Off the Edge of the Map
April 19, 2005
Morning
Before leaving for our trip to Kangaroo Island, I had a couple of free hours, so I spent the morning walking around Mark and Vicky’s neighborhood. I saw a nice variety of birds, including Grey Currawong, White-plumed Honeyeater, White-naped Honeyeater, and Crested Pigeon.
Continue reading “Flagstaff Hill, South Australia”
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.
Continue reading “Swan Valley”
April 17, 2005
Afternoon
After the wineries, we stopped at Lake Monger, very near Helen & Daniel’s home. There, we discovered a big lake just PACKED with great birds. OMG so many birds, including several new species for me!
Continue reading “Lake Monger”
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.
Continue reading “Subiaco, Western Australia”
April 15, 2005
Early morning
Our primary destination for today was Rottnest Island, but before we got on the train to where we’d catch a ferry, we had breakfast with Helen and Daniel at Kings Park. Of course, I spent a few minutes wandering around outside looking for birds.
Continue reading “Kings Park, Perth”
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.
Continue reading “Rottnest Island”
April 13, 2005
Managed to sleep a bit later the next morning (until about 6.00), had breakfast at the hotel, and then out into the city. Our first real stop: The Australian Museum. Today, we timed our start so we arrived right when the museum was opening, and headed straight towards the dinosaur exhibit.
Continue reading “Chinese Gardens and Darling Harbour”
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.
April 11, 2005
Our hotel was one block south of Hyde Park, so that was the first place we visited (and would be the place we visited every day in Sydney, on our way to and from everywhere. This park is smaller than the one in London, which I assume is its namesake, but it’s lovely. Of course, after seeing Silver Gull at the airport, I was thrilled to see more Australian birds, all of which were new to me.
Continue reading “Hyde Park and City Bus Tour”
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.
Continue reading “Monterey Pelagic Birding Trip”
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.
Continue reading “Albacore Feeding Grounds”
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.
Continue reading “Monterey Bay Aquarium”
August 16, 2002
While living in Scotland, this is one of the adventures I didn’t want to miss – a chance to see the northern gannet rookery on the Bass Rock, off the coast of North Berwick. It was well worth the trip!
Continue reading “Birding the Bass”
July 5, 1996
Rainy and cool
After our late night, we slept in and went down to breakfast at 9:00 (as we’d promised John the night before). When leaving, John bid us a fond farewell, and gifted me with a framed poster (he took it right off his wall!) that had the lyrics to a song called “The Highland Welcome.” Very touching! He is such a lovely man.
Continue reading “Cairngorm Mountains, Scotland”
July 4, 1996
We woke today to a light drizzle (this seems to happen quite frequently in Britain), and headed for Edinburgh. It is fortunate that no one seems to mind vehicles pulled half-way off the side of the road, because we’ve been doing a lot of that along the way, stopping to see birds. We saw a flock of Eurasian Oystercatchers on a grassy hill, and an adorable Yellowhammer singing exuberantly from a grassy area at the side of the road. Pied Wagtails, the British Isles race of the White Wagtail, were spotted at the roadside, and we saw our first Ring-necked Pheasant this morning, as well. We also spotted a bird kiting over the highway, whose markings under the wing and on the tail matched a Rough-legged Buzzard closer than any other, although this would have been outside of the bird’s normal summer range. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see it closely enough to be certain.
Continue reading “Scottish Lowlands and Tay Forest”
July 3, 1996
Although I was sad to leave York, we did have more adventures ahead of us, so I turned my attention north and east, to Whitby. To get there, we drove through the well-known (possibly infamous) Yorkshire Moors, which I loved. They are absolutely gorgeous – misty, and dark, and lovely.
Continue reading “Whitby, England”
July 1, 1996
Since Kevin was working on this day, I ended up sleeping very late (11:30), then wandered on my own into York under a light drizzle to change some currency. I discovered that the York City Centre is a charming warren of shops, pubs, and ancient buildings. After lunch and a guided bus tour, I found myself strolling through the Museum Gardens.
Continue reading “Wildlife in York, England”
June 29, 1996
On our first day in the British Isles, we took a bus tour through London, to orient ourselves to the sights. After finishing the tour near Buckingham Palace, we walked back to our hotel via St. James and Green parks, to look for birds along the way. Some of the first birds we encountered were familiar from back home: Mute Swans with cygnets, and Mallards, but of course, many others were new to me.
Continue reading “Birding London ( England) Parks”
May 2, 1995
Hazy, 65°F
After an appointment in town, I took a late morning walk through the park. I saw lots of birds by the bridge, and also found a path down on the other side of the creek which was very isolated, and gave me a great view of the birds going about their business.
Continue reading “Baugo Creek”
April 15, 1995
Hazy, 50°F
Kevin suggested this expedition to take advantage of spring migration. He has become quite interested in birding and hiking with me since our trip to Florida, and this was one of the first specifically “birding” trips we went on together. We had a lovely morning, hiking trails One and Two (Two is terrific, by Lake Worster). We also followed a few deer trails, covering a total of about 6 miles, and there were many life species for both of us.
Continue reading “Potato Creek State Park”
January 23, 1995
Hazy, ~50°F
Kevin and I took a boat tour through the swamp and bayou. Things were a bit quiet, probably due to the weather and the time of year. Still, we got an idea what the bayou is like . . . it’s beautiful!
Continue reading “Honey Island Swamp, Louisiana”
January 18, 1995
Afternoon
We arrived at Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge after noon, so we only had a couple of hours to spare before heading to Orlando to meet Deb and OD for dinner. Even with such a short period of time, it was WELL worth it! Merritt Island is one of the premier spots I’ve birded thus far in my young life, certainly at this time my favorite. I will return in the future – it’s WONDERFUL!
Continue reading “Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge”
January 14 and 15, 1995
On the day we’d planned to visit the Keys, a tropical storm hit southern Florida. However, given that we only had a limited number of days before Kevin needed to be back in Indiana, we decided to drive through the Keys anyway. This was less than pleasant at first, with some really heavy rains. Fortunately, though, it cleared up by the afternoon, and we found ourselves in the middle of a gorgeous landscape. The water on either side of us as we drove over the bridges that connect the islands was some of the most INCREDIBLE shades of blue and green that I had ever seen. Beautiful turquoise. We spotted several pairs of gorgeous Magnificent Frigatebird while driving through the Keys, and saw at least one Osprey that appeared to be at a nest.
Continue reading “Florida Keys and Everglades”
January 4, 1995
Lake Okeechobee, multiple counties (Glades, Okeechobee, Martin, Palm Beach and Hendry), Florida
All day; 65°, overcast
Stops along my route
Knowing that I’d be leaving Florida soon and wanting to make the most of my remaining time here, I spent a day circumambulating the lake, stopping anywhere that looked promising. I started by driving north from West Palm and approaching the lake from the east, then up and around the northern end, down the west side, and around the southern end. Spoiler alert: I saw a LOT of birds.
Continue reading “Lake Okeechobee”
January 4, 1995
All day; overcast/65 F
Knowing that I’d be leaving Florida soon and wanting to make the most of my remaining time here, I spent a day circumambulating the lake, stopping anywhere that looked promising. I started by driving north from West Palm and approaching the lake from the east, then up and around the northern end, down the west side, and around the southern end. Spoiler alert: I saw a LOT of birds.
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