Check the boxes

Can you find a common theme shared by these three photo mosaics?

Here's the first one:

 

Any ideas yet?  

Here's the second one: 

 

Need a hint?  Consider the first letter for each organism, starting in the upper left corner and reading like a book.

The third mosaic:

 

I know this is tricky.  And the theme is?

For the first mosaic: Veliger, Otter, Tern, Echinoderm

For the second mosaic: Vulture, Octopus, Trifolium, Eagle

For the third mosaic: Vermetid, Owl, Toad, Egregia 

Thanks so much for playing.  Don't miss your chance to use your voice in the elections on Tuesday!

2001: A Natural History Odyssey

It's hard for me to believe, but this is post #2001 on the Natural History of Bodega Head!  

Some of you might remember that I created a few mosaics for post #1000, so here's another for post #2001.  This photo is made up of a combination of many of the photos used previously in the Natural History of Bodega Head posts:

 

You can click on the image above for a slightly larger version.  But since the individual images are small, it's fun to look at an even larger version of this mosaic and to scan around to remember different pictures from the past.  To do that, you can either view the 2001 mosaic on Flickr and use the magnifier to look around...or, the best option is to download a full-sized version of the 2001 mosaic from Flickr (click on the download arrow at the lower right corner and choose "Original" size) and then zoom in to look at the pictures up close.

The past 6.5 years with the Natural History of Bodega Head have been quite an odyssey!  I'm so thankful for all of your support during this journey.  Maintaining this blog is more meaningful because of all of you.  I hope that it has opened your eyes to both familiar and new plants and animals, and that it has offered a celebration of the place where we live.  

With gratitude,

Jackie

1000!

This is my 1000th post!  It's a little hard to believe.  

I knew this day was on the horizon, and I had been contemplating what type of photo might be appropriate for the occasion.  To be honest, I wasn't coming up with any ideas that I was happy with.  

And then Eric thought of a photo mosaic.  I could create a picture made up of 1000 images from previous blog posts.  That sounded like a great way to celebrate, and luckily there's software available to help.

I think you'll be able to tell that the first mosaic is an aerial view of Bodega Head.  You can click on the image for a slightly larger version.  But because it's so much fun to scroll around and reminisce about all of the individual photos, I've uploaded a full-size version of this mosaic to Flickr.  Click here to download a full-size version of the Bodega Head mosaic.  When you're on the Flickr page, use the download button in the lower right corner and choose "Original Size."

 

The Bodega Head mosaic came out well, and included some nice photos, but the original image lacked certain colors, which meant some blog photos were left out.  So I chose another image that included warmer tones (oranges and pinks).

The next mosaic is a sunset from Bodega Head.  It's a little abstract, but very pretty, don't you think?

And once again, if you want to have fun checking out close-ups of the individual pictures making up the mosaic, you can access the full-size version on Flickr.  Click here to download a full-size version of the sunset mosaic.

 

And I couldn't resist including one more mosaic.  Eric suggested a good title for this one — "eyeNaturalist."

 

When the final rendering was revealed, I wasn't sure what to think at first, with my eye surrounded by lots of figures and text, along with all of the plants and animals and landscapes and seascapes.  Then I thought that it was quite appropriate.  I'm always looking for interesting things, trying to learn more about them, and thinking about the best ways to share information.  This isn't a bad visual representation of that process!

Click here to download a full-size version of the eye mosaic.

And remember, all of the images in these mosaics are from previous blog posts.  It turns out that I've used a little over 4,000 images on the blog so far, so there were plenty to choose from!

It took me longer than expected to make these mosaics, so it's pretty late (at least for me).  However, at this significant milestone, I wanted to express my thanks to all of you who read this blog and discuss natural history with me.  It's all more meaningful than I can say.

I listened to an interview with Mary Oliver today.  In it, she said, "Attention is the beginning of devotion."  I've been trying to pay attention to the natural history of Bodega Head for a little over a decade now.  I know learning about it is endless, but after 1000 posts, I think I can say I am devoted to it.   ;)  So on to 1001!