Grow Your Curiosity

I employ many tools (both physical and digital) to explore and understand the natural world.

Below are my favorite apps, gadgets, and books for curious minds.

*I do not make money from these resources, nor have I necessarily tested them against competitors.

iNaturalist - Wildlife Observation, Identification, and Citizen Science App

Audubon - Bird ID App

Rockd - Geology App

Star Walk2 - Star-gazing App

Foldable California Field Guides

San Diego County Bird Atlas

Laws Guide to Nature Journaling

Beginner's Astronomy Book

Olympus TG6 - Field Camera

Pentax Papilio Close-Range Binoculars

Nikon Monarch Binoculars

Seek - Wildlife ID App

Merlin - Bird Call ID App

AllTrails - Trail-Finding App

Tide Now CA - Tidal Charts for California

San Diego County Mammal Atlas

Foldable Field Guide for Birds

Coast to Cactus Trail Guide

Gardening with Native Plants

Echo Meter Touch 2 Bat Detector

Celestron 80mm Travelscope

Entoquip Bug Blacklight

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps his curiosity.
-Anatole France

Tours Happening Now

Explore Tidepools with a Marine Biologist

Get lost in the beauty of rocky tide pools along the gorgeous San Diego coast. With a marine…

From $35

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Winter Only! Seasonal Hike: Fungi Foray

San Diego County has a surprising abundance of mushrooms! Learn how to find, identify, and appreciate fungi's role…

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Time Travel Through San Diego's Wild Past

Explore 7,000 years of San Diego's history in one hike! Visit natural springs, a grave site, and one…

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Experience SoCal's Rarest Ecosystem

One of the most threatened habitats in North America, California Sage Scrub is home to more than 5,000…

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Hike Through California's Heart and Soul

If California had an official ecosystem, it would be Chaparral. From grizzlies and ancient Romans to wildfire and…

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Pick Your Own Trail

Bring me along on your next hike to learn about the wildlife, geology, or history you've always wondered…

From $150

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Take a Night Hike Above the City

By the light of the stars and our flashlights, breathe in San Diego's fragrant sage, listen for native…

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(Returning in March) Seasonal Hike: Wonders of Wildflowers

Wildflowers are alluring, creative, and clever—and San Diego County has more than 3,500 different kinds! Take a walk…

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Follow and tag @northstarnaturalist on Instagram

Gosh, my first year as the North Star Naturalist went by fast!

Turns out I'm pretty bad at taking photos of me and my guests during tours, but if you've been outside with me, you know I get carried away by nature's splendor! So here are some nature highlights from 2024. 🤓

Thank you all for making this year fun, fulfilling, and downright fascinating! 🪲

Can't wait for what the next year brings. Nature never fails to disappoint, especially when you have other nature nerds at your side. ❤️

#NorthStarNaturalist #SanDiegoNature #SmallBusinessSD #YearInReview

Thanks to the good people at the Point Loma Native Plant Garden, @sandiegoriver and the @plnativeseedlibrary, I was able to gather some festive native plants for a homemade wreath! 🎄

I was dreaming of making one all month, but had nowhere to legally harvest plants. I'm so happy with how it turned out out! And it smells AMAZING.

If you want to make your own native plant wreath for the holidays, head over to the San Diego River Park Foundation's website and look for their wreath-making event on Dec 22!

#NorthStarNaturalist #ChristmasInSanDiego #sandiegowildlife #sandiegonature #socal #toyon #CaliforniaHolly #DIYHolidays #SustainableDecor #tecatecypress #CaliforniaNativePlants

Nature is the greatest gift of all. 😍 🎁
Give your loved ones an unforgettable experience in nature, while supporting small local business. Gift cards are now available for guided tours (link in bio), and if you buy before December 31st, you get 20% off with the code TISTHESEASON !

