field notes from 02/08/23

Stewart Island kiwi night

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Last trip of the stretch. I flew across the world for a lot of reasons but one of them was the chance to see a wild kiwi, which on Stewart Island is possible because they come out on certain beaches at night to forage.

Our guide walked us down a quiet beach about thirty minutes after dark with red torches only. We stopped at a long pebble bar where she said we had a decent chance. We waited. Fifty minutes later: a Southern Brown Kiwi — a big female by the guide’s assessment — pushed through the kelp line onto the pebbles and began probing. I had the camera on the tripod pre-focused and took five frames at a very high ISO before she moved off. She was oblivious to us.

Big Cypress early odes

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

April in Florida is odonate heaven and I took advantage. Spent two days driving the loop road, wading (rubber boots only, please) a few edges, and mostly staying on the boardwalks where you get long sight lines.

Species list from memory: Roseate Skimmer (the pink one), Great Pondhawk, Band-winged Dragonlet, two Halloween Pennants already, a Little Blue Dragonlet (small and lovely), Common Green Darner, a handful of damselflies I’m not splitting. A single Swamp Darner cruised over one slough and I got exactly one frame.

Austin early bees

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Spring in central Texas is a month earlier than where I grew up and I am always a little dazzled by it. Indian paintbrush and bluebonnets were already at their peak and the wildflower center’s demo meadows were loud with pollinators.

I spent most of the morning with the 80mm close to a single patch of phacelia and a patch of bluebonnets. The bees were the story. At least three species of native bees I couldn’t identify, a ridiculous number of Honey Bees, a giant Carpenter Bee that I tried and failed to get sharp in flight, and a few Leafcutter Bees doing their thing. One Digger Bee made a burrow in the sandy path that I sat near for ten minutes.

Asa Wright tropics

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Spent three nights at Asa Wright in Trinidad. The veranda is famous in the birding world for a reason — you sit down with a coffee and birds come to you. Hummingbirds at the feeders by 6:30 AM. Tanagers and oropendolas by 8:00. Honeycreepers mid-morning. It’s barely a workout.

The hummingbirds were the show. White-necked Jacobins hogged the sugar feeders — they are aggressive and enormous for hummingbirds. Tufted Coquettes appeared like a rumor at first and then routine. Copper-rumped Hummingbirds everywhere. A single Ruby Topaz for one morning only.

Daintree Rainforest

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Daintree Rainforest is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the lowland tropical rainforest and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

My default advice is to go may through september (dry). Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Lion's Mane

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A rainy October is the short window when the lion’s mane becomes a regular in my folders.

A macro lens is useful but a phone up close is often enough for the record.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the temperate hardwood forests of the northern hemisphere part of its range.

I’ve been spot-on for this species maybe eight times out of ten in the last two years.

Sulawesi — Tangkoko forest

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The whole reason to come to Tangkoko is the big three: Crested Macaques, Spectral Tarsiers, and Sulawesi Hornbills. We got all three in two mornings. The guide did all the work.

Day one, predawn, we walked to a known Spectral Tarsier roost — a hollow in a strangler fig — and watched three tarsiers emerge just as the sun cleared the canopy. They stared at us with eyes that are each the same weight as their brain. (A fact I read somewhere and have since repeated too many times.) I did not try to photograph them at that light; the guide warned against flash and I stood there with my hands full of a camera I wasn’t using. Later I got them on the way home to the hollow with ambient light and a high ISO.

Prairie Pothole blackbirds

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A warm pulse after a cold week and I drove out to the pothole country before sunrise. The Red-winged Blackbirds have been back for about a week, which seems early but the science says it’s in the right range for a warm year. By 7:30 AM the males were everywhere, holding their cattail perches and conk-a-ree-ing at nothing in particular.

The Red-wings were the main story. A single Yellow-headed Blackbird showed up at one pothole, which was a good find for the day. Common Grackles on power lines. A Northern Harrier was already on territory and pushed one of the blackbird flocks up twice.

Turkey Tail

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A rainy October is the short window when the turkey tail becomes a regular in my folders.

A macro lens is useful but a phone up close is often enough for the record.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

Most of my sightings are on downed logs in second-growth forest within an hour of home.

I don’t forage. Any mushroom I photograph stays where it is.

Big Bend nights

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I drove from El Paso and got to Chisos Basin by afternoon. Set up at a pullout on the road to Santa Elena Canyon for the first night and then did two nights up at the Basin. Big Bend in February gets a core rise late but the whole sky is spectacular, and the temperatures were pleasant after dark.

The standout shot was the Milky Way over Santa Elena Canyon. I’d scouted it during the day to know where to put the tripod, and the core came up right where I wanted it. Twenty-second exposures at f/1.4. The canyon walls caught almost enough ambient starlight to read as canyon walls.

Fly Agaric

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fungi sit well outside my competence, but the fly agaric is distinctive enough that I trust my call most of the time.

Substrate is half the story: specific woods, specific stages of decay.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Agaricales / Amanitaceae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Most of my sightings are on downed logs in second-growth forest within an hour of home.

Lake Naivasha

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lake Naivasha is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

The core habitat at Lake Naivasha is freshwater lake and papyrus fringe, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

My default advice is to go year-round, best june through october. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Smokies barred owls

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A mild winter evening and I drove up from Asheville for an owl-listening session on one of the lower trails where I’ve had luck with Barred Owls before. Met a friend at the trailhead at 5:45 PM and we walked in about half a mile.

The Barreds started calling at 6:15 PM. Two birds, at least — a duet, then a solo from the other side of the creek. We did not play calls; playing owl calls during breeding season is bad practice and I try to live by it.

Chicken of the Woods

Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Fungi sit well outside my competence, but the chicken of the woods is distinctive enough that I trust my call most of the time.

Substrate is half the story: specific woods, specific stages of decay.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

Most of my sightings are on downed logs in second-growth forest within an hour of home.

Madagascar — Andasibe lemurs

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve wanted to come here for years. I am finally here for a real trip — ten days, three parks, and a guide who has been working Andasibe since before he had a camera to show tourists.

