On Saturday, Aug. 8, at 9:30 a.m., I'm presenting "Every Picture Tells a Story,"  a free virtual seminar offered by Bergen County Camera.

The illustrated talk and workshop will feature my photos from The Real James Bond (my latest book) and from my nature adventures in the Garden State, from the Celery Farm to Cape May.

I have found that with my type of writing, eye-catching photos go a long way to supplementing the text.

In some cases, the images -- like the one above, taken at the Celery Farm -- tell their own story.

In other instances, the images -- like the one below of Cuba's Bay of Pigs that I took for my book -- are more persuasive than any written description I could provide.

Register for the event here.

Learn more about my book and order a signed copy here.

Near a stream by the Red Trail at the High Mountain Park Preserve, I saw several rocks with small holes in them.

Anyone know what's going on?

Check out The Nature Conservancy's High Mountain webpage for some cool aerial footage from the summit here.

On Monday I wrote:

I took this pic near the Butterfly Garden many years ago, then found it again recently.

Can you name that mammal?

The correct answer, given by Diane Louie and Ron Shields, is:  White-footed Mouse. (Congrats to Diane and Ron.)

More about White-footed Mice here.

My birding column in The Record today is about one of my favorite shorebirds, the Black Skimmer.

James Bond wrote about them in the first edition of Birds of the West Indies, including the local name -- Pice de Tijero, which translates loosely as "Scissor Beak."

By the way, did you realize how narrow a Black Skimmer's bill is? Check out a photo I was lucky to take a while back:

Don Torino,  the sage of the Bergen County Audubon Society, wrote a wonderful column this week about our vanishing open space. It's posted on the Meadowlands Blog.

Here's a sample:

No matter if it’s a Northern Harrier or Eastern Tailed-Blue, a Bumble Bee or Little Brown Bat, all species are important and play an important, vital role in maintaining a diverse habitat that supports all life, including our endangered species.

We cannot have Bald Eagles if we don’t keep the water clean so that they can have healthy populations of fish, and if we don’t protect and save the wetlands and wildlife around them.

We can’t have Peregrine Falcons unless we protect waterfowl and shorebirds, and we will never have the Wood Thrush fill our forests with their music unless we save our Oak Trees and native plants which are the foundation of every healthy habitat.

There are no Monarch Butterflies without milkweed and there is no milkweed unless we protect the habitat in which it grows.

All habitats and wildlife is worth saving and fighting for and very often it’s not those big, obvious things that make the fields and meadows of our neighborhoods important. More often than not it’s the things we look past, ignoring the obvious while searching for the ones species that we hope will save us.

You can read Don's column here.

(Above, a recent Eastern Tailed-Blue from the Celery Farm.)