Dark-Eyed Junco
Memories of Cuyamaca Mountain
On 2013-06-15, I parked at the staging area ten miles south of Julian California where Milk Ranch Road meets Route-79. The path I traveled on my bike is displayed on…
Memories of Culp Valley
At 3400 feet in elevation, Culp Valley is up-slope from Borrego Springs 2800 feet below on the valley floor. The habitat here is still desert, but different from the desert…
Memories of Hot Springs Mountain
2004-05-21 At 6,526 feet, the summit of Hot Springs Mountain is the highest point of land in San Diego County. However, many folks living in San Diego are unaware of…
Memories of Mohave Desert Camping – Cima
2016-11-08~14: Camping In The Mojave I left Poway on Tuesday, November 8 to catch up with the Bird and Mammal team from the San Diego Natural History Museum. The science…
Memories of Palomar Mountain
2013-05-29 Palomar Mountain Birds Palomar Mountain rises near the northern boundary of San Diego County and divides the watersheds of the San Luis Rey and the Santa Margarita River systems.…
Memories of Old Mine Road, Ranchita
I will remember 2014 as the year I met Lewis’s Woodpeckers for the first time. My very first encounter was in August while visiting friends at June Lake in the…
Memories of Grand Teton National Park
My first time visiting Jackson, Wyoming was in November 2001. I was participating in the only nature photography seminar I’ve ever been to. It was a week-long event, and I…
Memories of 2005 at Dog Lake – BC, Canada
My earliest adventure in Canada was while traveling to Alaska. Late in May-2005, I drove out of Idaho and crossed over the border at Kingsgate Port of Entry. After driving…
Memories of Moose-Wilson Road, Wyoming
2015-05-17 Moose-Wilson Road The Moose-Wilson Road skirts the western perimeter of the greater Jackson Valley just west of the Snake River. The northern end of the road ends at the…
Memories of Mammoth Lakes
In 2017, I spent two days exploring Mammoth Lakes in the eastern Sierra-Nevada Mountains. Below are notes from the visit. 2017-07-16 Mammoth Lakes Birds Mammoth Creek connects a string of…
Memories of McIntyre Marsh
I first visited McIntyre Marsh in June-2005 during my stop-over in Whitehorse Yukon while traveling to Alaska. It would be seventeen years later that I would return to enjoy the…
2023-04-13 Apache Creek NM
Last Tuesday (April-11) I left my friends in Thatcher, looking forward to spending some time with friends Debbie Merrill and her husband James. I met Debbie when I was working…
2022-06-17 Friday At McIntyre Marsh
Paraphrasing Canada’s own Robbie Robertson, “I pulled into Whitehorse, was feeling ‘bout half-past dead, I just need to find a place, where I can lay my head.” It was a…
2022-06-15 Whitehorse After A Long Rain
After arriving in Whitehorse last Friday (June-10), I took several days off from the rigors of the road and capturing new images. I used the time to rest, recuperate, and…
2022-05-10 Birds and Megafauna In Jackson Hole
I had a great week exploring Grand Teton National Park with my friend Joe Ford. Joe has a special fondness for what I call “megafauna”, and I fell into his…
2022-04-05 Pacific City to South Washington
Monday night I plotted a course north that included breakfast in Pacific City, perhaps the smallest of towns I’ve stopped at on this trip. The cafe, called the Village Coffee…
2022-04-02 Reedsport to Waldport
Friday night, after driving from Reedsport, I parked south of Waldport at a roadside pullout. I visited several places along the way, including the jetties at the Umpqua River Mouth.…
2022-03-28 Two Days In Bandon
After leaving Port Orford Sunday morning (2022-03-27), I drove North and turned onto Cape Blanco Road, and I found fields full of chaparral looking plants loaded with bright yellow flowers.…
2021-04-22 SPI On A Slow Thursday
My stay at the Convention Centre was relatively brief this Thursday. There was a lull in the migration, but even on a slow day, good things can occur here. In…
2020-12-27 Sunday Camping in Guadalupe National Park
After spending most of December in New Mexico, I left The Land of Enchantment after a productive Christmas photo session with Scaled Quail at Bitter Lake NWR outside of Roswell.…
2020-12-18&19 At The Bernardo Unit – Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex
Halfway between Albuquerque and Bosque del Apache is the Ladd S. Gordon Waterfowl Complex – Bernardo Unit, where cranes and geese are now visiting more than at Bosque. My friend…
2020-11-20 Mid-November Gallery Updates
I know I’ve been posting a lot lately about the updates on the bird species galleries I’ve been doing. This updating process is going to take a while. After all,…
2020-03-07: Bird Adventures In Big Bend
Prologue The Texas adventure I dreamed about for years began in California, but passed through Arizona and New Mexico before reaching the promised land. Preparations for my journey began in…
Memories of Siskiyou Summit Road
I have family in Central Point Oregon that I like to visit as often as possible. During my stays there, I like to explore the surrounding region. Above the Rogue…
2019-10-23 At The Boyce Thompson Arboretum
I let myself get behind in my posting. Since leaving the “BTA” I’ve completed two more photo safaris, but it took me longer than expected to organize the photos and…
2019-10-16 The Arboretum At Flagstaff
Having spent Sunday through Tuesday enjoying the company of my friend in Bullhead City Arizona, I left there and headed east over the mountains along Highway 68 to Kingman Arizona.…
2012-09-12 Santa Rosa Mountain in September
If one reads my blog and scans for “Santa Rosa Mountain”, they might get the idea I love going there … and they’d be right. I’ve been visiting this place…
2012-08-23 Late Summer On Santa Rosa Mountain
Juvenile Western Bluebirds were fun to watch on this Thursday in late August while I visited Santa Rosa Mountain. I find these birds to be at their most attractive as…
2013-06-15 Milk Ranch Road
I parked at the staging area ten miles south of Julian California where Milk Ranch Road meets Route-79. The path I traveled on my bike is displayed on a map…
2013-05-21 Laguna Mountain Birds
The locations I visited during this expedition were Agua Dulce Creek and the visitor center in the town of Mount Laguna. The visitor center is often a good place to…
2013-05-29 Palomar Mountain Birds
The locations I visited were the San Luis Rey Picnic Grounds off California State Route 76, East Grade Road on Palomar Mountain, Nate Harrison Road. Palomar Mountain resides near the…
2014-10-23 Autumn In Garner Valley
In the past, I’ve written about my late June meetings with Pinyon Jays in Garner Valley, but on this autumn visit there were different avian hosts to entertain me. I…
2014 Mid-October At Old Mine Road In Ranchita
I will remember 2014 as the year I met Lewis’s Woodpeckers for the first time, and while this account is not about that first meeting, this, the second meeting was…
2017-10-27 a Week at Clover Flat
As a part of project to study the inland wetlands of San Diego County, the San Diego Natural History Museum’s science team spent the week at a property in the…
2017-09-16 San Simeon and North
(as far north as I could go) I drove all day Friday. It was the longest day single day of driving for this entire trip (368 miles). I left early…
2017-07-16 Mammoth Lakes Birds
Mammoth Creek connects a string of high elevation lakes in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Starting above Skelton Lake (9,920′), it drains into Arrowhead Lake (9,690′), Lake Mary (8,920’), Lake Mamie…
2016 – November Birds In The Mojave
When I’m camping with the science team from the San Diego Natural History Museum, I try to find time to meet the local birds. Autumn migration can provide some pleasant…
2016-08-30&31 Springs at Santa Rosa Mountain
I’ve posted about my favorite place on the planet before: the Springs on Santa Rosa Mountain. This outing was the first time I’ve brought another photographer with me. Jerry and…
2015-08-13 Santa Rosa Mountain
I’ve worked as a photographer with the San Diego Natural History Museum (SDNHM) since 2010 on a project called the San Jacinto Resurvey. The goal of this project is to…
2015-06-17 King City to Morro Bay
The reason I chose King City as my destination on the previous day was twofold. First, I planned to drive over the Santa Lucia Mountains to the Big Sur coast…
2015-05-19 Moose-Wilson Road Re-Visited
That I did not find the Black-Backed Woodpecker does not, in my mind, constitute a failure. Those birds that I found made this outing a success … glass half full.…
2015-05-14 Pinedale Explorations
I visited Andy’s shop the next morning before he arrived at work. His friend Ross popped out the side door of the shop and figured out who I was by…
2015-03-11 Julian to Mt. Laguna
I set off on a quest to photograph Pine Siskins. Two locations that held promise were the Birdwatcher store in Julian and the Visitor’s Center at Mount Laguna. Indeed, I…
2014 Early Autumn On Santa Rosa Mountain
Within the span of one week, I made two excursions to Santa Rosa Mountain in late August and early September 2014. I’ve described this place several times in past posts,…
2014 Early June On Santa Rosa Mountain
I never grow tired of visiting Santa Rosa Mountain, a sky island in southern Riverside County California, a stone’s throw from the border with San Diego County. Part of me…