Our morning began with the Indri call. If you haven’t heard an Indri, it’s the loudest call of any primate and it carries for two kilometers. We followed a group through the trees for almost an hour. I got a few decent frames of a female with a baby on her back — more luck than skill.

Oyster Mushroom

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A rainy October is the short window when the oyster mushroom becomes a regular in my folders.

A macro lens is useful but a phone up close is often enough for the record.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the cosmopolitan on hardwoods part of its range.

Most of my sightings are on downed logs in second-growth forest within an hour of home.

I don’t forage. Any mushroom I photograph stays where it is.

Cairngorms National Park

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cairngorms National Park is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

The core habitat at Cairngorms National Park is granite plateau, caledonian pine, heather moor, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

My default advice is to go april through june and october. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Oulanka winter tracks

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Booked this trip months ago. Winter Finland is a specific thing I wanted to experience and I was lucky to get the kind of perfect cold-dry day that shows snow tracks cleanly.

We snowshoed with a guide from the park office. No big-mammal sightings — but a lot of evidence. A set of wolverine tracks crossed a logging road, very clear, very fresh. Our guide said it was his first wolverine track of the season. Lynx tracks further in, paired and confident in the way lynx always seem to walk. Snowshoe hare in dozens. Red squirrel. A single fox.

Quaking Aspen

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The quaking aspen is a plant I know well enough to recognize and not well enough to key out.

I mostly photograph this species as part of a place, not as a portrait.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Malpighiales / Salicaceae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Best stands I’ve found are along familiar transects I walk for birds.

Plant ID is its own craft and I’m in the slow part of the learning curve.

Etosha pan morning

Wed, 17 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Etosha is different from the East African parks. The white pan dominates everything. The wildlife concentrates around the perimeter at a few waterholes, and our morning at Okaukuejo waterhole was an education in how simple good safari photography can be when you pick your spot and wait.

The first thirty minutes was giraffes. They came to drink, one at a time, splay-legging in that awkward posture that always looks like it shouldn’t work. I shot them for the whole half hour. Good enough light.

Coast Redwood

Fri, 12 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The coast redwood is a plant I know well enough to recognize and not well enough to key out.

I mostly photograph this species as part of a place, not as a portrait.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

The light that works for this species is overcast, softened, and not dramatic.

Plant ID is its own craft and I’m in the slow part of the learning curve.

First feeder snow

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The first real snow of the season came overnight and the feeders woke up like they remembered something. I was at my sister’s place for the week. Her yard is better than mine for feeder work because there’s a stand of hemlocks behind the feeders that gives birds confidence to queue up.

Chickadees were the main act (Black-capped), followed by a rolling rotation of White-breasted Nuthatches, one Red-breasted Nuthatch that was new for the yard, Tufted Titmice, and a persistent male Northern Cardinal who held the top of a hemlock between feeder runs.

Indian Paintbrush

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am not a botanist and the indian paintbrush is on this list mostly as an apology for ignoring the plants for so long.

I mostly photograph this species as part of a place, not as a portrait.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the western north america part of its range.

The light that works for this species is overcast, softened, and not dramatic.

Plant ID is its own craft and I’m in the slow part of the learning curve.

Pantanal

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Pantanal is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

The core habitat at Pantanal is seasonally flooded wetland and gallery forest, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

My default advice is to go july through october. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Cleveland lakefront diving ducks

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A serious north wind on Lake Erie pushes birds tight against the south shore and makes the lakefront parks excellent in late November. I went out early at Edgewater and worked my way east along the shore.

The breakwall at the marina had a good mixed raft of diving ducks. Common Goldeneye everywhere — at least fifty. A smaller number of Greater Scaup (I think, some could be Lesser). A pair of Long-tailed Ducks, always a treat for inland lakes. Three Red-breasted Mergansers working the close shore. A single Surf Scoter, which is the bird of the day for Cleveland in November.

California Poppy

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am not a botanist and the california poppy is on this list mostly as an apology for ignoring the plants for so long.

I mostly photograph this species as part of a place, not as a portrait.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Ranunculales / Papaveraceae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

The light that works for this species is overcast, softened, and not dramatic.

Peregrines over Frankfurt

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was in Frankfurt for two days and spent the one free afternoon watching the Main Tower peregrines from a rooftop cafe across the street. A local naturalist had given me the rough corner to watch. Frankfurt has one of the best-documented urban peregrine populations in Europe.

The pair was active. Female on the tower most of the afternoon; male arrived twice with prey, once with a feral pigeon I think and once with something smaller I couldn’t see clearly. I’m using the OM-1 with the 100-400mm because I was trying to keep the bag small, and with the crop factor that’s pushing 800mm equivalent. Just enough.

Pacific Trillium

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The pacific trillium is a plant I know well enough to recognize and not well enough to key out.

Phenology is everything: two weeks early or late and the whole scene is different.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

The light that works for this species is overcast, softened, and not dramatic.

Plant ID is its own craft and I’m in the slow part of the learning curve.

Jasper-Pulaski crane gathering

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Jasper-Pulaski in late October: the Sandhill Cranes start showing up from the upper Midwest and staging by the thousands. I drove from Cleveland on a Saturday and got to the observation deck at Goose Pasture by 3:30 PM. Perfect for the evening fly-in.

The spectacle builds slowly. At 4:00 PM maybe two hundred cranes on the field. By 5:00 PM more like two thousand. Then the big flocks start arriving from the cornfields where they’ve been feeding all day — groups of fifty to a hundred at a time, calling as they come down. By sunset there were easily five thousand birds.

Kruger National Park

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Kruger National Park is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the savanna, mopane, and riparian woodland and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

My default advice is to go may through september (dry). Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Red-spotted Newt

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t go looking for a red-spotted newt, but I’m always glad when one turns up.

You get more reliable views in the hour after first light than at any other time.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Caudata / Salamandridae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Most of my records are incidental, either on trails during birding or in fields while I was scanning for something else.

Cuyahoga owl night

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I met a friend at the Ledges parking area just before sunset and we walked out to a clearing he’s found to be reliable for Eastern Screech-Owls and Barred Owls. I will say up front: we did not call in the owls. We listened.