I looking forward to making your spirits bright. ✨

📷 Becky Matsubara
#NorthStarNaturalist #ShopSmall #TisTheSeason #GiftOfNature #SanDiegoNature #SupportSanDiegoBusiness #Toyon #CedarWaxwing #CaliforniaChristmasBerry

Halloween is coming! 🎃 Did you know San Diego has its own native pumpkin? It's called coyote melon 🐺 🍈 and it's a close relative of the classic orange pumpkins we like to carve, bake, and decorate with.

🤢 Buuutttt, coyote melons taste terrible and are mostly seeds inside. Their flesh is way too hard for carving, and they're usually no bigger than a softball. So what are they good for?

🐝 Well, bees love their gigantic flowers, many animals eat their seeds, and they make for a lush ground cover in spring and summer. Coyote melon plants are extremely hardy—often preferring hot, dry conditions and gravelly, nutrient-poor soil. In other words, make a great garden addition that provides free Halloween decor! Score!

As for the plant's name... there are dozens of competing stories. Some say it's because coyotes do occasionally eat them, or maybe it's because the fruit *looks* edible, but is actually quite bitter, like a trickster...like a coyote. 🤔

In any case, the coyote melon is yet another strange, beautiful plant that is perfectly adapted to our unique environment. And so festive, too!

📷 Ryan Strother and Lonny Holmes

#NorthStarNaturalist #SDNature #NativePlants #SpookySeason #HalloweenDecor #NativePumpkin #FallHarvest #CoyoteMelon

Happy #NationalMushroomDay! 🍄 Most people think San Diego is too dry for fungi, but we have thousannddsss of species here! You just have to know where and when to look, and you're in luck! Cuz I know some great spots.

I'll be starting my fungi forays up again in a month or so (once the rains return). These fun, easy hikes are a great way to learn about local mushrooms, molds, and lichens, their roles in our ecosystem, as well as how to identify them.

I hope to see y'all on some forays soon!
Mush love,
-C

#NorthStarNaturalist #SDNature #SoCalFungi #CaliforniaFungi #MushroomHunting #CaliforniaMushrooms

Join me in the tidepools for a beautiful sunset tour on October 20! Only $15 and everyone under 18 is half-price! 🌅

Let's kick-off the tidepooling season the right way! With friends, fellow nature nerds, and curiosity! 🐚😎🦀

#NorthStarNaturalist #SanDiegoThingsToDo #LaJolla #Tidepooling #SoCal #SanDiegoNature #SanDiegoFamilies

Me dancing for joy knowing that it's officially DAYTIME TIDEPOOLING SEASON! 🤩
Join me Sunday, Oct. 20 for Tidepools at Twilight and see more animals than you ever thought possible. Can't make the 20th? Check my tour calendar for more tidepooling dates! Link in bio. 🐚

#northstarnaturalist #tidepool #sandiegotidepools #sandiegobeaches #sdnature #nudibranchs #spanishshawlnudibranch

🪲 A poem for the figeaters:
Clumsily colliding with human heads,
We claw their hair, while they flee with dread.
Shining and armored, we're the smallest of knights,
But grace is for someone with far stronger flight.
All we seek is the sweet stuff, a nice fruity treat.
We're as harmless as butterflies, just give us a few feet.

Maybe poetry isn't for me, but I LOVE these beetles, and I hope someday everyone else will see them as clumsy jewels worth admiring instead of scary bugs worth swatting. 🥹

#northstarnaturalist #figeater #scarab #desertbugs #entomology #junebeetle #sandiegonature @sandiegomag

🦀Ready for Tidepools at Twilight?🌙 Join me Sunday, Oct. 20th for a sunset tour through La Jolla's rocky shoreline! As the sky blushes pink, we’ll peek under rocks, poke around for crabs, and marvel at the life on the edge. Whether you have curious kids or you're young at heart, this is your invite to nature’s coolest happy hour! 🌅😎 Space is limited, register at the link in bio.🐚

#northstarnaturalist #sandiegotidepools #oceanbeach #lajolla #sandiegonature #beachsunset #sandiegosunset #supportsmallbusiness

Ya girl is officially permitted to tag monarch butterflies! 🦋
Last month, I attended a training workshop on how to safely tag monarchs for the Southwest Monarch Study, and now I need your help!

