Spotted Towhee
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 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 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 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…
2023-07-11 Over The Chiricahua Mountains
When my time with the Cave Creek birds concluded, I ascended the Chiricahua Mountains. It seemed to me most of the up-slope birds were smart enough to hide from the…
2023-07-10 Cave Creek, Portal, AZ
Last year, I passed through Portal, but storms were drenching the upper slopes of the Chiricahuas, and I didn’t feel much like lingering. If it feels right this year, I…
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…
2021-01-02 Big Bend’s Ross Maxwell Drive
New Year’s Day and Saturday night, I stayed in Terlingua (Texas). I waited there until I could take advantage of my Sunday night reservation for camping in Cottonwood. Saturday morning…
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.…
2020-12-17 Wednesday At The Rio Grande Nature Center
There is a small reserve on the northwestern edge of Albuquerque that I have enjoyed since some of my earliest visits to the region. It is the Rio Grande Nature…
2020-12-09 A Morning in Corrales New Mexico
A friend of Jerry’s advised him that there were many cranes grazing in his Corrales neighborhood, so we drove there on Wednesday to investigate for ourselves. Jerry’s friend was right!…
2020-05-15: The Bosque at Tingley Beach
Sadly, my friend Jerry has since passed away. He is sorely missed. My friend Jerry Goffe retired from his forensic photography business a few years ago and devoted his time…
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…
2020-03-04 Wednesday At Dripping Springs
My stay in Las Cruces was extended several days because of issues I had to sort out with my RV generator. All is well now as I send this post…
2020-02-24: Boyce-Thompson Arboretum
Sunday, after spending the day at the Gilbert Water Ranch, I drove the Superstition Highway forty miles east to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Superior Arizona. I’d been here only…
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…
2012-06-10 A Weekend in Idyllwild
I spent an early June weekend with my ex in Idyllwild, a quaint little town nestled a mile high under the peaks of San Jacinto Mountain. Idyllwild has shopping for…
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…
2013-05-29 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…
2013-05-08 Lake Hodges Passerines
There are trails around Lake Hodges well suited to hiking and biking. I drove to the community sports park off West Bernardo Drive this Wednesday morning to look for Blue…
2013-04-29 Coast To Crest Wildlife Corridor
The San Dieguito River system drains from the mountains east of Santa Ysabel through the San Pasqual Valley and out to sea at Del Mar. Forward thinking citizens fought for…
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…
2017-09-15 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…
2017-07-07 and 09 Lower Rock Creek
Friday morning (7/7) I chased (but missed) my friend Steve Brad’s Indigo Bunting. He’d been visiting the region in the weeks prior to my departure. I’m reasonably certain I was…
2017-04-26~28 Mount Lemmon: Sky Island Heaven
Early Wednesday morning I set off to visit Mount Lemmon using instructions for locating birds on the mountain from local birder, Liz Harrison. Her instructions were invaluable and gave me…
2015-06-15 Eureka to Fort Ross
I gathered the images on display here while driving south from Eureka to Fort Ross via the Mattole Road in Humboldt County, California. The southbound Mattole Road leaves US-101 south…
2015-06-09 Ken Denman Reserve
One of the most pleasant and personally rewarding episodes for me on this expedition was the stay I had with my nephew and his family in southern Oregon. I hadn’t…
2015-05-06 Zion National Park
After I left Henderson I got through Las Vegas as efficiently as I could manage (no easy feat). I drove about 135 miles north on I-15 to Saint George Utah…