Want to Watch a Desert Hairy Scorpion in Action? ©2025 by Joshua Venturo The Mecca Hills of Southern California are dry, dusty, and hot. Each day, the sun beats down, parching the ground until only a few shrubs can survive. Down in the wetter washes and canyons, there are catclaw and paloverde trees. Higher, on the rocky slopes and ridges, there are creosote bushes and spiky ocotillos scattered here and there. Once in a while, there is a branchy cholla cactus bristling with s

Yellow eyes shone out of the black forest, just outside the half-circle of white light our headlamps made. One winked out, then they both disappeared. Moments later, the eyes shown again, this time a few feet to the left. We summited this small Nevada mountain on a nice afternoon hike We had to do something . It was winter in the northern Nevada hills. The days had been getting shorter, and we were out later than we expected. The eyes, and whatever creature they belonged to,

Chapter 5: A secret about bread; the story of Bundt the baker In the middle of the Cranberry Village, there is a tiny, barely noticeable shack that sits by the street in the middle of a long row of shops. And hanging over the door is a crooked sign on which, if you look closely enough, you can barely make out the words “Bundt’s Bakery.” For Bundt the groundhog is far too busy making the best bread in the country to worry about making the outside of his shop fancy. He doesn’t

©2025 by Daniel Venturo It was a nice evening on the Oregon coast, and we had decided to take a tide pooling excursion before cleaning up and having dinner. We climbed through the rocks and started finding things—mammoth green anemones, orange and purple starfish, and spiny sea urchins. We called each other over to see tubeworms , new kinds of starfish, or strange gelatinous blobs. Then, as we peered under a large boulder, we saw a lemon! As we gathered around to examine the

Chapter 4: The secret to courage; the story of Fenton Frog Fenton Frog is a mailman – or a mail-frog I should say. His job every day is...

Dense forest thins. Views of jagged peaks become unobstructed. A glassy lake appears over a rise, reflecting each patch of snow that...

Chapter 3: The fisherman's secret; the story of Paul the mole There is a pond on the Cranberry Island. It is in a remote, quiet place...

High in the mountains, hidden in small pockets and nooks in the rocks and grass, there are puddles of water. At first glance, these...

Chapter 2: The most important thing; the story of Whisk the squirrel In the little village of Cranberry by the sparkling Cranberry bog,...

In the dark of night, in the cold of a deep pool in a rushing stream, a mayfly is hatching. This mayfly does not look like a typical fly....

Chapter 1: The Cranberry Island; the story of how things began The Cranberry Island, as it is called, is not really an island. There is...

©2025 by Daniel Venturo Iridescent green and blue. White wing patches. An extremely long tail. He flies through the grasslands, on his...

Great Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle Fascinating, strange, exotic bugs. Australian deserts are alive with them. Amazon jungles crawl with them....

Want to Listen? In the silence of the night, a lone coyote prowled. Overhead, a full moon cast its silver light. It gleamed off the quivering aspen leaves and created shifting shadows on the forest floor as it sifted through the spruce boughs. The silence was eerie, broken only by the stirrings of a mink in the leaves or the soft murmur of an owl in the trees. Quickly and quietly the coyote moved, her quavering nose close to the earth as she searched for promising smells. At

Want to Listen? He was the most unlikely individual for the mission. He was young and untrained; he had never even held a sword before. He was not strong physically, and he was so soft on the inside that even seeing a wilted flower brought tears to his eyes. He was new to the kingdom too and knew little about the land or the king or the subjects. He was naïve as well, and gullible—foolishly ignorant of the enemy and his lurking traps. Indeed, there were a thousand other perso

Want to Listen? We were hiking in Black Mesa State Park, Oklahoma. The sweat poured down our faces in the harsh sun, and waves of heat rose from the surrounding desert-lands. Then, suddenly, we spotted him. A flaming blue-orange speck moving speedily through the grass and dirt. What is he? He is a Festive Tiger Beetle. The Festive Tiger Beetle is a brightly colored beetle which lives east of the Rockies. It ranges in size from 11-14 millimeters. These beetles are diurnal and

Want to Watch? ©2025 by Jenny, Paul, Joe, Joshua, and Caleb Venturo Darting here and there, up the current, down it, between the rocks, through the water—he tries to dodge my attempts to view his bright colors. A minnow—keeping ever on the bottom—bright stripes, large fins—he is a darter. A rainbow darter—his name betrays his habits and looks. And it was in the Current River in Missouri where we found him. We just had an afternoon to wade in the river and get some fresh air b

Once upon a time, in the land of dreams, there lived two kings, King Just and King Greed. They both had beautiful land to rule, but King Just had the most beautiful land. He also had more wealth.  Now, one day, King Just invited King Greed to stay a week at his castle. The week went by quickly, for King Greed enjoyed seeing all the wonderful things King Just had. Before leaving, King Greed went through a closet when no one else was around. King Greed saw a beautiful crown of

Want to Listen? It was a beautiful day on the Emerald Coast, Florida. It was a tad rough and a bit more turbid than usual, which was perfect for fishing. As I sat in the warm sun watching my rod, I decided some swimming would not be amiss, so I hopped in. I could still see my rod, and I couldn’t resist the clear, cool water. After a little swimming and still no fishing action, I did some skimboarding, with frequent glances over at my rod. Still no action. We ate lunch. No act

Want to Listen? There was once a country called Shadow Hills where many different people lived. Now you may think that Shadow Hills was a horrible place to live. The name makes it sound like a dark place where there is no sunshine. But it actually wasn’t a bad place to be. In fact, the people who lived there loved it. Despite it’s name, Shadow Hills wasn’t dark all the time—there was night and day just like we have, and Shadow Hills had a sun. There were two reasons, then, wh