At about 7:20 PM a Screech-Owl started its descending whinny from the dark. Maybe ten minutes later a second, a little closer, a lower pitch. Then the Barred Owl we’d been hoping for — that full “who cooks for you” call — from the ravine side.

Pacific Tree Frog

Wed, 08 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The pacific tree frog is the most I’ll say about reptiles on this site without promising to learn the group.

You get more reliable views in the hour after first light than at any other time.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve never intentionally driven to see one, and I’ve still seen plenty.

Any corrections from herp folks are welcome. My ID is shakier than I’d like.

Blue Ridge fungi walk

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A week of rain followed by three days of warm damp is a recipe. I’d come down for a visit with family and took a morning on a quiet Pisgah trail where I’ve had luck with fungi before. It delivered.

A cluster of Chanterelles along a streambed — I didn’t take any because I wasn’t sure about them and that’s fine, but they were gorgeous to photograph. A massive Black Trumpet colony under tulip poplars. A single striking Jack O’Lantern (which I was very sure about; do not eat). One cluster of Yellow Hedgehog mushrooms about the size of my fist.

Galápagos Islands

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Galápagos Islands is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

The core habitat at Galápagos Islands is volcanic islands, coastal and highland habitats, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

Green Anole

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The green anole is the most I’ll say about reptiles on this site without promising to learn the group.

Thermal behavior matters: time of day and surface temperature drive everything I see.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve never intentionally driven to see one, and I’ve still seen plenty.

Any corrections from herp folks are welcome. My ID is shakier than I’d like.

Kestrels over Hampstead Heath

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

London for a long weekend. I had a free morning before meeting friends and walked up from Hampstead to the heath. Kestrels are reliable there and they didn’t disappoint — I found a male hovering almost immediately over the meadow near Parliament Hill and spent most of an hour with two birds in the air at once.

Kestrels hover in a kind of wind-stalling motion that looks like they’re attached to a wire. They’re hunting for voles and field mice in the long grass. I didn’t see either bird catch anything but I also didn’t have the right angle on most of their drops.

Early fall at Montezuma

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up the Thruway from the city and pulled into Montezuma by 6:30 AM. The main pool was glassy, which is what you pray for when you want waterfowl reflections. The refuge was already in full early-fall migration mode.

The numbers weren’t at their October peak yet but there was variety: Wood Ducks in family groups, Northern Pintails sharp-edged in the low sun, Blue-winged Teal still hanging around, a few early Green-winged Teal, Gadwall, Mallards, and a single Pied-billed Grebe that was closer to shore than politeness usually allows.

Eastern Box Turtle

Fri, 12 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The eastern box turtle is the most I’ll say about reptiles on this site without promising to learn the group.

Thermal behavior matters: time of day and surface temperature drive everything I see.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the eastern united states part of its range.

I’ve never intentionally driven to see one, and I’ve still seen plenty.

Any corrections from herp folks are welcome. My ID is shakier than I’d like.

Okavango channels

Sun, 31 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In the Delta, you move by boat more than by vehicle for wildlife, and I’m grateful for that. The channels are a different kind of photography — low water levels, reed walls, lilies. Hippos in every deep pool.

Our first morning we found a pod of seven hippos in a bend. They were watching us more than we were watching them, which is the whole point of hippos. We stayed far. You stay far from hippos in the Delta — they kill more people per year than lions.

Northern Water Snake

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The northern water snake is the most I’ll say about reptiles on this site without promising to learn the group.

You get more reliable views in the hour after first light than at any other time.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Squamata / Colubridae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Most of my records are incidental, either on trails during birding or in fields while I was scanning for something else.

Keoladeo National Park

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Keoladeo National Park is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the shallow wetlands and thorn scrub and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

My default advice is to go november through february. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Monarch staging at Cape May

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

North wind at Cape May in August means it’s starting. Monarchs staging for the Gulf crossing will use these headlands and the right afternoon gets you thousands. I didn’t get thousands today but I got hundreds and I’m very happy.

Spent most of the afternoon at the Meadows in the goldenrod field. Monarchs were nectaring heavily — they need the fuel — and would stay put on a stem for ten or fifteen seconds at a time. Long enough to get sharp.

Garden Orb Weaver

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bugs took me a while. I came for birds, and I still do, but once you look down, the garden orb weaver is a serious animal to track.

Wind is the enemy. A dead-calm ten minutes can give you more images than a windy hour.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve photographed this species on nectar sources in several states and a couple of regions.

Cascade foothills fungi

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It had been raining for three days and my friend said it was time. She knows a logging road in the foothills that she says has the best fungi patch within driving distance. I don’t ask more questions than that.

We walked maybe half a mile off the road on an elk path and spent two hours on our knees. Found: a single magnificent Amanita muscaria, a pretty obvious Chicken of the Woods on a stump, some kind of gorgeous purple Cortinarius that I wasn’t going to touch without expert help, and a cluster of Lobster Mushrooms that she identified immediately.

Goldenrod Crab Spider

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At a certain point in late summer the birds quiet down and the goldenrod crab spider starts getting my attention.

I work at a subject distance of about a meter and a half with a short telephoto plus extension tube, which is not ideal but it’s what I have.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve photographed this species on nectar sources in several states and a couple of regions.

Skomer Island

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Skomer Island is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

You can spend three days at Skomer Island and only scratch the surface of the maritime cliff and burrow-nesting seabird colony.

My default advice is to go late april through mid july. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Orkney, skies and seabirds

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’d read about Orkney for years and finally got here. Fascinating landscape — very few trees, long views, neolithic sites every few miles. I drove most of the Mainland in two days and did one evening on the cliffs at Marwick Head.

The cliffs are the highlight. Auks stuffed onto every ledge — Common Guillemots, Razorbills, Black Guillemots in smaller numbers, a scattering of Kittiwakes, and a single Great Skua that turned around over the cliff and barreled past at head height. That was a moment. Skuas are the cartoon version of a pirate and it was as intimidating up close as advertised.

European Honey Bee

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bugs took me a while. I came for birds, and I still do, but once you look down, the european honey bee is a serious animal to track.

