Each day members of the Backyard Science group post fantastic diaries detailing their experiences with the natural world, from events that truly happened in their own backyard to places they've visited in the wonderful wilderness areas that remain across the globe. Almost all of these diaries are accompanied by utterly fantastic images. Like the writing, many of the images come from informed amateurs, but that doesn't stop many from being achingly beautiful, awesomely inspiring, or head-scratchingly intriguing.
In fact, I was half tempted to call this diary "eat your heart out, National Geographic."
Some of the images included below were not posted in the diaries themselves, but in the comments. Comment threads in the backyard science diaries are often rich in "here's what I saw today" responses, and contain a steady stream of photographic wonders.
So here's a brief compilation—just a touch of the full richness that was posted. Be warned: this is the very definition of photo overload, as I think I've actually touched the maximum allowed number of images. I had to trim things back to get the diary to save.
Vote your favorites in the comments and help select the images of the year!
Note: if I've incorrectly attributed an image, or included an image that was actually sourced elsewhere, please let me know. This is actually my second attempt at getting this diary up, since the first post seems to have fallen into a mass of "you can't put that many links in a diary" errors. Sorry if you got snarled up in it.
DECEMBER