Category: photography

Time With Roadrunners on the Trail!

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There were two roadrunners running across my trail, but one seemed to have taken off and the other stayed with me. For a split second ….

Here one second, gone the next …

Actually it came running towards me! What!?!

Roadrunner running towards me…

I thought it strange for it to be heading right at me … then past me. My finger clicked away on my camera to capture the action. A 100-400 mm camera lens though was a disadvantage with this close-encounter.

Bird on a mission!

The Pima tribe believe it is a sign of good luck to see a roadrunner. Good to know. I always want to see the bird’s X-shaped footprints. But once again the ground did not capture the foot’s imprint. Pueblo tribes consider the footprint sacred symbols. The X-shape footprint hides the direction the bird is moving and thus confuses evil spirits. The next second I knew where this bird was heading …

into the tree….

The bird flew into a nearby tree. Rarely do I see Greater roadrunners, their official name, in a tree. So I decided to spend some time with the bird. It was making a sound similar to drumming on wood. I thought it was pecking into the tree, but it was not. All sound was coming from its vocal cords.

Bird is not making this photo easy.

The bird climbed higher into the tree. Photographing it was a challenge so I slowly walked around the tree. My goal was to capture a photo of the bird with less tree branches in the way. Slowly I stepped and clicked away, until I finally had some decent photos.

Thank you for the pose!
Jumps around for a different pose, thank you!

With tail and head almost parallel to the ground, the roadrunner was out of the tree and running to an open area. I am not sure if it caught up with the other roadrunner it was with earlier. They are usually solitary birds, but who knows?

And it is off to somewhere…

In our backyard, a roadrunner can often be seen running through. Our hope is it enjoys eating lizards and snakes it may find there. While doing some research for this post, I learned a baby roadrunner is an “alleywalker”. A flock of roadrunners, a “marathon” or “race”. Very interesting!

Red-eared Slider … Tracked!

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I recently learned observations of mine with the iNaturalist app can be tracked. With past input of red-eared slider observations, I discover I have seen this animal at the following times and locations: July 2020 in Tucson, Arizona. April 2021 in Marana, Arizona. April 2023 in San Antonio, Texas. July 2025 in Tucson, Arizona. That is so cool! I love this app allowing me to be a “citizen scientist”. Join, for free, if you are out in nature, have a smart phone, and wish to add to the observations. Download iNaturalist app.

Red-eared slider

Birding Moments While “Down Under”

Posted in Birds, blogging, photography, TravelTagged , , 4 Comments

It wasn’t a birding trip. Yet birds are everywhere in the world so how could I not notice birds in Australia and New Zealand! Here are some birding moments from my trip!

I consider myself a “birder in learning mode” since I have only been at this activity a few years. My acknowledgment of certain birds was due to “that bird looks similar to a bird I know”. Considering not having my binoculars or a 500 mm camera lens to look through and see any bird better, I think I did okay! (I did use 18-270 camera lens and cropped photos.)

Oystercatchers and this one is a sooty oystercatcher:

Sooty oystercatcher

I love pied-billed grebes and here was a Great crested grebe:

Great crested grebe

So many types of cormorants! How about this one drying its feathers, a little pied cormorant:

Little pied cormorant

There’s all kinds of herons, but I thought this is either a green or night heron, and I discover it is a Nankeen night heron:

Nankeen night heron

As I learned at home, sometimes one needs to take a close look to truly identify a bird.The magpie made me look closely to discover the difference between an Australian magpie and a magpie-lark! Fun fact: the magpie-lark is neither a magpie or a lark! Check out the photos:

Australian magpie
Magpie-lark

The magpie-lark is actually more closely related to fantails. Here’s one, New Zealand fantail, that took me forever to photograph as it jumped around in the tree! I see more of these birds during my travel but have no time to photograph them as they are crazy active!

NZ fantail

I discover house sparrows are all over Australia and New Zealand! And so are common chaffinch and masked lapwing.

Common chaffinch
Masked lapwing

At times I found myself on a mission to find a specific bird. One was the tui. This was a bird in New Zealand, always pictured with a white-tuft of feathers. I wanted to see it! After many days and awful photos, this was my best photo of a tui:

Tui

I remembered some song about the laughing kookaburra in an old gum tree, so that was another bird I hoped to find. And I did:

Laughing kookaburra

My biggest birding surprise! I was walking at Clifton Beach in Australia, returning to Palm Cove. While thinking about upcoming plans, I notice a bird in tall grass. Hmmm… sort of a different look to this bird from all I have seen in previous weeks. I photograph it with my phone. What a surprise when I discover it is a bird I have been looking for in Southern California, USA! Here it is:

Scaly-breasted munia

I hope I did not drive my fellow travelers crazy as I looked and listened for birds, spoke of Merlin Bird ID, and kept all aware of how many birds I saw per day. There seemed a genuine interest from others as they shared their observations and photos of birds. My Australian group was truly patient with me since by the end of my travel, I saw 70 new birds in Australia and 15 new birds in New Zealand! My love of birds and eBird list has grown!






