October 28, 2012

Visited Muir Woods yesterday, and took some photos with my iPhone; I was too lazy to bring my SLR, a decision I sort of regret. Although carrying the huge camera with me on the hike we ended up doing wouldn’t have made me happy, so it was probably for the best, and the photos I did take are all right, after a bit of editing.

June 25, 2012

On the way up to the field site, Eclipse and I thought we’d stop at this place that we’d driven by so many times without stopping. It was a nice, if small, park – quiet and peaceful, and the petrified trees are interesting.

April 17, 2005
Late morning/early afternoon

Sunday morning, after I returned from the park, and everyone else was up and about, we all headed to the Swan Valley for lunch. Then, we stopped at a couple of wineries. Kevin and Helen went in and tasted a few wines, and Daniel, Eclipse and I stayed outside. Eclipse played a bit while I looked at the birds I could see while supervising Eclipse. I didn’t see a big variety, but I did see a couple of very cool new birds, including the first birds of prey I’d seen in Australia.

April 16 and 17, 2005

On Saturday, Eclipse and I woke up early (as usual, since arriving in Australia), and no one else was up yet, so we snuck out of the house and took my camera down to the park where we’d had our barbecue. Eclipse headed straight to the playground, while I kept my eye out for birds. As we left the house, I spotted a few Black Swan flying past. I’d very much wanted to see these birds and was thrilled about the sighting, even though I only caught a short glimpse. They looked gorgeous flying through the sky – the contrast of black and white is lovely.

April 15, 2005

After breakfast, Eclipse, Kevin and I rode the train down to Fremantle, where we caught the ferry to Rottnest Island, a small island about half-an-hour’s trip from the mainland. The Indian Ocean is absolutely beautiful, and we saw bunches of great wildlife. My first bird of this trip was a really good look at an Australian Pelican at the jetty when we arrived at the island. Sadly, though, by the time we’d gotten off the boat, I couldn’t re-locate it to take a picture.

April 12, 2005

This morning, we headed out into the city around 8.30, intending to start at the natural history museum. When we arrived, though, we discovered that the Australian Museum didn’t open until 9.30. We didn’t want to wait around that long, so we headed on foot in the direction of the opera house, which was our primary destination for the day. We did see some great birds in Hyde Park along the way, including White Ibis and strikingly-colored Magpie Lark.

August 13, 2004
7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

I took another pelagic birding trip in Monterey Bay, and had a FANTASTIC time! We saw some fabulous birds (although I only saw one new species, so I’m still a few short of 500), but what I enjoyed even more was the other wildlife. The short version: I saw 31 species of birds, including the much-coveted Scripps’s Murrelet; 3 species of pinnipeds, 4 cetacean species (including breaching!!! Humpback Whales), a Leatherback Turtle (rare!), and some fish and jellyfish.

September 14, 2003

I took my first pelagic trip off the West Coast today, through Shearwater Journeys. It was a long day – we left at 5.30 a.m. and returned at 5.30 p.m. – and we saw a lot of terrific things, although not quite as many birds as I’d hoped to see.

June 5, 2003

Looking for a fun way to spend the day, Eclipse and I made the two-hour drive to Monterey, to visit the world famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. This fit in well with the fact that we’d been watching “Finding Nemo” lately. One of my kiddo’s favorite parts of the film features the jellyfish forest, so our first stop at the aquarium was to visit the special exhibit on jellies – “Jellies: Living Art.” It’s a fantastic exhibit. We went through it several time, and I was pleased with some of the photos I took.