Nature Preserved

Not all nature photos come from outdoors. Most staff in the Clinical Center department of bioethics are teleworking. So, early on, plants from their offices and common areas were assembled (above) on a table in the department library. Those who are physically present water them weekly and generally look after them. Department members believe the plants are thriving from being together. Said one employee, “Never thought I would envy the social life of an office plant.”

Dr. Deborah Henken, program officer at NICHD, took photos of the Ottauquechee River in Hartford County, Vermont, last August. The river originates in the Green Mountains of Rutland County and joins the main Connecticut River in Windsor County, Vt. On its eastern course, it passes through Quechee, Vt., a small village whose founders harnessed the power of the river to build a booming mill business. Further along, it becomes Quechee Gorge (known as “Vermont’s Little Grand Canyon” which is 1 mile long, and 165 feet deep). In its original Natick language, Ottauquechee translates to “swift mountain stream,” which is well deserved.

“Fall migration” is the theme of these fowl images taken by Dr. Michael Bender, program director in the Division of Genetics and Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology, NIGMS. He takes pictures in Rock Creek Park, at Hains Point and at Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Grove on the Potomac, located on Columbia Island. A bald eagle.

A black and white warbler

A pine warbler

A brown thrasher