Wyoming …. Okay, That’s New to Me!

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Typically I travel Interstate 80 east of Cheyenne, Wyoming. This time will be my first traveling west on the interstate. So I stopped in Laramie to see the town. Plans were to visit the Women’s History Museum. Its door opens at noon so my early arrival allowed me to do my laundry at a local laundromat. I had the pleasure of talking with a woman who has the same model van as mine, except hers is a “high roof” van. She lives in her van, decked out with many conveniences, for her full-time living. It’s always interesting for me to hear people’s stories and about their travels; she was no different.

The Women’s History Museum has a couple of rooms of informative material. I learned the first woman voter in the Wyoming territory in 1870 was 70 year old Louisa Gardner Swain. Fifty years later, 1920, the 19th Amendment is finally ratified to the US Constitution for all women to vote! Other Wyoming firsts: six Laramie women serve on a jury, first woman Justice of the Peace, first woman prison chaplain, first woman Governor: Nellie Taylor Ross, and the first woman bailiff.

The business next door could not be missed. The Sugar Mouse Cupcake House & Tea Shoppe had all these delicious, colorful looking cupcakes. I decided to treat myself to a German chocolate cupcake; yum!

I camped in Rock Springs, unfortunately it was hot and with wildfire smoke. The next day I drove the Wild Horse Scenic Route. Even after driving to the area, it was still about 15 miles before I saw 8 wild horses on this loop road. Prior to my sighting, I saw plenty of horse manure, also politely called “horse buns” or “road apples”, or otherwise you know what I call it! So I knew horses were somewhere! After seeing those 8 wild horses, it was a short drive to the main road. Somewhere more than 1,000 other wild horses are in the area.

I drove through plenty of open land on the southern border of Wyoming into Utah; an area I had never been before. This is the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area with Red Canyon Visitor Center in Utah! On the bighorn sheep geologic loop drive, no bighorn sheep, but plenty of beautiful rock formations. Here are some:

I did spend time at Red Canyon Visitor Center overlooking Flaming Gorge Reservoir. From the center, you can see Red Canyon: 4,000 feet wide and 1,700 feet below the visitor center. This area is beautiful and worth the drive to see it. It was a fitting end to this day, yet I had a 90 minute return drive to my campsite for the night.

Sheep Creek Bay, Flaming Gorge NRA, UT
Red Canyon
Slightly different angle of Red Canyon!


Macro Photography Time

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Time to change things up and not spend time photographing birds, sketching, or painting with watercolors; all activities I enjoy, but time to use my macro lens. Plant life is easiest for macro photography until a constant breeze interrupts the scene. I had time in Southern California this month to capture some photographs and here they are; enjoy!

Some animal life with the plants…

Interesting insects on the ground, so of course I had to photograph them too!

Actually, I may think about sketching or painting some of these photos … time will tell! I hope you have taken time to get outdoors and see what is blooming in your area … and to enjoy!

Flowers Blooming at Borrego Springs, California

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Everyone wants to enjoy blooming flowers after a winter season. Whether it is simply to see more color in the world, hike in a colorful area, or capture a photo of nature’s beauties, we search for the bloomers! I went to Borrego Springs to do all of the above last month!

The scenery was dreary as I looked to the mountains west of the Salton Sea; however, what the heck, drive over and check out the Borrego Springs area. I arrived about 9:00am and walked among white and purple wildflowers with 4 other people at a wildflower field just off the main road. It was wonderful having the place to myself as I photographed the field and flowers.

As I walked back to my van to check my photos, many people were arriving and within the next couple of hours at least 100 people stopped by! Even as clouds with rainfall started, people were walking into the field with umbrellas and cameras trying to capture  the right light for their photos. Many people enjoyed the scene as I did. Here are some photos:

Field in Borrego Springs, California
Hairy sand verbena
Everyone enjoys the flowers!
Storm is coming this way.

My Idea: Commit to Birds for 365 Days in 2023!

