Welcome
This site is a personal field guide built around the things Mary Jacquelyn McLaughlin loves most: the wildflowers and hummingbirds that fill the hills around her home in Kendrick, Idaho, and the two dog breeds — Beagles and Pomeranians — that have kept her company along the way.
About Mary
Born on October 31, 1940, in Cairo, Georgia, Mary has spent a lifetime moving through some of the most striking landscapes in the American West. Along the way she's called New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Alaska, Washington, and Idaho home, gathering a deep, hands-on knowledge of the plants, birds, and animals of the region. Today she lives in Kendrick, Idaho, a small town in the forested hills of the Palouse country, where the wildflowers bloom on the canyon slopes each spring and hummingbirds return to the feeders every summer.
This site gathers what she knows and loves into one place — a quiet, colorful corner of the web for wildflowers, hummingbirds, and the Beagles and Pomeranians who have been good company through all of it.
Places she's called home
Explore the guide
The five wildflowers you're most likely to meet on a Northwest hike — including Idaho's own state flower, the syringa.
Read the field guide →Five hummingbird species that nest, pass through, or overwinter across the region — how to tell them apart at the feeder.
Read the field guide →A close look at two very different, much-loved breeds — the merry scent hound and the tiny, fearless spitz.
Read the field guide →