The Adriatic Sea is rarely mentioned in comparison to the Mediterranean Sea, yet the Adriatic Sea is a northern arm of the Mediterranean Sea. My travels for the next few months will be to explore the Balkan Peninsula, not really a peninsula, and Italian Peninsula separated by this 500 mile long body of water.
For those of you who love water, I learned, the Adriatic Sea is relatively shallow, has clear, turquoise water and over 1,000 islands. Wonder if island hopping is a thing people do?
My time will be split: group tour and solo time. The entire travel involves places I have never visited, so this will be a true exploration! My blog posts are usually twice a week, however, if writing time is available, I’ll post more often.
Looking at a map, I’ll visit Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia and some locations on the eastern coast of Italy. If you have visited any of these areas, let me know what I should not miss! Thanks!
My sketch below is to orient myself to the locations of the countries I’ll eventually be visiting. I’ll start on the Southeastern European side. Can you name the countries labeled B thru F? Then I’ll visit eastern coast of country labeled A. Will not visit country labeled “?”, but needed to include it for my sense of the area.
Italian and Balkan Peninsulas. Can you name the countries?
Here are the answers:
A= Italy
B= Slovenia
C= Croatia
D= Bosnia and Herzegovina
E= Montenegro
F= Albania
How did you do? What about upper right corner with question mark? Answer: Serbia
Time to travel … and explore foods, birds, history with eyes wide open and to meet people from all over the world!
Santiago can be walked if you are a patient person. I decided to walk to the Costanera Center, the tallest building in the city and maybe in South America. Next door was a five floor shopping mall. I had no interest in going to the sky deck bar at the very top of the center to see the entire city. I continued my walk to a Japanese Garden, an area of the huge city park.
Tallest building from Japanese Garden
The uphill walk to the Japanese Garden was worth it. Long and hot weather today. Soon it will be summer here. At the Japanese Garden you walk along paths passing quiet pools of water with lily pads, waterwheels, streams and sculptured trees.
More of the Japanese Garden
Very pleasant place as I also listened for birds. Another new bird: white-crested elaenia.
A new bird for me!
On my way down the hill, I interacted with employees putting up insect traps in fruit trees. Not knowing any Spanish on my part, my apologies to them, I photoed an information sheet so I could know what fly they are trying to capture.
So many places to eat in the city! I settled on my tour guide’s recommendation for a meal: pastel de jaiba… a crab cake … and as I write this, the electricity went out in one-third of the restaurant. I have my water, bread with butter and salsa, wine and meal so I am set… and then the electricity was back on! Unfortunately the chocolate cake has strawberry layer within, so glad I mentioned no strawberry please, so I’ll finish my wine with flan. Ah yes, I now remember that dessert is a South American staple!
Quite the crab cake meal!
I walked to Parque Bicentenario where hundreds of start-up tech and other companies had displays. Further along I spent time at a pond. Much to my surprise, I saw a plumbeous rail walking along the pond’s edge onto grass. Rails are typically hidden from sight. To see this one so easily was amazing!
Plumbeous rail
Two other birds were new to me: yellow-billed pintail and yellow-winged blackbird … a male and a female. I was happy to have my camera available for these observations.
Then I was looking at this next bird wondering is that a mockingbird? Yup.
Chilean mockingbird
Finally, I had been hearing the rufous-collared sparrow and the noisy monk parakeets. Now I had photos! My bird life list has grown by 8 new birds. Soon off to Easter Island in the mid-Pacific Ocean!
Rufous-collared sparrowMonk parakeet landed on the ground. Usually in the trees.
I’ll be back in a few days after I discover Easter Island!
Santiago is a long way from noon Arizona flight to late evening flight from Houston, Texas to a morning arrival in Santiago, especially when I never seem able to sleep on these overnight flights!
Seated next to me was a young man born in Santiago and now living in Florida. He returns every couple of years to visit family on a ranch, a long drive south of Santiago. He was surprised to hear of my upcoming travel to Easter Island as he has never been there. He said, one can drive from Santiago east one hour to the mountains and west one hour to the coast and south for days to towns closer to the tip of Chile.
It was with great sadness as I learned of hikers who became lost and died in a sudden snowstorm and highs winds in Torres del Paine, southern mountainous area in Chile. They were in the backcountry, still a distance from the hut, their destination, for the night. Blinding and sudden snowstorms are difficult, especially when winds are 120 mph! And they were caught in the storm while hiking in. What sadness though for the families of these hikers. I suspect those hikers were doing a dream hike and unfortunately met with Chile’s ever-changing mountain weather. When I visit those mountains later on this trip, our tour will not be in the backcountry. But everywhere one needs to be ready for changing weather, thus my backpack holds clothing for all types of weather. We always hope to be prepared!
So after two flights, with one 9 hours and me wearing the compression socks, I thought the socks comfortable. No swollen legs, so good news on that front. I took them off soon after the flight. With the warm Santiago weather I did not need knee-high socks on.
I arrived at my hotel, checked my luggage with the concierge with a plan to return hours later when my hotel room became available. Amazingly I met 3 women who are on an earlier tour than my own and was invited to join them. It worked out perfectly as I was exhausted, wanted to visit places they mentioned and had the camaraderie while touring the city.
Santiago is the capital and largest city in Chile at an elevation of 1706 feet with about 10 million people. Traffic is crazy. This city is not an easy walkable city, despite my seeing cyclovia (bike lanes) and walking path beside them, in some areas where we wanted to go. Thus we took Uber to each place with a ride always available in under 5 minutes. Throughout the city there is plenty of street art. Off in the distance one can see Santa Lucia Hill. Fifteen million years ago it was a volcano. The city is surrounded by hills and in the distance snow-capped mountains,
We visited these sites:
Parque Metropolitano: we rode a cable car to the top of San Cristobal Hill, saw the large statue of the Virgin Mary, and stopped in at the church and sanctuary, then took the funicular down the other side of the hill to find a restaurant for lunch.
Blessed Virgin Mary statue on the hillChurch on the side of the hillFunicular coming up as we went down
For lunch I had … let me simply provide photos below. It was tasty and too many fries, but perfect timing as I was hungry. The price is $8.990 which is almost 9 thousand Chilean pesos, about 9 USA dollars.
Menu item and my choiceHere was the tasty meal, but way too many fries!
Thankfully for me in my exhaustion, I bought some Chilean money from my new friend who had gotten too much Chilean money. Even for my single fifty dollar USA bill, I now had a stack of one and two thousand Chilean bills. Each thousand Chilean bill is worth one USA dollar.
We also visited Pueblito Los Dominicos where many handicrafts are made and sold by local artisans. As you walk around the many, many shops you do feel as though you are in a traditional village. I did find my first new bird for Chile here! An Australian thrush which at first glance I thought was a robin. It’s a common bird as are the noisy monk parakeets. But the austral blackbird was the next new bird for my life list.
A note re my blog: I usually write two times per week. However, I may add more per week to share my adventures with you. So, I’ll be flexible and I hope you enjoy my notes.
Cycling, camping, birdwatching, outdoor activities and many other activities have become more popular during the pandemic because we are able to give each other space. My day began with a cool Californian morning which means cold to a southern Arizonian. With overcast sky and slight wind in the air, I ate my breakfast and decided to have my coffee at Starbucks and finally have WiFi access since it is not available at the state park. It also provided me an opportunity to look at my photos from the previous days!
As the day warmed, I drove to Aliso and Woods Canyons Wilderness Park. While talking with a man coming off the trails on his bicycle, I asked for an easy mountain bike trail for a gravel bike, like his and mine. I knew there is a paved bike path, but why not first try some mountain biking on my gravel bike? Off I went with basics on my bicycle … bike tools, lunch, snacks, water and one camera…. I bicycled about 8 miles before I realized my bike lacked some needed front and rear suspension, so I decided to return and ride pavement while I still had a back and butt. The ride was beautiful and fun and I also talked with others on the trail who mentioned coming to Arizona for college searches.
Back at my car, I went to the paved bike path along the Aliso Creek which I originally planned to do. Ah yes, smooth and easy on the body! Trail signs seemed to indicate there would be some closures, but all went well for me. I saw a white-faced ibis, mallards and swallows. The amount of white on a white-faced ibis is so small this name for the bird cracks me up. Anyway, here is a white-faced ibis:
Back at the campground, my tent was not blown away and the shower water was hot! Fifty-cents-worth, 2 tokens provided 3 minutes of shower water and I was thrilled! Another day outdoors and only speaking with 3 people so felt safe. At the Starbucks I sat indoors, alone thanks to their sign stating indoors was not open, yet when I asked if indoor seating was available, they said yes. Perfect!
One goal during this travel opportunity is to view shorebirds since they’ll not hang out in the desert where I live. My birdwatching fun began while I was eating breakfast at my tent site. I observed and photographed a California towhee, a California thrasher and cliff swallows! I was also distracted by the numerous rabbits and squirrels running around the tent site and noticing the holes the squirrels dig. Seeing the California thrashers and California towhees was exciting and interesting too as I noticed their differences from the curve-billed thrasher or sage thrasher and Abert’s towhees I would see in Arizona!
I drove north to Dana Point where a masked booby had been reported on eBird, and a CA friend had seen it just a few weeks ago, so I decided to see if it was still in the area. It is rare for the bird to be here. And, yes it was!
