"The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." ~Eden Phillpotts

That statement above? That's it right there, and this is why I'm here on iNaturalist. To share, learn, and be awed by the gobsmackingly beautiful things that inhabit our rare and wondrous planet Earth.

I'm a longtime Bay Area science writer and book editor with specialties in natural history, conservation biology, and environmental science. My particular taxonomic passions are insects, amphibs, reptiles, and spiders, though I've taken a new interest in wildflowers. Birds, too, continue to appeal to me.

I'm a certified California Naturalist for the Mount Diablo Region, volunteer for CA State Parks and the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, and have had the deeply rewarding privilege of working with amazing scientists to help distill their research, both for lay audiences and peers, through articles, blog posts, trade science books, professional reference guides, and field guides. That said, as a generalist and non-scientist, I'm continually humbled by what I DON'T know versus what I do, and I continue to be delighted (and awed) by all I'm learning through the iNat lens.