Does Anyone Want to Discuss Nature?

My particular interest is learning about native plants, but most any part of Nature that I see while wandering will also catch my interest. In the past two years I have added butterflies to my list of reasons to head out with my camera, and I have had some success in finding a number of local species.

With learning to recognize plant families, I have also had some fun helping others with identifying interesting plants that they ask about. Mostly flowers, but sometimes a tree or shrub, as long as a photo shows a reasonable amount of specific characteristics, it is often possible to put them into a correct family, and with a little Google searching for a geographic area, sometimes a good guess at a species.

So I'm hoping to turn this snoozer of a "discussion" area into a place where anyone can comment or ask about native plants (distinguished from nursury plants), bugs and butterflies (moths too!), or critters of the forest. Post a photo. Ask a question. California topics are what I would hope for but the West in general is acceptable.

To pump this up I will now start using this as a travel blog, adding reports from any day trip I make to go see what's happening in the local Sierra.