Wind is the enemy. A dead-calm ten minutes can give you more images than a windy hour.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Hymenoptera / Apidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

I’ve started keeping track of host plants, which has forced me to learn more plants than I intended.

Cornwall tidepools at Kynance

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I walked down the long steep path to Kynance Cove with a friend at low tide, got sand in my camera bag in three different ways, and had a beautiful three hours on the rocks.

The tidepools on the Lizard Peninsula are different from the Pacific tidepools I’m used to. Beadlet Anemones in red and strawberry. Snakelocks Anemones that look like something from a cartoon. A single Cushion Star on a small shelf pool. Shore crabs under every rock you picked up (which we put back, because picking up tidepool rocks and not putting them back is a way to ruin the pool).

Western Bumble Bee

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At a certain point in late summer the birds quiet down and the western bumble bee starts getting my attention.

Wind is the enemy. A dead-calm ten minutes can give you more images than a windy hour.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve photographed this species on nectar sources in several states and a couple of regions.

Odonates at Crex Meadows

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I drove up to Crex with a friend who knows a lot more about odes than I do. She is one of those people who can ID a Skimmer at thirty feet by flight style, and I spent most of the day trying to learn by watching her watch them.

We found a pond that was good for Ebony Jewelwings — twenty of them working the edge, males patrolling, females sneaking. Then a shallow roadside ditch that had Four-spotted Skimmers, Widow Skimmers, and one male Eastern Pondhawk doing target practice on a Meadowhawk.

Kushiro Shitsugen

Fri, 27 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Kushiro Shitsugen is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

The core habitat at Kushiro Shitsugen is sedge marsh and oxbow rivers, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

Widow Skimmer

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bugs took me a while. I came for birds, and I still do, but once you look down, the widow skimmer is a serious animal to track.

Wind is the enemy. A dead-calm ten minutes can give you more images than a windy hour.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Odonata / Libellulidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

I’ve photographed this species on nectar sources in several states and a couple of regions.

Cleveland downtown falcons

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Took a day trip downtown to look for the Terminal Tower peregrines. A friend of a friend who works in the building had sent me the rough times they usually come back in during nesting season, and I spent most of the day on the Public Square bench with the long lens on a small tripod.

They were busy. An adult returned three times during the five hours I was there. At least one chick was visible for a few seconds at a time on the ledge. I won’t share any shots that show the nest ledge in detail; some of the local birders are careful about not drawing crowds and I want to be part of that.

Common Green Darner

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The common green darner is a small thing with a long story, and I’ve started writing it down.

Wind is the enemy. A dead-calm ten minutes can give you more images than a windy hour.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve started keeping track of host plants, which has forced me to learn more plants than I intended.

Great Basin, dark sky night

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I drove five hours to Great Basin specifically for the sky and got what I came for. New Moon, low humidity, no haze, and the Milky Way core rising over Wheeler Peak. The park is one of the darkest places in the contiguous United States and it shows.

I set up at the Mather Overlook at 10:30 PM and shot until about 2:30 AM. A light breeze kept me from noticing the cold until I was driving back. The lower air temperature at altitude was not a problem — it was sitting down on cold stone for four hours that got me.

Mourning Cloak

Sat, 31 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At a certain point in late summer the birds quiet down and the mourning cloak starts getting my attention.

I work at a subject distance of about a meter and a half with a short telephoto plus extension tube, which is not ideal but it’s what I have.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve started keeping track of host plants, which has forced me to learn more plants than I intended.

Doñana National Park

Tue, 27 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Doñana National Park sits in that useful middle ground between “too obscure to bother with” and “too famous to enjoy.”

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

The core habitat at Doñana National Park is marismas wetland, pine woods, coastal dune, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

My default advice is to go october through april. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Ngorongoro, rim to floor

Tue, 27 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We left the lodge on the rim at 6:15 AM and descended into the crater as the light came up. The rim-to-floor drive is itself worth the trip — you go from cloud forest to grassland in twenty minutes.

On the floor the concentration is almost unbelievable. Wildebeest and zebra everywhere. Warthogs trotting. A herd of Cape buffalo. Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelles scattered through. Within our first hour we had found a black rhino (distant, which is the right distance) and a pair of elephants with improbable tusks at the edge of the lake.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Sun, 18 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At a certain point in late summer the birds quiet down and the eastern tiger swallowtail starts getting my attention.

Wind is the enemy. A dead-calm ten minutes can give you more images than a windy hour.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve photographed this species on nectar sources in several states and a couple of regions.

Cévennes macro morning

Thu, 15 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m in the Cévennes for a week with some friends staying at a restored shepherd’s cottage. Yesterday’s rain was hard and the morning after was the kind of damp-warm that brings everything out. I took the macro and the short zoom for a walk up the ridge path.

Butterflies first: Scarce Swallowtail was the surprise of the morning, floating along a thyme-covered slope. Marbled White everywhere. A Brimstone, a Clouded Yellow, some Common Blue that wouldn’t sit still. A Pearly Heath in the grass, modest and nice.

Monarch Butterfly

Mon, 05 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At a certain point in late summer the birds quiet down and the monarch butterfly starts getting my attention.

Wind is the enemy. A dead-calm ten minutes can give you more images than a windy hour.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve started keeping track of host plants, which has forced me to learn more plants than I intended.

Skellig Michael — puffins and rocks

Sat, 03 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I spent a night in Portmagee, got on a boat at 9:00 AM, and was climbing the 600 steps of Skellig Michael by 10:30 AM. The crossing was honest — not rough but moving enough that I got a sense of why the nearly-unbearable swells of a bad day must be truly miserable.

The whole point of a Skellig trip is the place itself, which is one of the strangest landscapes in Europe. Puffins are a bonus. But they are a very good bonus. Atlantic Puffins are dug in across the upper terraces, scuttling between burrows in that earnest small-dog way.

Danube Delta

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Danube Delta is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

The core habitat at Danube Delta is reed beds, oxbow lakes, black sea outflow, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

Painted Lady

Tue, 22 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bugs took me a while. I came for birds, and I still do, but once you look down, the painted lady is a serious animal to track.

