ursus americanus) Mountain cottontail (Sylvilagus nuttallii)
Moose (Alces alces) Arctic ground squirrel (Urocitellus parryii) Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) Muskox (Ovibos moschatus)
Red fox (Vulpes vulpes) Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis) American pika (Ochotona princeps)
Marmot (species unidentified) Harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) Sea otter (Enhydra lutris) Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) Aggregating anemone (Anthopleura elegantissima) Rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii) Pacific Tree Frog (Pseudacris regilla) Common muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) Coyote (Canis latrans) Tiny little mouse! (species unidentified) Vole sp. Northern leopard frog (Lithobates pipiens) Eastern grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) Thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Ictidomys tridecemlineatus) Creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) Salamander sp. Chincoteague pony (Equus caballus) Delmarva fox squirrel (Sciurus niger cinereus) Atlantic ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata) Sand jelly sp. Garden slug (Arion hortensis) Eastern box turtle (Terrapene carolina carolina)
Striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) Gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) Humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Atlantic surf clam (Spisula solidissima) Northern moon snail (Polinices heros) American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) Meadow vole sp.
What a list! Each of these sightings is a memorable moment from the year, which is astonishing. This list is not inclusive of butterflies or other insects we saw, nor does it include the enormous diversity of plant and fungi species we observed. Most of the species above were seen multiple times in different settings, and there were several others we observed in some form of captivity that we did not include here.
Even if we had included all the pets and captive animals, the plants, the insects and the birds… it wouldn’t come close to a comprehensive list of all the species we were in the company of this year. Imagine the species that simply evaded our notice, staying quietly hidden or slinking slowly by as we held our binoculars to our faces. One of the most humbling experiences is to realize how frequently creatures flush from our view long before we can sense them. The prime pleasure of sleeping in a tent at night is the gentle rustle of the night alive, knowing there is a whole nocturnal drama happening while we snooze. Imagine the many, many owls we walked past as they slumbered in daylight. Imagine the underground network of subterranean dwellers, or remember the strange variety of ocean creatures we saw at the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. All the animals, all year… and the memories I hold in my head are also living beings that continue to breathe right now. The alligator I remember from the Florida swamp is currently, this minute, still sitting in that swamp, lying in wait for a tasty morsel. The Arctic ground squirrels scurrying all over the pad at Toolik Field Station last summer are presumably curled up in hibernation. When we heard coyotes howling on our evening walk through Tyler’s parent’s neighborhood a few nights ago, were they the same coyotes we heard last January on the eve of our departure? Possibly! The point is: this world is crawling with creatures. We share this earth.
In my opinion, that knowledge confers a responsibility to be a good neighbor. I am going to ask you, friends and readers, to not only turn your attention to the wild things around you, but to consider what your knowledge of them demands of you. First, take notice: what do you hear when you step outside? What do you see, smell? What signs are left for you to notice? Bunny prints in the snow? Deer droppings on the lawn? Who lives around you, and what do they need to thrive? How would it be to see the world from their point of view?
Once you take notice, follow your curiosity. What do you wonder about these creatures? Who can teach you more about this, beyond your own observations? Go further than an internet search! Pick up a book, talk to an expert, talk to more than one. Here’s a recommendation if you need a place to dive in: An Immense World by Ed Yong is an amazing summary of what science currently knows about animal senses and how they work. Recommended by a friend, I finally picked up this book over Christmas and it is mind-blowing! There are comparisons we can draw between our own senses and animal versions of those same senses, like the differences in hearing or seeing and how those inform how we experience the world. Stranger still, we can attempt to understand how animals use senses we don’t possess an equivalent of, like sharks sensing electric fields or birds migrating with an internal compass. The book is amazing, very thorough and yet super readable.
Finally, having pondered the living world around you, I invite you to consider the implications of this variety of life. The very fact that there are so many ways to be in this world really decouples my worldview from the anthropocentric focus. I can’t think of a more important time than now, right now, to consider our place in the grand scheme. There is a madman with a giant ego in the halls of power: an age-old human story of greed and corruption. But what is happening around the margins of the human drama? While we debate drilling, funding, tariffs and bathrooms, whose homes are being bulldozed? What forests are being felled? Who is lost in the noise of our industrial development? Who is choking on microplastics, displaced by wildfire or toxic effluent? Right now, this very minute, please remember: this is not our planet alone to wreck and ruin.
Is what you hoped for and expected a joyous summary of our lucky year, minus the note of grim reality? Well, you are forgiven: it’s what I hoped for as well. But like the astronaut who sees the planet from space and realizes it’s all we have, my chief lesson of the year is that this joy that is our birthright is precious and vulnerable. I cannot come home from my experiences and forget that I have a responsibility to protect what I love and what sustains me. Maybe in hindsight, it’s obvious what the outcome would be: birdwatching for a year straight radicalized me. Living out of a tent, wearing the same clothes week after week, having only gas station ice refills for refrigeration and a head lamp for a reading light: radical. Magical. Utterly liberating. I know now in a way I didn’t know before what is necessary for a life. I know now that all the rest is luxury and excess. I also know I do not want to be silenced by the constraints of my culture and in particular the machinations of the morally impoverished few currently at the helm of our society. Trust your senses when they tell you this world is wonderful. Resist all infringement on your right to breathe unpolluted air. Refuse to accept the pressures that would divide us and distract us from the importance of love, unity, respect for all creatures. There is diversity in animal life and diversity in humans; our moral imperative is to defend the equity of these ways of being and support the inclusion of all creatures on this earth.
As usual, I am in awe of you both; your adventurousness, your capacity for learning, your love and your kindness.
If you have the opportunity to read “Vanishing Treasures,” I think you will enjoy both the dry wit of the author and the featured animals.