Southeast to Southeast!
ALASKAFrom early April through early October my home is Juneau, Alaska located in "the panhandle" of southeast Alaska.
Here I am a Naturalist Guide for Gastineau Guiding Company where I take visitors from the cruise ships on exceptional shore excursions to the Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching in the waters of Stephen's Passage. I'm working on a book on the natural history of the Juneau area, much of it will appear in these pages. | GEORGIAMarietta, Georgia has been my home since 1979, and now is my Lower 48 home from early October to early April.
I've explored much of the natural world of the Southeastern United States, some of which appears on the Georgia page. Contact me at scott@scottranger.com |
I've been studying the etymologies of the scientific names for all the creatures I've encountered in Alaska for my book and adding to them the creatures in the Southeast US as well. I just realized that one little creature,the Savannah Sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis (Gmelin, 1789), and I share something in common. The common name comes from the location where ornithologist Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) encountered the bird in Savannah, Georgia. The specific epithet comes from naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin's (1748–1804) description of a bird from Sandwich Bay on Unalaska Island in Alaska. This illustrates how widespread the bird it and how I personally connect with it seeing it in both my homes.
 |  |
Mendenhall Glacier, Juneau, Alaska