At close range you’ll find the body plan is surprisingly specific, and the field marks that matter are not the ones on the wings.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve photographed this species on nectar sources in several states and a couple of regions.

Point Lobos tidepools

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I drove down from San Francisco to catch a good low tide at Point Lobos. Got to the Weston Beach area a little before the tide turned. Fog was thick and the tidepool rocks were wet and uneven, which is more or less perfect.

The pools at Weston are rich. I saw Ochre Sea Stars in their usual variety of oranges and purples, Giant Green Anemones fully open, Aggregating Anemones in tight mats, a Bat Star or two, and a Striped Shore Crab that let me get close with the macro lens. One pool had a Sculpin — brown and completely cryptic until it moved.

Humpback Whale

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A humpback whale shows up in my notebook once or twice a season, always unplanned.

Wind direction matters for mammals in a way it mostly doesn’t for birds.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Artiodactyla / Balaenopteridae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

One sighting that sticks: a single animal crossing an open flat with no cover, moving faster than I expected.

I’m learning to put the camera down earlier with mammals than I would with birds.

Quabbin loons at ice-out

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Ice-out at Quabbin happened last week and the loons arrived the way they always do — quietly, in pairs. I spent the morning on the Gate 22 side walking slowly along the shore with the long lens.

Two Common Loons close to shore in full breeding plumage, already yodeling. A third bird further out that might have been a juvenile — hard to tell at that distance. Loons at the right distance in the right light are one of the better reasons to put up with the rest of photography.

Spring peepers along Skyline

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up to Big Meadows for the evening and spent a quiet forty-five minutes in a roadside puddle listening to a deafening chorus of Spring Peepers. If you haven’t stood next to a Spring Peeper pond in March, I recommend it. The noise is physical.

I went in primarily to try some night exposures of the ponds with the stars coming up. You need a still water surface to catch a reflection and it was still enough. Skyline Drive is relatively dark, though there is glow from Charlottesville on one side and Harrisonburg on the other. Orion was setting as the peepers started.

Plains Zebra

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am not a mammal specialist, but the plains zebra is impossible to ignore once you’ve seen one well.

They’re more predictable than they look once you know the daily timing.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

One sighting that sticks: a single animal crossing an open flat with no cover, moving faster than I expected.

I don’t need every sighting to produce a frame. Sometimes just watching is the whole thing.

Ngorongoro Crater

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been going to Ngorongoro Crater regularly enough to think of it as a home away from home, though “home” is overstating it for a place I fly or drive several hours to reach.

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the volcanic caldera grassland and alkaline lake and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

Hallerbos, before the bluebells

Sun, 16 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Bluebells aren’t out yet in Hallerbos — I came too early by about two weeks on purpose, because I wanted the beech understory empty so I could photograph just the shape of the woods. The carpet comes later and floods everything in blue, which is beautiful but not what I wanted this trip.

The floor was already pushing up wood anemone and the first wild garlic leaves. Light through mist made the beech trunks look like they were standing on their own.

African Elephant

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Of the mammals I regularly photograph, the african elephant is the one I’m most cautious about.

Signs on the ground tell you they’re around before you ever see one.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

Most of my shots are from a vehicle, which is still the least intrusive way I know to approach a wary mammal.

Prime Hook, first wave

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

First real warm south wind of the year and I drove down to Prime Hook. I always forget how flat and open that refuge is — the sky is maybe eighty percent of everything you see. Good for raptors.

The first wave of ducks had moved through already but the lingering crowd was still substantial: Northern Shovelers by the hundreds, Blue-winged Teal (my first of the year), a dozen or so Northern Pintail, and a huge number of American Black Ducks that I kept trying to turn into other species.

Storm before a storm

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A forty-minute window of extraordinary light.

Moose

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am not a mammal specialist, but the moose is impossible to ignore once you’ve seen one well.

Wind direction matters for mammals in a way it mostly doesn’t for birds.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

Most of my shots are from a vehicle, which is still the least intrusive way I know to approach a wary mammal.

Masai Mara National Reserve

Sun, 23 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Masai Mara National Reserve sits in that useful middle ground between “too obscure to bother with” and “too famous to enjoy.”

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the open savanna and riverine acacia and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

My default advice is to go july through october for the migration. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Lake Léman diving ducks

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m in Switzerland for a week of not-photography. The lake is a ten-minute walk from where I’m staying and I’ve been out twice at dawn and once at dusk. The morning light off the lake when it’s still is unlike anywhere I’ve shot.

Diving ducks are the story. Tufted Duck rafts, fifty strong. Common Pochard mixed in. Goldeneyes farther out. Red-crested Pochard closer to shore at the reed edge — the males are so ridiculous-looking they almost break my composure. A single Black-necked Grebe was the prize of the morning.

Bighorn Sheep

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am not a mammal specialist, but the bighorn sheep is impossible to ignore once you’ve seen one well.

The key to getting a good look at a bighorn sheep is to hold still longer than you think you should.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Artiodactyla / Bovidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

I’ve had close encounters on trails at dawn and on roads at dusk, which tracks with everything I’ve read.

Galápagos, first island

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I spent the morning on North Seymour — our first landing on this trip — and spent about two hours walking a small loop. You’re not allowed off the trail and you don’t really want to be; the whole island is a working colony.

Blue-footed Boobies were doing the whole routine: the sky-pointing, the careful foot-lift display, the reciprocal squawks. They don’t care that you are there. I kept thinking about how every nature documentary in the world has stood where I was standing.

Bobcat

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A bobcat shows up in my notebook once or twice a season, always unplanned.

The key to getting a good look at a bobcat is to hold still longer than you think you should.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

One sighting that sticks: a single animal crossing an open flat with no cover, moving faster than I expected.

Field notebook, three years in

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

What I actually write down and what I’ve stopped bothering with.

Culling like you mean it

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Delete the bad ones. Then delete more.

Plum Island snowy owl

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I left Boston at 5:45 AM and was on Plum Island by 7:00 AM. A Snowy Owl had been reported off and on at Lot 1 and when I got there four other cars were already parked and two very polite birders pointed it out to me on a dune post about two hundred yards off the beach.