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It seemed like a great idea. I had been bird-watching, identifying birds, photographing birds and enjoying it all on my own and/or with friends. Then, as January 2023 approached, I had this bright idea. I would observe birds and record my checklist of observations in Cornell’s eBird every day for the entire year. Simple!

Yes, it is simple when I am home and can record the birds at our feeders or take a walk in the neighborhood and record birds seen during my walk. Some days I chose local birding hotspots to spend time at and observe birds while on a walk. Easy!

Black phoebe at local park
Gila woodpecker at one of our feeders

With all the traveling I had done during 2023, across the USA, I also stopped at national wildlife refuges, local and national parks and monuments, and recorded birds seen in those locations. That was fun exploring a new place, plus seeing some birds I would not have seen elsewhere. I attended some bird festivals which are wonderful places to see birds. Plus, other birding participants have their eyes open looking for birds with you!

But sometimes, I would wake early and there was a chill in the air and no birds at our feeders. Or I slept in my van in a parking lot the night before and no birds were in the neighborhood. And I might continue driving down the road and stop at a rest area. What!?! Just the usual grackles, starlings and house sparrows …. but they make it to my daily checklist! Another time I was on a back road in North Dakota. A nice surprise: wild turkeys just happened to walk in front of the van! They make it onto a checklist!

I have a greater appreciation now for how long 365 days is. Also understand there are some days birds are not flying around me as often as I thought they would be. It is almost eerie to walk outdoors and not see a bird for a period of time. It almost makes me worried about the health of our environment. Are we sure birds are doing okay? Then I go looking for bird nests or other signs of bird life!

My 2023 daily recording of an eBird checklist challenge was met! By the way, 12.7 million other birders completed a checklist per day this past year. I’m in good company!

No plan is set for me to continue a daily checklist through 2024, yet I know I will look for birds each day. It has become a habit! Here’s a guarantee: if I see a new bird, it will be recorded in eBird and maybe with a photo! So far I have 443 birds on my life list! There’s only about 10,000 more birds to be seen in the world! Maybe I’ll get my number higher as my return to international travel happens in 2024!

Where’s My Camera: A Solution

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At first it was not about the camera.

Numerous mornings I would look out my back window at our two bird feeders. They would sway in the breeze or hang perfectly still. Sometimes with a bird or two trying to feed at them, other times no one. My 2023 goal has been to enter a daily eBird checklist. Most often when I am home, I am observing the birds here at our feeders.

As fall temperatures arrived, I noticed the birds coming to the feeder later per day, sitting on tree branches in the sunshine and not moving to the feeder till minutes later. They would sit with puffed-up feathers, content to just be.

I too am finding fall mornings more mellow, less rushed, and allowing me time to consider a midday walk while temperatures are still comfortable. Gone are the days in needing to walk during the early sunrising hours or planning a trip to the air-conditioned local gym. 

A few days ago I observed a Greater roadrunner walking across our yard’s back wall. The bird was in no rush. I thought, wow, I have so much time to capture a photo, but where’s my camera? The next day I wondered if the birds I was observing were white-crowned sparrows with dark-lores or not. 

Where’s my camera? Isn’t it always someplace a distance away? Or with lens not attached to the camera body? Or simply not where you want it and need it to be?

Here’s my solution. Keep the camera with your lens of choice on a tripod in the room where most sightings are being made. For me, I can see our bird feeders and the pollinator plants that attract birds with my camera in place on a tripod. Having the camera on the tripod makes it immediately available to me, along with it being on a tripod so I can pivot from feeder to plant or wherever … even that brick wall! While it is true that I am shooting through our back window, which I am fortunate to have a clean window, there is some challenge to getting the absolute best photo, but I am not complaining … I got a photo! Here are some from one morning:

Warming up before feeding time.
Hummingbird scooted around this plant for a minute.
Hungry hummingbird!
The hummingbird did take time to sit on a branch!
Then … it took off … and so did I …. happy to have had my camera!

Photography Time at Monument Valley!

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Once again I joined a photography tour while visiting the Navajo Tribal Park at Monument Valley, Arizona. The advantage of such a tour is the ability to walk and spend time with a guide looking for the best places to capture an impressive photograph. The guide knows the area, especially off the beaten tourist path, and where the best light falls on specific rock formations. While we may only stop at six locations, we have three hours to capture the angle of the sun where we wish, before it sets, and can talk about our camera settings. I loved this tour, learned much from the guide, and met 3 other very nice people also on the tour. 

Here are some photos: