Before my trip, I used colored markers and tried to be aware of some birds I may hear and/or see on my trip. Above is one possible bird.
My travel through the Balkan countries: Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia was not a “birding trip”. However, I cannot help but notice when birds are or are not around. Then if I have some time I like to read about the bird and sketch it. I only used pencil to keep my backpack light in weight on this trip.
Of course, if it is a new bird for my life list, that is very exciting. But what I also noticed, is if I think I know the bird and work to identify it, the bird may be a totally different name and a new bird for me, such as the shag you’ll see in a sketch below. Surprisingly I knew house sparrows are all over the world. In Albania though, it got listed as a new bird in my life list. Had I never listed that bird before? Wow, I guess not!
Eight new birds in Albania, seven in Croatia and three in Bosnia-Herzegovina. No new birds in Montenegro and Slovenia since the birds there were already seen in a previous country.
Here are some quick sketches. Nothing is to scale!
In AlbaniaIn CroatiaAlso in CroatiaIn Bosnia-Herzegovina In Slovenia
Will I see new birds in Italy and Greece? Time will tell!
On our way to our hotel in Opatija, we stopped at a pasta-making class. With our aprons on, a swig of wine and clean hands, we made pasta! So simple, why don’t I make it at home!? Anyway, we created two differently shaped pastas and ate them! Delicious!!
Pasta-maker taught us how to make pasta! She went to Italy to learn pasta-making.IngredientsLunch!And more lunch!
Arrived at our destination…. Opatija. Wealthy people and tourists stop in this town where hotels are huge and overlook Kvarner Gulf, part of the Adriatic Sea. Way across the water is Venice, Italy. This place is so relaxed compared to any of my Venice visits!
Lady of the Seagull with live one on her head!Water is so clear!Some resorts have a swim area available. People were dipping their toes in the water.Beautiful!Our hotel’s use of the old ballroom!
My fellow travelers visited the hilltop towns of Motovun and Hum. It was an optional day tour with a truffle shop stop. I remained in sunny, windy Opatija to walk part of the 7.5 mile waterfront promenade.
In my free time I sketched some of the 14 new birds I have seen on the trip thus far. No colored pencils or paint with me here.
My farewell dinner at Opatija: pizza and wine:
I ate the whole pizza!A glass of Syrah wine.Chocolate and pistachio cake enjoyed when I joined my fellow travelers to hear about their truffle – tasting and lunch in the town of Hum, population 11 people. Good thing I walked many miles today as my dinner was huge!
Off to Slovenia tomorrow and I’m looking forward to our cave visit. Back in a few days…
Bird watching was not something I did during my youth. In my college days, the common loon may be considered my “spark bird”. (A spark bird is that bird making you more serious and interested in birding.) But in reality, I just loved seeing that bird. Hiking miles to Adirondack Mountain lakes in upstate New York State to see a common loon and sometimes its chicks was just a thing I did. Then I thought I started birding when the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. I did not.
Recently I found a bird journal of mine. It looked like I took my bird watching to another level on August 30, 2018! I literally recorded more specific notes than I ever remember completing. Amazingly I was teaching myself the difference between some birds as I was identifying my observations. I had a 30 -70 mm camera lens at the time to help with my identifications. Two years prior, in 2016, Merlin Bird ID became available for uploaded photos which no doubt helped me identify birds.
In 2019, I continued to list birds per outing along with the guidebook page, some notes, and additional info about other wildlife seen. I also collected pictures of birds I hoped to see when visiting upcoming locations, such as “Ding” Darling Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel, Florida.
I was really learning so much about birds!
On December 25, 2019, at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, Arizona, I was caught standing between a good-sized javelina and a bobcat. I do remember that day because a woman from Florida was birding also and very scared. My only way to calm her was to have her stand on a bench as I was convinced the javelina would walk by and the bobcat would turn and leave. Which all of that did happen!
That was an interesting day; will always remember it!
August 2020 I attended my first bird festival in Tucson, Arizona. I may have believed I was a birder now as I bought camera lenses for improved bird photography. (In reality though I was birding since 2018.) Photography really helped me learn the names of birds. Attending bird festivals in Texas and California were most informative too.
I noticed in my December 2020 listing I was keeping track of my life list of bird species in eBird. So I was well on my way with 177 species, yet I thought I only began birding at the start of the pandemic. Interesting! Through 2021 and 2022, along with my sightings, I listed places for future birding visits. Time of year with possible bird sightings and directions to the place. Of course, I did set out to visit some of these places!
Interesting seeing these notes now that I am over 700 birds on my life list.
2023 I set a personal challenge to record one bird sighting, therefore bird checklist, per day. For 365 days there is at least one checklist per day of birds I saw, and sometimes there were more than one checklist per day. It was an especially fun activity as I traveled cross-country in my van and stopped at wildlife refuges, rest areas, family member’s backyards and parks … wherever I thought I’d see a bird … and created a checklist for the observations.
An endangered bird I did see here and 2 other times in my life so far.
2024, only a few notes of the many birds I saw in Sicily, Italy and later in the year in Australia and New Zealand. Now I no longer have a paper trail of the checklists of birds I see per outing. All is entered in eBird and I search there for date and locations of specific birds I need to know about from my observations. Part of me misses the writing of the info in a book. I do scribble in a list in my travel journal, but it feels different than the listings of years ago when I started birding. Now I am pre-occupied with sketching birds … that I hope to see … or did see. Who knows what format my future listings will take. But now I know I actually started birding in 2018!! In my future travel I hope to see this bird: European robin.
Will be looking for it in upcoming months!
If you are interested in learning about birds and to have access to all of the free and valuable apps from Cornell University, check out, click on this link at All About Birds. Go have some fun!
“Agua caliente” in Spanish means hot water. Here in Tucson, Arizona where this park is located it is very hot right now! We are twenty degrees warmer than the average temperature this time of year. No one is really enjoying it, especially the wildlife. Not every animal or plant can burrow into the ground or have enough energy to travel to a distant cooler location. Their survival rate can be affected. And similar to humans, animals can dehydrate and be in need of shade.
Things we can do to help wildlife: Provide shallow water containers with resting stones. Even bees can make use of it and not drown or have a way for small animals to move out of the water. Change the water often to keep it clean, disease-free and don’t use a metal container that will get hot. Provide shade and shelter. A good reason to not prune bushes right now. Lizards and others will hide out in those spaces. I’m sure if you research this topic you’ll find more suggestions.
Here’s what I did see at Agua Caliente Park in Tucson:
Cormorants spread their wings to dry them after swimming to catch fish or frogs, etc.
“Tipping point bird species” are those birds having lost more than half their population in the last 50 years. Reading so many reports about the decline of bird populations is simply depressing since the environmental threats affecting birds are also warning signs for our own health. (Remember the canary in the coal mine?) Simply put, we do breathe the same air as the birds! Beyond that their habitats are being destroyed and also areas to land, rest and feed during their migration. Fortunately some conservation groups, ranchers, farmers and others are addressing some of the issues.
While I knew the California condor and burrowing owls were, and have been for a while, on the “tipping point” list with more than a hundred birds on it, I recently learned the Lewis’s woodpecker and piping plover are on it. So I just wish to share some of my observations about these two tipping point birds: Lewis’s woodpecker and piping plover.
First, the piping plover:
Piping plover are small, move fast and a challenge to find!
The piping plover is a bird of major concern. A friend was part of helping protect a nesting area in California. I saw other protected nest areas in Indiana Dunes National Park in Indiana and also at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park in Michigan. I was fortunate to observe this bird in April 2022 in Middletown, Rhode Island and in May 2023 at Jones Beach in New York State. They are not the easiest bird to spot! I had no luck photographing one. This bird is endangered and I can only hope the nesting sites continue to be protected so future human generations will see this bird.
Notice the very small orange and blue areas where the birds might be!!
About Lewis’s woodpecker:
Lewis’s woodpecker
It was May 2021 and I was almost finished with a hike in Flagstaff, Arizona. I saw a large-sized woodpecker with a purplish-pink belly in a tree; unlike other woodpeckers I had ever seen! It was beautiful and I regret never getting a photograph. The greenish-black feathers, gray collar, red face and pinkish belly are most striking when you see it. I had no idea this bird is only spending time in a few western states in the USA.
Notice the winter and summer locations for this bird.
I didn’t realize when I saw the Lewis’s woodpecker again how fortunate I was. May 2022 again in Arizona and December 2023 at Death Valley National Park in California, there was the bird! Now I am worried about this near-threatened bird since I have not seen it in the past 3 years! By the way, the bird was discovered on the Lewis and Clark 1804-1806 expedition and named for the expedition’s co-leader.
If you are interested in knowing more about birds, download the free Audubon Bird Guide app at the app store. There is plenty of information about every bird. Give it a try! In the meantime, please be aware of the importance in caring about birds, thanks!
Easy app to use, plus it is FREE!
These are only 2 of hundreds of endangered and near threatened birds.
Rarely do I see young birds, chicks. Parents usually do a great job protecting their chicks from predators, thus I too miss seeing chicks. Recently I was at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, Arizona. I was shocked to see yellow-orange feathered chicks jumping out of their marshy nest to be near their black and white parent! I learned these chicks are known to follow their parents into water soon after hatching.
