Red-Winged Blackbird
2020-May at Bitter Lake NWR, New Mexico
After several memorable months in Texas, even enduring the craziness and uncertainty of the earliest days of the pandemic, I began my first Texas Exodus in 2020-May. I was in…
Memories of Dixon Lake
I enjoyed visiting Dixon Lake several times between 2004 and 2008. Sometimes I would hike the trails. Other times I would rent a boat and tour the shoreline. I usually…
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 Dirty Socks Springs
2016-04-20 Wednesday The local birding community is well aware of Dirty Socks Springs. Located at the southern edge of the Owens Lake basin, it used to be a county park…
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…
Memories of Grande Prairie Alberta
My first visit to Crystal Lake in Alberta’s Grande Prairie was in June-2005 while on my way to Alaska. I was using The MILEPOST travel guide to inform me of…
Memories of Minesing Wetlands
2023-05-18 A Quick Tour Of McKinnon Road Thursday, I drove north, towards my friend’s cottage near the shore of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. I planned a few stops along…
Memories of Burns Oregon
On 2022-04-24, after a long drive from Joseph (Oregon), I arrived in Burns late Saturday afternoon. Rather than surrendering to fatigue, I drove through the region just north of town…
2023-06-19 Harrisonburg VA Region
I pulled into Harrisonburg VA from Strasburg on Sunday. Before I hit the road, I scouted the region for promising locations to find birds. There were three places that seemed…
2023-06-11 Middle Creek – PA
2023-06-11 Sunday After a week enjoying the hospitality of my long-time friends Jeff and Kathy in Wernersville PA, This morning I’m on the road again. I used some of my…
2023-06-07 Blue Marsh, PA
After breakfast Wednesday, and a few errands, I drove a few miles from Wernersville PA, to a reserve called Blue Marsh. I didn’t have much background information about the place,…
2023-05-25 Return to McKinnon Road
After a lovely week in the Township of Tiny Ontario, I said goodbye to the region and the friends I made there. I made two stops on my drive back…
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…
2023-05-20 Two Days At Legendary Wye Marsh
Friday after breakfast, I drove twenty minutes east from Tiny Township to Midland Ontario. There, on the southern edge of town, lies a wetland called Wye Marsh. A 3000 acre…
2023-05-18 A Quick Tour Of McKinnon Road
Thursday, after spending a few minutes with my friend Judy’s backyard birds, I drove north, towards her cottage near the shore of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron. I planned 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…
2023-04-27 Baker Wetlands, Lawrence Kansas
Thursday, I rode my bike through the center of the Baker Wetlands south of Lawrence Kansas, and spent the day hoping for, but not finding, an American Woodcock. Far from…
2023-03-18 Sweetwater Wetlands-Tucson
I rely on an internet connection while I roam North America in my RV. My most reliable method has been through the use of cell phone service. As I explore…
2022-07-21 Nebraska’s Sandhills
As I pen this story, I’m in northeast Kansas. By my calculation, I’ve been traveling for over 12,000 miles on this trip, with miles to go before I sleep. The…
2022-07-16 Adieu Canada
This saga spans the last five nights and six days I spent in Canada on my 2022 expedition. It focuses on southern Saskatchewan’s Grasslands National Park, just a few short…
2022-07-09,10,11 A Long Drive To South Saskatchewan
Rain caught up with me on my drive away from Slave Lake, and I found an out-of-the-way place to park in Lac La Biche, further east in Alberta. There were…
2022-07-03 Return to Grande Prairie
When I arrived in Grande Prairie, I drove straight to Crystal Lake and spent a few hours there (read about my earlier visit Here!). There weren’t many new actors on…
2022-07-02 Piper Pond
I spent time north of Dawson Creek at a location called Piper Pond. I had heard there were Rusty Blackbirds there, and I hoped to gather some images. When I…
2022-06-29 McQueen Slough
I explored three locations around Dawson Creek in my quest to find photographic birds. Two were very productive locations. I spent most of my time at a place called McQueen…
2022-06-25 Road to Fort Saint John
I left Fort Nelson Saturday morning after having breakfast at the Fort Nelson Hotel. The town has a well maintained RV Dump station at the west end of town. After…
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,…
2022-06-09 Getting to Whitehorse
My journey to Whitehorse was another long drive, and I took two days to cover the distance. I left Tuesday and didn’t pull into Whitehorse until Thursday. I slept Wednesday…
2022-05-31 Crystal Lake in Grande Prairie
After I camped at Lake Winagami Tuesday night, I drove for a little over two hours to reach Grande Prairie. Family restaurants that serve breakfast are not so easy to…
2022-05-18 Lovell WY to Bridger MT
In my last episode, I told of leaving Cody on Tuesday, the seventeenth, and driving a few miles north to Ralston Reservoir, where I found birds to enjoy and a…
2022-05-17 Two Days in Cody Wyoming
I spent my first night in Cody at the Walmart parking lot. I’d been having difficulty getting clear focus in my camera when taking long shots of large mammals. Modern…
2022-05-04&05 First Days In Jackson Hole
I drove away from Payette Idaho yesterday late in the morning after tending to the RV’s holding tanks and having breakfast with my good friend, Art. Contrary to my usual…
2022-04-26 Burns Again
Having spent Monday night at the Narrows RV Park near Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, I was ready to begin closing the gap to see my good friends in Payette Idaho.…
2022-04-25 In Malheur
The clear blue skies I enjoyed in Burns Oregon on Saturday and Sunday degraded to a gloomy gray on Monday. Still, the gloom was not so deep as to dampen…
2022-04-24 In Burns Oregon
My decision to visit the Malheur area required a long drive from Joseph to Burns that took me six hours of drive-time. I think there were five passes to cross…
