This is just a short exposition on how I envision folks using this site. You are, of course, free to navigate it in whatever manner best suits your needs or interests. 

The blogs are posts where I talk about getting out and looking for things. They may be about places, gear, techniques, how I feel when I’m there, or other topics of interest to this recreational naturalist. Within them you will find highlighted words which will be links to further information on the place, topic, or lifeforms being discussed. Anytime it is a species name the link will be to my own Species Profiles on this website. 

Towards the bottom of each species profile, and just above a ‘Quick glance’ at the most basic information on each species, will be links to further information on that species. It is beyond the scope of my project to go that deep into all of these species, and to be honest, without resorting to blatant plagiarism I doubt if I could say it as well. Within the body of the profile there may be highlighted words that will be links to further information on what may be obscure terminology or unfamiliar concepts. Or just links to the source where I got my information, because very little of this is so ingrained that I can rattle it out off the top of my head. Like I said in the Mission Statement, I am not an expert, just a guy with wide ranging interests. 

Next there will be Locations Logs where I will post links to species profiles of those lifeforms I was able to positively identify in a given location. These locations will be areas where access is public, and will  primarily be trails, parks, natural areas, refuges, etc. The idea here is that if you are going to head to, say, Catherine Creek, you can look and see what I may have found there at similar times of the yer. And all of these locations will link to any posts I have published about them. 

There will also be a Galleries section which will feature photos of all the members of a given taxonomic group which I have positively identified. For now I will focus on the family level, but eventually, when I have enough photos to make the family grouping unwieldy, I will group them at the genus level. 

In addition to these written features the site is also searchable by the categories feature, which is arranged taxonomically for life forms and alphabetically for locations, and is located on the right side of the screen on a computer, and at the bottom of the screen on a phone. Each species profile is categorized by the branches of its phylogenic hierarchy. So, for example, if you’ve seen something that you know is a beetle, but don’t know which family, you could scroll down to Coleoptera (Beetles), clicking on which would take you to all of my species profiles of beetles. If you know it’s a weevil you could click on Curculionidae (True Weevils), which would take you to the family gallery, as well as to any species profiles of weevils. 

And finally there is the basic search feature, into which you can type keywords, and it will take you to posts featuring them. This is probably the quickest way to find out what, if anything, I have to say on a subject. And, since I am just beginning, it will unfortunately be awhile before my subject list is very extensive. But I am motivated, and intend to post something every day.