White-Crowned Sparrow
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 Pinyon Wells – Joshua Tree NP
2016 – Early October Camping I spent the second week of October with the bird and mammal department of the San Diego Natural History Museum in Joshua Tree National Park.…
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 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 Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve
The first time I visited the Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve was on 2015-05-05. I was starting out a long expedition of the western USA states and driving my Suzuki Samurai.…
Memories of Gilbert Water Ranch
Twice, I visited this gem of a bird sanctuary. My first explorations took place on 2020-02-23, as I traveled to Texas on my first birding expedition to the Lone Star…
Memories of the Dempster Highway
On May 18, 2005, still new to birding, I left for a 73 day ‘trip of a lifetime’ that covered 12,000 miles. All did not go as planned, but it…
Memories of Graham County, AZ
I visit Graham County as often as I can to visit long-time friends there. Below are notes from two such visits. 2020-05-22 Ascent To Mount Graham Mount Graham, called Dził…
Memories of Patagonia
Near the start of my 2023 expedition to Canada, I passed through Patagonia in March and visited the Patton Center for Hummingbirds for my first visit to this well-known birding…
Memories of Marathon Texas
My first Texas Birding expedition began in 2020, with an ill-planned visit to Big Bend. I learned that because of Spring Break, all camping spaces in the park were occupied,…
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…
2023-04-09 Early April On Cottonwood Wash
Saturday, my friend Linda and I drove to visit her good friend Kai, who lives on the Cottonwood Wash south of Pima. I had the pleasure of spending time with…
2023-03-21 in Patagonia
Tuesday I visited the Paton Center for Hummingbirds in Patagonia, a destination I have heard many folks rave about over the years. It was my first visit, but I sure…
2022-06-18 Friday & Saturday’s Arctic Terns
After my Friday morning at McIntyre Marsh, I explored the riverside area that my new British Columbia friends suggested. I found the location and walked almost a mile into the…
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…
2022-04-01 Friday Drive to Reedsport
I spent Thursday night at the roadside on US-101, just south of the Umpqua River Lighthouse. I wasn’t out of fresh water, but I was getting low. My blackwater holding…
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.…
2022-03-24 Crescent City to Pistol River
My morning in Crescent City started off slow but well enough. I got a few more pictures of the horned grebe like I wanted. Then I drove up the coast…
2022-03-09&10 Into Redwood Country
Since my last entry in this month’s journal, I have had two amazing stops in Point Reyes and in Bodega Bay. As I pen these words, this morning I am…
2022-03-02 Wednesday At Morro Bay
From the beginning to the end, yesterday went swimmingly. I began my fun by driving from San Luis Obispo on Los Osos Valley Road, a route I’d not traveled before.…
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…
2021-01-08 A Visit To Langtry Texas
Less than a half-mile from the Rio Grande, and almost 40 miles upstream from its confluence with the Pecos River, is the sleepy town of Langtry Texas. This is where…
2021-01-06, Winding Up My Stay in Big Bend
It was a week I’ll remember fondly. As I drove out of New Mexico late last December, I had doubts about being able to pull off a stay inside Big…
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.…
2020-12-25 Christmas at Bitter Lake Near Roswell
In April 2020, as I was ending my first Texas birding adventure, I called my friend Jerry in Albuquerque and told him I was headed his way via Roswell. He…
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,…
2020-11-12 Thursday In Gilbert Arizona
It was a big day for me Thursday in Gilbert. The sun was at its harshest mid-day height when I arrived at the Water Ranch, but I stayed into the…
2020-11-09 Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve
After driving all day from Ely Nevada, I felt tuckered out. I didn’t want to boondock camp in Las Vegas, so I booked a night at an RV park in…
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…
2020-02-29 & March 1 At Mesilla Valley
Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park proved to be the best birding location in the Las Cruces area for my friend Jerry and I. I scouted the park briefly on Friday,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
2019-01-26 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…
2019-01-21 Sacramento and Colusa Refuges
Driving to see my family in Oregon, I took a little timeout to visit the reserves between Williams and Willows California (USA). The long interstate drive wore me down, especially the…
2014-11-30 Poe Road Passerines
My past stops at Poe Road on the southwestern shore of the Salton Sea have yielded worthwhile bird encounters. On this visit at the end of November 2014, I focused…
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…
2014-02-26 Tubb Canyon Trail
I’d heard recent reports of interesting birds sighted near Tubb Canyon, and never having visited this place before, I was eager to explore it. I cannot remember the bird that…
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…
2017-04-25 Sabino Canyon
I envy Tucson citizenry for this jewel. If I lived here, I’d make it a point to visit Sabino Canyon several days a week. Not only are there amazing birds,…
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…
2016-10-13 Pinyon Wells Critters
I recently posted about the trip I took last week to Pinyon Wells in Joshua Tree National Park with the Bird and Mammal Department of the San Diego Natural History…
2015-05-07 Otter Creek and Bicknell Bottoms
I left Mount Carmel Junction and headed north on Highway US-89. It’s about a three-hour drive into Bicknell Utah, and then but a few minutes south to what the locals…