Snowy Owls are a difficult ethical subject. Everyone wants to photograph them. Nobody should approach them. I stayed at the boardwalk, shot through the long lens, and left when my toes started to complain. In the hour I was there the owl did not move. That was fine. The point was to see it, not to force it to do anything.

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve sits in that useful middle ground between “too obscure to bother with” and “too famous to enjoy.”

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

You can spend three days at Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve and only scratch the surface of the montane cloud forest.

My default advice is to go january through april. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

American Pika

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The american pika is on my list partly by accident; I came for birds and got sidelined.

The key to getting a good look at a american pika is to hold still longer than you think you should.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve had close encounters on trails at dawn and on roads at dusk, which tracks with everything I’ve read.

Low tide at Padre Island

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A logistics note on getting to the flats before the sun climbs.

Barnegat sea ducks

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Early departure from a friend’s place in Philly, coffee from a Wawa, and on the jetty at Barnegat Light by 8:10 AM. The jetty is a two-hundred-yard scramble across wet, uneven boulders and you should take it seriously even in dry weather. I do it slow.

The target every January is Harlequin Ducks. There were sixteen in the protected channel on the east side — I counted because I always count Harlequins. The males look hand-painted and in sun they practically glow. Females look like any other duck, which is probably the whole point.

North American River Otter

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A north american river otter shows up in my notebook once or twice a season, always unplanned.

Wind direction matters for mammals in a way it mostly doesn’t for birds.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the rivers and coasts of north america part of its range.

One sighting that sticks: a single animal crossing an open flat with no cover, moving faster than I expected.

There is no ID problem here, only a distance problem and a light problem.

Red-tails of Central Park

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

New year, easy walk. I took the train in, met a friend, and we spent three hours in the north end of Central Park looking for the park’s longtime red-tails. We found three. You almost always can.

The first bird was on a London Plane by the Pool, eating something I couldn’t identify (pigeon, probably). It let the two of us stand thirty feet away for a long time. City birds seem to have done the math on who is a real threat.

My shot-keep ratio this year

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Back of the envelope math on what actually survives culling.

Red Fox

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A red fox shows up in my notebook once or twice a season, always unplanned.

Signs on the ground tell you they’re around before you ever see one.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve had close encounters on trails at dawn and on roads at dusk, which tracks with everything I’ve read.

There is no ID problem here, only a distance problem and a light problem.

Hornstrandir

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hornstrandir is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

You can spend three days at Hornstrandir and only scratch the surface of the arctic tundra.

My default advice is to go july and early august. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Winter tracks in Acadia

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Most of Acadia’s loop road is closed in winter and that’s exactly why I like going. The park that’s normally full of shoulder traffic is suddenly a place where you hear your boots on snow. I went out on snowshoes at the Jordan Pond side and did a slow loop toward the carriage roads.

No big mammals this morning, but tracks. A clean set of red fox prints running straight down the trail, a single pair of snowshoe hare tracks at a clearing, and one very fresh set of fisher tracks that crossed mine at an angle. No photos of the animals, only the signs. That’s always what winter is, most of the time.

A missed shot I keep thinking about

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An otter, a root wad, and a battery I hadn’t changed.

Eastern Chipmunk

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A eastern chipmunk shows up in my notebook once or twice a season, always unplanned.

They’re more predictable than they look once you know the daily timing.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

One sighting that sticks: a single animal crossing an open flat with no cover, moving faster than I expected.

There is no ID problem here, only a distance problem and a light problem.

Sax-Zim day one

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Sax-Zim in December is serious cold. I drove up from Duluth at 5:30 AM with three layers of gloves and a thermos that turned out to be not big enough. The first hour of light, driving the grid, produced nothing. Then, on Arkola Road just past the corner, a Great Gray Owl.

It was on a low spruce, facing into a field, ignoring us. I got out of the car very slowly. It swung its head once, looked through me, and went back to listening. I managed twelve minutes with it before it dropped off the perch into the snow on a vole and came up empty.

Winter finch irruption

Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Evening Grosbeaks are back, briefly.

Blue-footed Booby

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The blue-footed booby doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

Perch posture is half the ID. A blue-footed booby hunched, a blue-footed booby alert, and a blue-footed booby in the wind look like three different birds.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the eastern pacific coasts and islands part of its range.

One winter I had a pair stay on the same river bend from November into late March and I wasn’t sick of them at the end.

First mornings in the Mara

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This is a dream trip I saved for a long time. I’m traveling with a small group and a guide who has been at this for thirty years. I’m going to post a few of these from the Mara over the next week as I have data.

Day one got us two lion sightings — a young male at the river crossing and a whole pride with cubs in the afternoon. The afternoon pride had maybe fourteen animals visible including three cubs that were almost too cute to photograph seriously. I tried, anyway.

Padre Island National Seashore

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Padre Island National Seashore is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

The core habitat at Padre Island National Seashore is barrier island and hypersaline lagoon, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

Hoatzin

Sun, 17 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The hoatzin doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the hoatzin has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Opisthocomiformes / Opisthocomidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Middle Creek tundra swans

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Pulled into the Willow Point lot before sunrise and walked out onto the dike. The main lake was mostly ice at the edges, open in the middle, and full of swans. Middle Creek in November doesn’t do anything subtle.

The tundra swans were starting to move — a flock of maybe eighty came in from the east about twenty minutes after the sun was up, dropped hard onto the lake, and kept calling for another ten minutes. I don’t know why, because tundra swans in a group just sound like gossiping to me.

On counting

Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Why I started keeping species tallies and what it changed.

Light drizzle, good light

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Overcast rain makes colors behave.

First cold snap at the feeders

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A hard frost overnight and suddenly the feeders went from one bird every five minutes to a small riot. Most of the action was from 7:00 AM to about 9:30 AM. I set up on the back stoop with a heated coffee and the long lens on a low tripod.

Chickadees were doing about 80% of the work. I counted at least six Black-capped Chickadees moving on and off the tube feeder — you can’t really count them because they look identical but I’m counting anyway. Two White-breasted Nuthatches, a pair of Tufted Titmice, one Downy Woodpecker working the suet, and a single American Goldfinch still half in breeding yellow.

Scarlet Macaw

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into scarlet macaws in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Perch posture is half the ID. A scarlet macaw hunched, a scarlet macaw alert, and a scarlet macaw in the wind look like three different birds.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Psittaciformes / Psittacidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Rain cover, revisited

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Two years with a plastic bag and a rubber band.

Last colors in the Lake District

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We rented a cottage near Rosthwaite for four nights. Weather was miserable in the charming English way — low cloud, occasional sun, drizzle you could only sense on your face. Perfect for fall color on birches, if less perfect for a long lens.

The main subjects this trip were the colors themselves: birch gold, oak bronze, bracken going orange on the fellsides. I kept the telephoto on for compressing layers and only switched to the 23mm when I needed to get the whole valley in.

Keel-billed Toucan

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into keel-billed toucans in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Behavior tells the story: watch for twenty minutes and the bird tells you what it is in three or four actions.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the southern mexico to colombia part of its range.

A local patch has produced this species on roughly one in three visits, which is probably more than I deserve.

Pelicans in migration

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Counting kettles over a ridge.

Sax-Zim Bog

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been going to Sax-Zim Bog regularly enough to think of it as a home away from home, though “home” is overstating it for a place I fly or drive several hours to reach.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

You can spend three days at Sax-Zim Bog and only scratch the surface of the boreal bog and black spruce.

Mistaking a Cooper's for a Sharp-shinned

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Again. I do this every year.

Horicon in the rain

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Horicon in October is not a secret. The parking lots are full on weekends and the observation decks are busy. I went on a Friday on the theory that rain would thin the crowd. It did. I had the south spur of the auto loop mostly to myself.

The big story was Canada Geese — thousands, maybe tens of thousands. I’ve never been good at estimating flock sizes and I don’t try anymore. Add in a respectable push of Sandhill Cranes, a flotilla of Ruddy Ducks with those ridiculous blue bills, and two flyby Trumpeter Swans that I almost missed because of rain on the lens.

On apologizing to a bird

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A grackle I flushed and what I thought about after.

Resplendent Quetzal

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into resplendent quetzals in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the resplendent quetzal has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

A local patch has produced this species on roughly one in three visits, which is probably more than I deserve.

Pelagic day, heavy seas

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An account of a trip where the birds were many but the photos few.

Peregrines over Center City

Sun, 29 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Spent a Sunday on the corner of Broad and Market staring up at the clock tower. There’s a peregrine pair that’s nested on City Hall for years now and a local birder had told me where to stand. It’s a funny thing — tourists taking photos of City Hall, me taking photos of what’s sitting on top of it.

They were active. The female left the tower twice in the morning and came back both times with pigeons. The male perched on the eastern ledge for most of an hour and I mostly practiced panning.

Raptor migration count, one morning

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A spreadsheet from a ridge at Hawk Mountain.

Rufous Hummingbird

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The rufous hummingbird doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

Perch posture is half the ID. A rufous hummingbird hunched, a rufous hummingbird alert, and a rufous hummingbird in the wind look like three different birds.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Great Sand Dunes

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been going to Great Sand Dunes regularly enough to think of it as a home away from home, though “home” is overstating it for a place I fly or drive several hours to reach.

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

The core habitat at Great Sand Dunes is dunes, sabkha wetlands, montane forest, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

Notes on carrying less

Wed, 18 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Trimming the kit down to what I actually use.

Fungi walk in Białowieża

Tue, 17 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I flew into Warsaw last week to see friends and managed a day trip out to Białowieża. The forest is older than anything I’ve ever walked in and the floor was studded with fungi, most of which I couldn’t name. My goal for the day was not identification but good light on mushrooms.

We walked the easy loop outside the strict reserve. The canopy is so tall that the floor stays dim even at noon, which meant long exposures and steady tripod work. The OM-1 handheld stuff came out mushy; the tripod shots were fine.

Anna's Hummingbird

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into anna’s hummingbirds in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the anna’s hummingbird has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Caprimulgiformes / Trochilidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Why I still use a monopod

Wed, 11 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After years of handholding, this came back.

Late dragonflies at Huntley Meadows

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The boardwalk at Huntley turns into a dragonfly runway in early September. I went out at 10:30 AM, after the water striders had warmed up but before the sun got brutal. The marsh was greener than I expected for this time of year — still full of buttonbush and arrowhead, still full of odonates.

I spent most of the morning at one bend where a pickerelweed clump kept attracting Blue Dashers. Once you learn their perch habits they are almost cooperative — they pick a stem, patrol, come back. I worked with the 80mm at f/5.6 to keep enough depth that the whole head was sharp.

A bench in a flyway

Tue, 03 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The best spot for a morning is often the one with a bench.

Burrowing Owl

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the burrowing owl; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the burrowing owl has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the americas part of its range.

A local patch has produced this species on roughly one in three visits, which is probably more than I deserve.

Konza Prairie at the end of summer

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down from Manhattan before first light. Konza in late August is belly-high big bluestem and the birds are what’s left after nesting. Grasshopper Sparrows still singing, Upland Sandpiper on a fence post, a small flock of Dickcissels moving through. Bison within reasonable distance from the trail on the back side of the loop.

I drove the backside of the afternoon storm in. The sky did half the work.

Lens fungus

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A cautionary tale about leaving glass in a humid closet.

Salton Sea late-summer shorebirds

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove from San Diego before dawn. The Salton Sea in August is brutal and bird-filled: black-necked stilts everywhere, American avocets still at the ponds, Yellow-footed Gulls up from the Gulf of California. The heat is not a joke, and I was done by 9:30. The water smells like you’d expect.

This is one of the places where it feels like you’re photographing something that is changing. The shoreline moves. The birds will be fewer next year.

Acadia National Park

Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Acadia National Park is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

You can spend three days at Acadia National Park and only scratch the surface of the granite coast and spruce fir forest.

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Sun, 18 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the northern saw-whet owl; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

Behavior tells the story: watch for twenty minutes and the bird tells you what it is in three or four actions.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the north america part of its range.