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…
2022-03-26 Pistol River to Port Orford
After two nights, I broke camp this morning at the Pistol River Mouth and spent a few minutes at Cape Sebastian. With all my travel-yarns woven and posted, it was…
2022-03-13 Crescent City to the Collier Tunnel
Citizens Dock and the boat basin in Crescent City’s harbor have provided me with many productive bird meetings in my past travels through this region. During my past visits to…
2021-05-10 National Butterfly Center
I couldn’t think of leaving Texas without seeing my friends at the National Butterfly Center (NBC) one more time. My planned route carried me through Mission anyway, so it was…
2021-05-04,5,6 SPI: The Big Fallout That Wasn’t
This is a three day post. With my 2021 visit in South Texas drawing to a close, I’ve been pushing my limits to maximize my opportunities to meet migrating birds.…
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…
2021-04-17 SPI, Great Birds, Lousy Weather
Well friends, I said I would limit my photo shooting time in the field to half days. The strategy would allow me to process my images and tell my stories…
2021-04-15 SPI And Three Bags Full
I had an exceptional day at the SPI Convention Centre. I met three new bird species: Veery, Dickcissel, and Black-Billed Cuckoo. Not that the rest of the birds I met…
2021-04-06 SPI Reruns
If the show is good enough, it bears watching repeatedly. A second look may teach us something new. We might see something worthwhile that we missed on the first go-round.…
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.…
2021-03-24 At Estero Llano, Even Slow Days Are Good
I first visited Estero Llano Grande State Park this year in January (2021-01-22). On that visit, I walked on my explorations, so I could only get to a few of…
2021-03-08 Anahuac NWR
I broke camp at High Island early Monday and set a course for nearby Anahuac National Wildlife Reserve. I planned a quick visit before heading east on my clock-wise journey…
2021-03-06 High Island Rookery
I left Galveston on Thursday (2021-03-04) and crossed the bay by ferry on a 2½ mile passage to the Bolivar Peninsula. Back on Terra Firma, I drove 28 miles to…
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…
2021-02-16 Bentsen RGV State Park
Another cold morning it was in South Texas this past Tuesday, but I was determined to get out and explore the region. The camp where I’m staying is only 1.5…
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…
2021-02-04 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…
2021-02-01 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…
2021-01-22 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…
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…
2020-11-30 Monday at Bosque del Apache
I first visited Bosque del Apache in August 2003. Having heard of its legendary assembly of winter geese and cranes, I found a means for combining work in Santa Fe…
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,…
2020-10-17 First Stop, Dirty Socks Spring
On Saturday morning, I hit the road to Idaho after getting breakfast at my favorite Poway restaurant. I got the oil changed in the RV and the generator, and I…
Memories of Bitter Lake NWR, New Mexico
After four days on the road from Brownsville, I followed the Pecos River upstream from Texas and crossed into New Mexico on Sunday, May 10th of 2020, and found a…
Memories of Breeze Lake Texas
My first birding expedition into Texas was in the spring of 2020. After being on the road since February 21st, on Monday, March 23rd, the world-wide panic from the pandemic…
2020-04-17: Feeder Vigil in Brownsville
I believe I’ve identified the birds in the gallery below correctly, but I welcome any corrections that experienced Texas birders might care to share. I’ve always tried to be a…
2020-03-15 My First Day At Aransas NWR
As I write this episode, I’ve been so involved taking pictures this past week that I buried myself under a ton of work to prepare them for my stories. I…
Memories of Otter Creek, Utah
One aspect of birding I enjoy is that if you have eyes open, you can find birds in so many places. In late spring of 2015, while on my six-week…
Memories of the Link River in Klamath Falls
I’ve traveled extensively through Western USA, yet I don’t feel I’ve “seen it all”. Far from it, I’m certain there are still plenty of surprises waiting for me to ferret…
2019-10-10 Vendel Road, Salton Sea
My trip to Arizona finally launched Thursday morning. I used the opportunity to visit some of my favorite bird destinations. My first stop was Poe Road, but I was disappointed…
2019-08-20 Tuesday On The Shores Of Mono Lake
I compare my favorite method for image collection to that of the Great Blue Heron. While the Snowy Egret dances in the shallows to chase prey out of hiding, the…
2019-01-26 Merced National Wildlife Reserve
After spending the week with my family in Medford, I drove away on Friday, southbound on I-5. My first stop was in Marysville California to visit a friend I knew…
2013-05-15 Tijuana River Valley
My plan for this Wednesday morning was to explore the Tijuana River downstream from the Bird and Butterfly Garden and discover how far it would take me into the estuary.…
2017-08-13 Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve
This morning I found my way to the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve. I visited here once before while doing my big inter-mountain trip in the Samurai (the one where I…
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…
2015-05-27 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…
2015-05-10 Two Days At Antelope Island
One of the true high points of this trip was Antelope Island State Park, north of Salt Lake City in Utah. This is a very compelling place with LOTS to…
2015-05-08 Bicknell Bottoms
Yesterday’s visit at this place was just not enough to take it all in, so I opted to stay another day. My drive took me nearly completely around the valley,…