Great Blue Heron
Memories of the San Dieguito River
The Del Mar Fairgrounds have been a customer of my company for decades. We (Western DC Systems) service the emergency systems on campus four times a year. I’m retired now,…
Memories of Imperial County’s Ramer Lake
The heat of summer at Ramer Lake means hundreds upon hundreds of nesting and/or roosting Cattle Egrets, White-Faced Ibis, Double-Crested Cormorants would be present. A few American White Pelicans, numerous…
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 Bear River, UT
Twice, I have cruised through the wetlands of Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. These fields, ponds and marshes lie at the northeastern margins of Utah’s Great Salt Lake. Following are…
2023-05-24 Tiny Marsh, Ontario
I spent Wednesday at Tiny Marsh. It was my ‘last hurrah’ in the region, and Thursday morning I began my exodus. I met several enthusiastic birders during my tour. A…
2023-05-09 Point Pelee Canada
2023-05-10 Wednesday This morning I said goodbye to Point Pelee. The local folks I met during my visit said I was a week early for the warbler migration. Nearly everyone…
2023-05-05 Dayton Ohio
While visiting with my friends in South Dayton, I found time to meet some of the local birds. Bruce and Loretta provide an array of bird feeders, so I sampled…
2022-09-18 SPI Farewell
I ended my visit to South Padre Island on Sunday. I spent the day touring the SPI Birding and Nature Center, and it yielded a few close encounters with the…
2022-09-03 Saturday at the SPIBNC
I spent the day soloing at the SPI Birding and Nature Center (BNC), and had a lovely time with the birds and with the people there with me, enjoying the…
2022-08-17 Anahuac NWR
I broke camp at High Island early and drove to the nearby Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge to explore. I’d visited the refuge previously in March 2021. I began my tour…
2022-05-12 Wrapping It Up At Grand Teton
My last two days in Jackson Hole, weren’t very productive for megafauna, so my friend and fellow photographer Joe Ford indulged my propensity for chasing birds. After striking out on…
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…
2021-04-27 SPI and Tuesday’s Babies
Earlier in April, I visited the South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center and saw Green Herons sitting on eggs. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to return and see…
2021-04-11 SPI: New Actors and Familiar Faces On Stage
I should have learned my lesson by now. This day reminded me when I’m trying to track a subject bouncing through the canopy, the effort is all-consuming. There’s not always…
2021-04-08 SPI Birding & Nature Center
I’ve made it no secret. My mission is to experience as much of the vernal migration through South Texas as I can. South Padre Island is the best place I…
2021-03-30 SPI Convention Centre
In the coming weeks, I intend to spend as much of my time on South Padre Island as I can. Spring migrant birds could begin trickling into Texas any time.…
2021-03-16 SPI Convention Centre
On this early Tuesday morning, cloudy gray skies greeted me at the South Padre Island Convention Centre (SPICC). I investigated the center’s bayside and its boardwalks, but the birds were…
2021-03-10 Wednesday at San Bernard NWR
I spent the night Tuesday at a rest stop on the Interstate-10 freeway east of Houston. I endured a lot of drive time exiting Louisiana after I decided not to…
2021-03-04 Galveston Boat Ride
I continued my exploration of the Texas Gulf Coast last Wednesday (2021-03-03) when I drove from Aransas NWR to Galveston, 170 miles to the east. After spotting birds loafing on…
2021-02-28 Port Aransas Nature Center
The Port Aransas Nature Center had a popular boardwalk over the freshwater marshes on the property until 2017’s Hurricane Harvey dismantled it beyond use. Not ones to give up easily,…
2021-02-11 SPI Convention Centre and Bahia Grande
Deciding where to spend my last day in Brownsville wasn’t easy. I plan to stay two more weeks in the Rio Grande Valley, but I want to explore sites further…
2021-02-08 South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center
South Padre Island Birding & Nature Center is part of a network of birding meccas in south Texas, collectively called the “World Birding Center”. It sits next door to the…