They are American Coot chicks … 6 of them followed the parent and eventually scurried closer to get food. The competition between them had already begun! As I looked closer, the chick’s heads were bare red and black and they had a stubby red and orange bill. Of course I did not have my camera with me on this day. That’s the way it is sometimes. Also, the birds were a distance away for any good phone photo, so opportunity missed. I returned the next morning with my camera and hoping for the chicks to be in sight. Yes!! Here are my photos; enjoy!
Look to the sky, is there a bird? Is it a hawk? You have no idea what that bird is in the sky? Perfect time to join others as we look to the sky in Tubac, AZ for birds and especially hawks. It is hawk-watching time this entire month of March; however, a group will be at the Ron Morriss Park in Tubac on March 13 – 17, 8AM – 5PM each day. There are vendors with scopes and binoculars to take a peek through and plenty of knowledgeable people letting you know what bird is in the sky.
Hopefully we’ll see plenty of birds and learn new things about birds. Recently this is what I learned…
American kestrel is not a hawk, it is a falcon.
Hawks and kestrels are raptors, but kestrels have pointed wings and hawks have rounded wings. Kestrels have the beautiful facial “whiskers” and hover while hunting. I think American kestrels are quite good-looking. Now I know, they are a falcon and not a hawk … but I might see them while I am at the Hawk Watch in Tubac. Come … join in …
Snipes were birds we told our young campers to look for on a hike. We wanted to motivate children to look closely for things in a wetland. They would be shown a photo of a snipe and off they would go! Often we discovered many other things, never a snipe.
If you truly wish to find a snipe, know where the bird is during different parts of the year. In winter, mid to southern USA at marshy wetland areas would be the place to look for the bird. Otherwise, it is in northern USA, Canada and Alaska for the summer.
They are birds you need to look closely for in grassy, muddy stubble of freshwater pond edges. They camouflage so easily into that environment. Often times after looking for birds across a pond, or in nearby trees, I look at the water’s edge. The muck and algae … the decaying leaves and dead shrubbery … are places where a Wilson’s snipe will be if in the area.
A recent outing found me looking into a muddy area and I thought I saw a snipe. Lo and behold, a few seconds more, I saw a Wilson’s snipe probing the water’s edge. It was so well camouflaged! I spent time photographing the bird while pointing it out to another person who did not see it.
Can you see the head of the snipe?
Wilson’s snipe busy probing for food.
An hour later I was talking with other people. We were sharing our bird sightings. I happened to mention I observed a Wilson’s snipe. The woman said her family used to call them a “mud hen” where she grew up. While doing some of my research, a Wilson’s snipe’s species name is Gallinago. In Latin “Gallina” means hen and “-ago” means resembling. So this bird hanging around in the mud resembling a hen would prompt others to refer to it as a mud hen. Okay, makes sense!
Some day I hope to see the bird flying. Again though my research, I learned the bird’s “aerial winnowing display” has its outer tail feathers producing a hollow whistle sound. Hmm… in time maybe I can witness that. In the meantime, it is nice to see this bird here in AZ in the wintertime.
Wilson’s snipe …usually a loner.
This bird is enjoying the area by itself as we look on!
Bicycling is great fun … and more so when I notice new things while trying to get those cycling miles done. Recently I learned not to look too high in the sky at flying birds while I’m bicycling … were there 2 red-tailed hawks flying up there? Geez, and need to keep my eyes on the road!
So I have been thrilled with wildlife sightings at eye level or below. I’ve seen lizards run across the road and make it successfully … and others not so successful. Coyotes often walk across the road from their usual trails. Wished I had my camera available when a bobcat walked across the road! It casually looked at me and moved on. The most fun sighting was watching a mother quail step onto the road, then turn back and indicate something to her chicks, and they all followed her as she crossed the road. Wow!
What will I see when weather warms?
What wildlife have you observed on your bicycle rides? I know some of you are under snow at the moment, but share what you have seen even in the past! You’ll be on your bicycle again in a few months!
I know a few songbirds. A verdin’s call, its bright yellow head, chestnut-colored shoulder patch and spherical nest with an entry point near the bottom are the features helping me to identify this bird. It often flies around quickly and I see it many times upside-down as it eats insects and seeds.
Recently I was at Tucson’s El Rio Preserve. I saw what looked like a nest and thought I heard a verdin call. Hoping I was correct, I knew with some patience I would eventually locate the bird.
As you can see in the photo below, the nest was well hidden in the sweet acacia shrub.
Nest right there!
I moved a distance away from the nest and waited. Another birder happened to walk by and wondered what I was waiting for. As we talked the bird flew to the nest and darted inside. I caught a photo while it sat on the branch before leaving the nest.
Verdin about to leave the nest.
Of course, I had to try my sketching and watercolor painting ability with this little bird… why not ? … here it is:
