Tag Archives: travel

Photos of the Week – January 24, 2026

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Well, I was out sliding around on the ice again this week. I made two trips up to the tiny reservoir north of Aurora to search for photo compositions on its frozen surface. I was not disappointed.

Hemp dogbane seed (Apocynum cannibinum)
Dogbane seed.
Dogbane seed.

Some recent windy days had blown seeds of both dogbane and milkweed on to the ice, where they’d ended up perched on their comae (their fluffy parts). Wasn’t that fortuitous! They look really pretty when they do that.

Common milkweed seed (Asclepias syriaca).

Both times I visited, there was a small duck hanging out on the ice. I approached carefully and it seemed amenable to being photographed. I’m pretty sure it was my soft, comforting voice and non-threatening hat.

Ice duck (Anas carolinensis var. polyethylene).
The same ice duck (I assume) a couple days later.

It was good to see I wasn’t the only lunatic walking around on the ice. Several raccoons had also been around, based on the numerous tracks I found.

Raccoon track in a skiff of snow.
A raccoon that didn’t wipe its feet.
Frosty smartweed (Polygonum sp.)
Ice on the tip of a grass leaf dangling near the ice’s surface.
Frost at the entrance of a tunnel made of an elm leaf on the ice.
A frosty grass stem.

The highlight of my two trips, of course, were the ice bubbles. Most of the ice looked like frosted glass and wasn’t transparent enough to show the ice bubbles that were surely trapped within it. Around the base of some plants, though, it looked like the ice had melted and refrozen, and that’s where the bubbles were. The rest of the photos here are just a few examples of the many, many bubbles I enjoyed photographing. I find them mesmerizing to stare at – like little galaxies of bubbles.

We’re in the middle of a big cold snap as I write this. I’m hopeful that I’ll get some more chances to photograph ice bubbles, seed comae, frost, and other winter wonders soon. Stay tuned!

Hiring Now! The 2026 Hubbard Fellowship with The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska

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It’s time! We are now accepting applications for our 13th class of Hubbard Fellows. Please forward this to anyone you know who might be interested. I supervise our fellows each year, and can’t wait to meet the next two.

The Hubbard Fellowship was built to help people bridge the gap between what you learn in college and the skills and proficiency needed to start a career. After graduation, many (most?) aspiring conservationists spend several years in seasonal positions, trying to gain enough experience to qualify for career positions. Because those seasonal jobs tend to be fairly narrow in scope and short in duration, it can take a while to build a diverse resume.

2025 Hubbard Fellow Noelle Schumann ignites a prescribed fire under the watchful eye of a mentor.

Hubbard Fellows are involved in nearly everything The Nature Conservancy does in Nebraska over the course of their 12-month fellowship. They spend a lot of time doing land stewardship – getting the training they need along the way – but also attend board meetings, engage in strategic discussions, and help with fundraising and marketing work. Fellows get to meet and work with researchers, lead groups of volunteers, and talk about conservation to the public.

In addition, each Fellow can design their own independent project, which allows them to dive more deeply into a topic of their interest. As long as it provides some kind of tangible benefit to The Nature Conservancy, projects can look like just about anything. Fellows have conducted field research, created art, developed recommendations for conservation strategies, designed outreach programs and materials, and much more.

Our other 2025 Hubbard Fellow, Kojo Baidoo, gets an up close look at bison at The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve.

By the end of their year with The Nature Conservancy, fellows tend to have a stronger sense of what they want to aim for in their career. Sometimes, that leads them into graduate school, ready to focus on their chosen topic, and with an eye toward what they want after they complete their next degree. Other times, it sets them up for a successful job application in land stewardship, environmental education, conservation fundraising, or other fields.

If all of this sounds like something that applies to you, please apply! We get applicants with both undergraduate and graduate degrees. The level of your degree doesn’t matter nearly as much as your enthusiasm and potential. We want to help build the next generation of conservation leaders (including all forms of “leadership”) so tell us why this fellowship would be helpful to you and why you’re excited about the opportunity.

You can read much more about the Hubbard Fellowship here and in this brochure. Applications are due September 28, 2025 and our two new fellows will start on February 2, 2026.