I also saw a few great blue heron nests and one nest with 2 juveniles in it. I love seeing brown pelicans and all types of terns, but one really odd-looking bird was an Egyptian goose. See what you think of the bird flying over the car’s roof below. The terns and pelicans are amazing when they dive straight down into the water to catch their fish!
I then drove further north to San Joaquin Wildlife Marsh which is in conjunction with the wastewater treatment plant in the area. I spent most of my time at the San Diego River and finally to one small marshy area. As I walked the mile back to my car, I surprisingly flushed a killdeer off its egg! I remember seeing the bird earlier in my visit. The killdeer was walking along the berm; I thought it strange to be so far from the water and the other birds. But when I realized it was on an egg, I had to take a closer look at the egg. The bird allowed me a closer look. The egg was colored like the gravel it was on. I then gave the bird plenty of room as she watched me walk down the trail before she would return to her nest.
See the egg in the center of the photo on left?
Another good day without interacting with to many people and those that I did were wearing masks. Most people were curious as to what the birds were that we were all looking at. It’s nice to know the names of the birds and be able to help other people out with the identification of those birds. That killdeer egg was a highlight today … I was the only one to see it!
Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area is where you will find sandhill cranes roosting. Yes! and between November till March it is possible to see thousands of them! Let’s not forget though, other birds winter here too. This property was once a cattle ranch; however, since 1997 the Arizona Game and Fish Department has maintained the wetland habitat.
My future goal is to visit when I can capture the birds at sunrise and sunset. It is more a photography goal than birding one, and I hope I am up to the challenge. Results will be shared in a future blog! For now, here are some of the birds I saw on a recent visit:
Two weeks ago I finally walked the birding trail at Patagonia Lake State Park. I was searching for an elegant trogon and while not successful in seeing one there were plenty of other birds!
A canyon towhee was one bird I thought, now you look a bit different from others so let me photograph you! It was wonderful for the bird to sit on the branch and allow me to photograph it. Other birds like the bridled titmouse were all over the place before I could get a decent photo. But the verdin won the movement contest! With all of its moving around I could only capture a photo while the bird hung upside down! I almost missed one bird. I saw some action at a spot. I took a photo even though it was the back end of what I guessed to be a wren. Fortunately its eyebrow is in the photo to know it is a Bewick’s wren!
Canyon towheeBridled titmouseVerdinBewick’s wren
Plenty of woodpeckers were in the woods. I felt like it was practice in determining is it a Gila woodpecker or a ladder-backed woodpecker?
Female Gila woodpecker on left and ladder-backed woodpecker on right.
I saw this next bird and was not sure what it was till I arrived home to enter it into Merlin Bird ID, love that app! I captured a photo of an Eastern phoebe!
Eastern phoebe
Another little bird I have not seen in awhile is the next photo: ruby crowned kinglet.
Ruby crowned kinglet
And finally a bird I knew as soon as I saw it…hermit thrush! Always wonderful when I can actually identify a bird on the spot of observing them!
So many birds on that birding trail and the creek near it, along with an entire lake to check out. I saw 15 different bird species during the 2.5 hours on the trail. It is a great day trip for any time of the year! I’ll be back!
I am not sure birding while bicycling is the safest combination of activities. My eyes are on the road, then the sky, then the road, then a tree and wherever else next! Thank goodness I am riding low trafficked roads or the Tucson bicycle loop to keep me safe while also birding. The other day I wanted to linger longer to check out a few ponds I do not ordinarily see at Sweetwater Wetlands, especially when wondering what is that beautiful bird! So the following day I went back, on foot, to walk about a half mile down the bicycle loop to check on the birds at a pond.
Many, many birds were hanging out and so too was the beautiful bird: a northern pintail.
As I was looking around at all the birds, a hawk-like bird flew onto a tree between the 2 ponds. Of course, the bird’s back was to me so it was difficult to identify it. As it wrestled around on the tree branches one of my photos caught a quick look at its face and now we know it is a northern harrier. If you look closely, see the owl-like facial disc that helps in identifying this bird. When it first flew in I only noticed the white band across its rump.
Plenty of ring-necked ducks and mallards were flying in and out of the area. All the birds seem to really appreciate the wetlands. I am glad the ponds are here for them too, as the treated effluent (water waste) is returned to the aquifer for future use. Reusing water in Arizona is a huge need.
While I enjoy bicycling and also looking for birds at the same time, I think it is safer for me to keep the two activities separate. Plus, I usually do not carry my camera with me while bicycling. I love photographing birds so that would be best within dedicated birding time. That’s not to say my eyes will not be on the sky or at a tree looking for birds while bicycling in 2021! I’ll also be looking for a vaccine, and 2 shots worth, so I can bird in other places in the USA and world! Stay safe everyone!