2021-02-01 Got To Get Back To South Padre
Visiting South Padre Island has never disappointed me. I began February with a visit to test this trend, and it fulfilled its promise to entertain, though a slow start in…
2021-01-19 A Day on South Padre Island
A visit to the Lower Rio Grande Valley without spending time on South Padre Island would be silly. Tuesday I paid the island my respects. It came as no surprise…
2020-12-05 Bosque and New Mexico Falconry
My first awareness of the art of falconry came as a young lad in elementary school when I read the Hardy Boys Mystery series and found the story The Hooded…
2020-03-17 Aransas By Sea
I arrived at 215 North Fulton Beach Road in Fulton, Texas at 8:30am. Our departure aboard the Skimmer was scheduled for 9am, so I had some time to assemble my…
2020-03-16 Monday Afternoon In Rockport
I drove to the city of Rockport after leaving from my second day at Aransas and prepared for the boat ride I’d signed up for, which launched from nearby Fulton…
2020-03-16 Aransas NWR Day 2
“Wow” hardly seems sufficient to describe my morning! I stayed in Austwell Sunday night, and I was only 12 miles from Aransas NWR, so I could achieve an early launch…
2013-08-29 Arizona Trip
One aim on this trip was to visit family in Northeast Tucson. While there I spent some time at Agua Caliente Park. It had been in my head for several years…
2013-01-31 Imperial Beach Hot Spots
South of San Diego Bay and north of the Tijuana River and the border with Mexico, lies the town of Imperial Beach. Both the bay and the river valley are…
2014-12-19 Santee Lakes
This post wraps up my retelling of stories from 2014. Tales of 2013 remain to be told, and I hope to spin those yarns soon. I know I’ve been pumping…
2014-02-14: A Visit To Chula Vista
South of San Diego, about halfway to the border with Mexico, the City of Chula Vista has a boat launch and a marina that abuts San Diego Bay. The waters…
2017-09-17 Sunday in Morro Bay
It was a big day in Morro Bay Sunday. I found otters at their usual place at the upper end of the harbor. To my delight, there were two babies…
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…
2017-09-15 Sacramento Valley Trifecta
Sacramento NWR, Colusa NWR, Gray Lodge Wildlife Area The Sacramento NWR mostly had puddle ducks, with a few Raptors and herons. They have not flooded the fields, yet it looks…
2017-09-10 Mail Boat Ride (Plus Pistol River)
I parked Saturday night in a space along the main road going south out of Gold Beach. All day I’d been parked along the South Jetty, but it was questionable…
2017-08-16 Bear River
After showing Jerry and me the Promontory Road raptors in the early morning, Joe took us out to the Bear River Migratory Bird Reserve. While I’d visited this area in…
2017-08-11 Salton Sea Sunsets
Choosing to add a few more “features” to my RV delayed the launch of my expedition into the inter-mountain West. I might have taken Interstate 15 on my way to…
2015-06-14 Oregon Into California
I made my goodbyes to my family the night before I left Southern Oregon, and I stopped in the town of Rogue River for breakfast. As with so many times…
2015-05-27 Bitterroot Valley, Days 4 and 5
Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge near Stevensville Montana, in the Bitterroot Valley sits along the Bitterroot River about 25 miles from where it empties into the Clark Fork River in…
2015-05-16 Jackson Wyoming
My website suffered a catastrophic crash with complete loss of data on July 25, 2015. Much of the blog content going forward was necessarily re-created from memory. This could be…
2015-05-12 Two Days At Bear River
The Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, west of Brigham City Utah is 80,000 acres of marsh, open water, uplands, and alkali mudflats. There is a one-way dirt track loop through…
2015-04-28 Salton Sea
My first ‘real’ stop on this outbound leg of this expedition was at the Salton Sea. I made four stops in the general area. Poe Road, Vendel Road, Lack &…
2014 Late July At The Salton Sea
Whoever said “you must suffer for your art” must have been thinking about photographing birds at the Salton Sea in mid-summer. Temperatures here often elevate to over 115°F in the…