Jack Daynes

2024-04-19 SPI Convention Centre

Despite the slowness of birding on the island, there were still a few treasures to be mined. I had been splitting my time between the Birding and Nature Center and…

2024-04-17 South Padre Island

I took a little over 1000 pics on my Wednesday visit. The morning was underwhelming, but It turned out to be a pretty good afternoon. At the Convention Centre, I…

Memories of San Luis Obispo Bay

On Monday, 2022-02-28, I was eager to get on the road after months of preparation, and not wanting to face Los Angeles traffic on a weekday, I left my Poway…

2024-04-15 South Padre Island

After a brief peek at the bird action at the SPI Convention Centre this morning, I enjoyed breakfast at my new ‘favorite’ cafe (Josephine’s) on South Padre Island this morning.…

Memories of Oregon’s Yaquina South Jetty

In Spring-2022, I drove from my home in southern California, and explored the entire west coastline. When I arrived in Newport, I spent most of the day catching up with…

Memories of Marathon Texas

My first Texas Birding expedition began in 2020, with an ill-planned visit to Big Bend. I learned that because of Spring Break, all camping spaces in the park were occupied,…

Memories of Kickapoo Caverns State Park

In October-2022, I spent two nights at Fort Clark in Brackettville Texas. It was my base camp during my tour of Kickapoo Caverns State Park, about 30 miles away. In…

Memories of Sandia Crest

Just outside of Albuquerque, the Sandia Mountains loom large in the northeast. For years I’ve been wanting to pay a winter visit to the crest of these peaks and meet…

Memories of the Davis Mountains

Davis Mountains State Park has its origins in the 1930s as a Civilian Conservation Corps (or CCC) project to help lift the broken economy out of the depression. The CCC…

2023-07-14 Five-Stripe Fever in Box Canyon

The Five-Striped Sparrow is a bird I had longed to meet. For more than a decade I tried, but never managed to be at the right place at the right…