Orange-Crowned Warbler
Memories of Daley Ranch
The Daley Ranch and Dixon Lake could be considered as closely related. They are next-door neighbors. But there are significant differences. Much of Lake Dixon’s features can be accessed by…
Memories of Balboa Park
There are many reasons to love Balboa Park. Anyone unfamiliar with the attractions there is truly missing out. The museums alone are worth visiting. There are 18 of them to…
Memories of the Anza-Borrego Visitor Center
With more than 600,000 acres, Anza Borrego Desert State Park has many areas worth exploring. But for the sheer convenience of meeting the widest array of species, both plant and…
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 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…
2023 Continental Expedition Begins
Finally, I’m on the road. I launched at about 3pm last Monday, driving through Ramona and Santa Ysabel, then dropping into the Borrego Valley down Montezuma Pass. It is one…
2022-10-01 Kickapoo Caverns
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 the spring…
2022-06-20 Whitehorse Exodus
I left Whitehorse Sunday morning with a plan to return to the pond on the Tagish Road south of Jakes Corner. Two weeks ago, while on my way to Whitehorse,…
2022-04-13,14,15 Puget Sound Island Hopping
My friend Teresa volunteered to take me island hopping in the Puget Sound, and I happily accepted the offer. According to my research, there are 20 sizable islands in the…
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…
2021-04-13 South Padre Fog
I left Brownsville in the darkness of pre-dawn, with plans to meet birds on South Padre Island as they began their morning rounds. It seemed a good idea to be…
2021-04-02 Back to South Padre Island
If you are passionate about birds, I believe there is no better place to hang out than South Padre Island during spring migration. As a kid growing up near the…
2021-02-25 National Butterfly Center
I tried to visit the National Butterfly Center last week, but the big freeze and the power outage at the time mandated that they close, so I had to turn…
2021-02-19 Bentsen RGVSP Again
I wanted to wait for my bicycle to finish up in the shop before I attempted more explorations of Bentsen Rio Grande State Park. South Texas has been hard hit…
2021-02-06 Edinburg Scenic Wetlands
It takes a little over an hour of freeway driving to reach Edinburg (Texas) from my camp in Brownsville. The reserve encompasses 40 acres, but most of the trails available…
2021-02-04 Laguna Vista and Laguna Atascosa
My time in Brownsville is winding down, so I wanted to visit a location that I enjoyed very much during my spring visit last year. Laguna Atascosa NWR was one…
2021-01-28 Sabal Palms, Ten Days Hence
It was a foggy morning ten days ago when I visited Sabal Palm Sanctuary for the first time. It added an air of mystery to my introduction to this amazing…
2021-01-26 A Day at Palmito Hill
Fog was so thick, at 50 feet things faded from my view, and at 100 feet I could barely make out the shapes ahead of me while I drove. That…
2021-01-22 A Day at Estero Llano
Friday morning I launched out of my campsite on a mission to explore one of the crown jewels of birding in South Texas; Estero Llano Grande State Park, south of…
2021-01-11 Quemado Roadside Birds
Less than two miles south from the small town of Quemado Texas, is a roadside rest stop, or picnic area, as Texas calls them. I found this location while on…
2020-03-13 Three Days At The Triple R
Sadly, shortly after my March-2020 visit to the Triple-R RV Resort, (but before the Covid-19 pandemic) they shutdown operations. I’ve heard no word about any plans to reopen. I personally,…
2020-02-23 At The Gilbert Water Ranch
I scouted several of the trails at the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert after I arrived late Saturday afternoon, but I did not carry my camera. The light was fading, and…
Catching Up With Old Friends
I met my friend Linda in 1978 while I was living in Missoula Montana. Without going into too many details, it was one of the most interesting periods in my…
2019-09-06 – Bird and Butterfly Garden
I posted recently about the first of three stops I made last Friday at some of my favorite birding destinations in the southwestern corner of San Diego County. I started…
2019-08-12 Day Two in Crescent City
Time to wave goodbye to Crescent City and get moving south again. I expanded my awareness of the surrounding coastline yesterday, but still the harbor drew me back. It was…
2012-04 April Stuff In My Poway Yard
I took my camera into my yard several times over the course of the month of April 2012. Spring can bring me some extraordinary birds, though I don’t always have…
2014-12-08 San Diego Botanic Gardens
I set out very early to visit the San Diego Botanic Gardens in Encinitas California. People had been reporting Varied Thrushes there, and I wished to spend some time with…
2018-05 More Moments With Yardbirds
This past week I’ve been sneaking an hour or so in the late afternoon (when the light is favorable) to break from my projects and spend time with some of…
2017-08-19 Willard Bay
Willard Bay was a last-minute addition to our ad hoc tour schedule for the Salt Lake City area. Our time in this state park was all too brief. Even so,…
2017-07-18 Twin Lakes Mammoth, Round Two
My plan for this day was to head out to the end of Lake Mary Road in Mammoth. There were several locations nearby where I thought I might find the…
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…
2016-08-30&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…
2016-05-08 Sunday In The Eastern Sierras
I had a big day taking pictures this day. It began when I reached Mono Lake’s western edge. I saw a flycatcher that flew off before I got my camera…
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…
2015-02-15 Daley Ranch and Pamo Valley
On this weekend I made two excursions. Saturday found me on a reserve just north of Escondido called The Daley Ranch, located in a high valley in the northern part…
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 August With Birds at June Lake
I am fortunate to have generous friends willing to welcome me into their homes as I travel. My friends Carmen and Mark have a house at June Lake California. I…
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…