If you have monarchs consistently showing up to your property, they'd make great candidates for tagging, and you can help me do it! Send me a DM or email if you're interested in working together to help scientists understand more about these unique, beloved butterflies.

#northstarnaturalist #communityscience #monarchbutterflies #longtermresearch #butterflyresearch #animaltagging #sandiegonature

I recently attended an iNaturalist seminar! Here's what I learned: 👇

You've heard it before: "Your observations could be used by scientists!"
Turns out, your observations really ARE being used by scientists. A LOT. About 5,000 papers using iNat data have been published around the world (~130 papers related to San Diego County). Most of the research relates to climate change impacts, conservation, and invasive species.

I also learned three ✨huge✨ ways you can boost your impact with the app:

1.Try to fill in gaps. These can be species gaps, location gaps, even time gaps. Small, ephemeral, or modest organisms can be so common but rarely uploaded. Look for the overlooked. 🧐

2. Try identifying! You don't have to be an expert. Say someone else posts a photo and says it's an insect. You're positive it's a butterfly, but aren't sure which species. That's okay! Marking it "butterfly" alerts the butterfly experts, and you'll learn more when they chime in with an ID! 🤝

3. Ensure your observation licensing is set to CCO, CC-BY, or CC-BY-NC! The default is "All rights Reserved", meaning your observation CAN'T be included in scientific databases! You can change this setting under Account Settings > Content and Display > Licensing > Observation License. Once you make this change, let me know in the comments and I'll give you a gold star. 😉

Happy observing y'all!

#northstarnaturalist #inaturalist #communityscience #sandiegoscience #sandiegonature #biodiversity #socalwildlife #naturalista @iNaturalist

Happy California Biodiversity Day!
"Biodiversity" is quite the buzzword. What's the big deal? 🤔
It helps to think of life on our planet as one big piece of fabric, where each thread represents each species. 🧵

Think of your sturdiest pair of denim jeans. If their fabric is densely packed with thousands of threads, they'll be strong and resistant to anything that pokes or pulls at them. If a few threads break, neighboring strands might feel some strain, but the pants remain durable and resilient. 👖

This is what it's like to have high biodiversity. Each species contributes to the resilience of its ecosystem.

Now imagine your most ragged, threadbare pair of jeans. They have holes. They're pulling apart at the seams. The remaining threads are hanging on, but a deep squat could ruin the pants entirely. 😬

An ecosystem that's lost its biodiversity is equally unstable and vulnerable. Without the diverse wildlife that makes up our home planet, our collective denim jeans would be unable to support us. And there is no second pair—we must take care of what we've got. 🌎

Join me in celebrating one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. Let's defend our denim! ✊

#NorthStarNaturalist #CaliforniaBiodiversityDay #Biodiversity #Wildlife #NoPlanetB #SanDiegoNature #SDNature

Grow Your Curiosity

iNaturalist - Wildlife Observation, Identification, and Citizen Science App

Audubon - Bird ID App

Rockd - Geology App

Star Walk2 - Star-gazing App

Foldable California Field Guides

San Diego County Bird Atlas

Laws Guide to Nature Journaling

Beginner's Astronomy Book

Olympus TG6 - Field Camera

Pentax Papilio Close-Range Binoculars

Nikon Monarch Binoculars

Seek - Wildlife ID App

Merlin - Bird Call ID App

AllTrails - Trail-Finding App

Tide Now CA - Tidal Charts for California

San Diego County Mammal Atlas

Foldable Field Guide for Birds

Coast to Cactus Trail Guide

Gardening with Native Plants

Echo Meter Touch 2 Bat Detector

Celestron 80mm Travelscope

Entoquip Bug Blacklight

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps his curiosity. -Anatole France

Tours Happening Now

Stay Connected

​

The greatest virtue of man is perhaps his curiosity.
-Anatole France