Fairweather Zealot

Another year has passed and I get to look back at what I have done throughout the year. In this case, I get to see what I did and enjoyed when looking at birds (and butterflies & dragonflies). It was a slower year for me – I got out a lot less than I had in the past, and was able to enjoy many fewer walks and hikes to search out the peace I get when I’m birding. In the past, even going to nearby Palmyra Cove a dozen times a year and walking the familiar paths after work or on a Saturday morning was a joy – but one that seemed to escape me all too often this busy year. On the other hand, I had the amazing experience of birding in Arizona in April & May – something I would love to repeat someday soon. Continue reading

I was guiding PhotoPatty and Al around Forsythe NWR when she suddenly points down into the water and says, "I think that’s a shark!". If I hadn’t seen it, I would never have thought I would see a shark (let alone 2, maybe 3) in the east pool of Forsythe NWR.

Our last day in the Cave Creek area we wanted to hit some of those places we had missed earlier and look for a couple of species that we really wanted to see: Juniper Titmice, Scaled and Montezuma Quail and Zone-tailed Hawks. We also wanted to make a trip up to the Chiricahua National Monument to see the amazing rock formations there. Continue reading

After our trip to Cape May, we decided to head to old standby Forsythe NWR in Brigantine to find some shorebirds. We had good success with the insects at Cape May, but not so much with the birds. So, we figured we could get all 3 at Forsythe although we would focus on the birds. Continue reading

Last year my wife and I spent a long weekend at Cape May to celebrate our 5th anniversary; this year, we couldn’t do awhile weekend but we wanted to continue the tradition. I wanted to get really early so that we could be there at sunrise; Shari wanted to get up just before sunrise and make it down there early-is in the morning. We compromised and did what she wanted. Continue reading

Okay, I figured that it was about time I posted something again. It’s been an early turn to the summer doldroms, and I haven’t been motivated to get off of my butt long enough to write. I’ve got about a half-dozen 50%-done posts to catch up on one of these days (it’s amazing how much time one can lose playing a simple game of Civilization IV. So while I haven’t been writing, I have been going through a lot of archived shots of dragonflies and damselflies … and I’ll probably have more by the end of Shari and my trip to Cape May on Friday (and/or Saturday). However, I think I’ll start it off with some more local odonates.

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After the extremely trying week I had last week (lots of hours, tons of different projects, lots of deliverables, grandfather back in the hospital, hang nail), I took Friday off to get a little bit of nature photography in before the pending heat wave (which has been ungodly, btw – near 100 degrees for 5 days). I went down to a small local pond where we can usually find quite a few cool bugs to photograph, taking my wife’s Nikon 105mm f/2.8 lens with me (God, I love that lens). After a rough start, suddenly, I was inundated with odonata everywhere. Continue reading

Life ain’t always pretty. While we were driving around Forsythe NWR last weekend, we saw a lot of cool things, enjoyed some sun, smelled some god-awful stuff (“It smells like dead feet” I said, once; later I followed that up with “It smells like rancid toe cheese”. Disgusting, but you know exactly what I mean, don’t you?), and saw some interesting things. One of them was a bit of nature at work in the form of one of the preserves top garbage collectors – the gulls. Continue reading

For part 3 of my ID series, I’m going to look at what are arguably the most well-known butterflies in the U.S. – the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) and related species. I call them the ‘royal butterflies’ – Monarch, Queen (Danaus gilippus), Soldier (Danaus eresimus) and, although technically they are in a completely different genus, Viceroy (Limenitis archippus). Continue reading

I went out looking for migrant birds Saturday – because I just needed to get out of the house and away from work, although the weather wasn’t helping much (overcast and spritzing). But I did get to see some cool birds at Palmyra Cove, including a lifelist worm-eating warbler. Continue reading