First recorded sighting in this notebook was at a marshy edge near home in summer 2023. Since then I’ve logged sightings in four different states.

On getting a good photo of a bad bird

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Some species refuse to pose.

Point Reyes summer coast

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up from San Francisco. The coast at Point Reyes in August is usually fogged in until mid-morning and then burns off to a crystalline blue. I walked the Chimney Rock trail for elephant seals and the north beach area for shorebirds pushing through. Wandering Tattler on a rock at the base of the lighthouse was a small thrill.

Got sprayed by surf on a cliff shot and spent twenty minutes drying the front element. The lens survived.

Kachemak Bay estuary

Tue, 06 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down to Homer the day before and took the water taxi over to Tutka Bay. The upper estuary at low tide is great for Bald Eagles working salmon runs, and in early August the pink salmon are running. A Brown Bear sow with two cubs walked the far side of the river for about forty-five minutes — well away and I was with a guide.

I keep thinking I will tire of shooting bald eagles. So far I have not.

Great Gray Owl

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the great gray owl; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

The call is the cheap win, the thing you pick up first because you don’t need the bird to sit still for it.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the boreal forests of the northern hemisphere part of its range.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

On leaving the camera at home

Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A walk without any gear, and why I might do it more often.

Machias Seal puffin burrows

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Took the boat from Cutler. Machias Seal in late July is high season for puffins and the blind system there is the best close-work I’ve done with the species. Forty-five minutes in a blind and puffins within arm’s reach, walking in and out of burrows, arguing, delivering fish. Also Razorbills and Arctic Terns on the rocks.

Shooting a foot from your subject through a small hole in plywood concentrates the mind. No room for error.

The noisy hide problem

Sun, 28 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

People are louder than they think.

Red-winged Blackbird

Tue, 23 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into red-winged blackbirds in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the red-winged blackbird has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Passeriformes / Icteridae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Heat shimmer at 500mm

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A technical note on atmospheric distortion and what actually helps.

Serengeti migration at the river

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew in from Kilimanjaro and drove to the northern Serengeti. The wildebeest migration is typically at the Mara River crossings in July and we were parked near a potential crossing point for six hours without a crossing. Never mind — the birds around the river make that waiting easier. Tawny Eagles, Martial Eagle on a dead acacia, Secretarybird walking through grass at dusk.

Then at the end of our time the herd crossed, loud and fast. I did not do a good job photographing it. I stopped and watched.

Yellowstone National Park

Sun, 21 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Yellowstone National Park sits in that useful middle ground between “too obscure to bother with” and “too famous to enjoy.”

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

You can spend three days at Yellowstone National Park and only scratch the surface of the subalpine meadow.

My default advice is to go may through june and september. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Backpacking vs. car birding

Sun, 14 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A brief defense of the hot windshield.

Pribilof Islands seabirds

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew from Anchorage on the small plane to St. Paul. The Pribilofs in July are the best Bering Sea seabird photography in North America — Horned and Tufted Puffins, Parakeet Auklets, Least Auklets, and Red-legged Kittiwakes all on accessible cliffs. Thick fog for two of four days, but even in fog the birds are inches away.

If you’ve never been, do it. I ended the trip behind on sleep and ahead on life list in a way that felt like a trade worth making.

Black-capped Chickadee

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into black-capped chickadees in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

In my experience, sex differences show up more reliably in the field than any field guide suggests; the plates always look cleaner than the bird.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Svalbard midnight sun seabirds

Fri, 05 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Longyearbyen with a heavy bag. Spent four days on a small expedition boat around Isfjorden. The cliffs at Alkhornet were stacked with Brünnich’s Guillemots, and we watched polar bears on the beach from a safe offshore distance. Midnight sun makes photography strange — you can shoot at any time, but the light never quite gets better than a hazy gold.

I won’t forget watching a pod of belugas cross in front of the boat in total quiet at 2 a.m. because there was no ’evening’ to stop shooting.

Birding by ear during mosquito season

Tue, 02 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Why listening is more productive than looking in July.

Denali tundra in midsummer

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Anchorage and drove north. Took the bus from the park entrance to Eielson for an overnight. Walking on open tundra at midnight with the sun still up is a specifically Alaskan experience. Caribou in small groups, a lone grizzly far off, ptarmigan in summer plumage on ridge tops. Got my best-ever Northern Wheatear frames on the walk back to the bus.

The scale here breaks you a bit. Everything at the edge of your lens is five miles farther away than it looks.

Western Meadowlark

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into western meadowlarks in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Behavior tells the story: watch for twenty minutes and the bird tells you what it is in three or four actions.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the western north america part of its range.

A local patch has produced this species on roughly one in three visits, which is probably more than I deserve.

Hauled-out harbor seals

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

On not getting closer than 100 yards.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been going to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary regularly enough to think of it as a home away from home, though “home” is overstating it for a place I fly or drive several hours to reach.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

The core habitat at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is ridge-top migration corridor, and the best of it is concentrated in a handful of places that reward slow walking.

Camargue flamingos and horses

Wed, 19 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down from Avignon. The Camargue salt marshes hold one of Europe’s big flamingo breeding colonies and the drive along the road between Arles and Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer in June is full of stilts, avocets, and gulls. White Camargue horses at the edge of marsh at sunset is a cliché for a reason.

French road signs for birds are delightful. A ‘Réserve Ornithologique’ is a refuge, but the sign has a little illustrated flamingo on it.

A correction on that owl in album #17

Tue, 18 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

It wasn’t a Barred Owl. A reader pointed out the wing barring is wrong.

Dark-eyed Junco

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the dark-eyed junco; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

Perch posture is half the ID. A dark-eyed junco hunched, a dark-eyed junco alert, and a dark-eyed junco in the wind look like three different birds.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Passeriformes / Passerellidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Dry Tortugas seabird island

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Took the ferry from Key West. Summer on the Tortugas is all about Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies nesting on Bush Key, just across from Fort Jefferson. The colony was loud and the birds circled in easy photographic range the whole time we were at the dock. Also a couple of Magnificent Frigatebirds patrolling and one Masked Booby on the rocks.

Direct midday sun was hard to work with. The trick is finding a dark wall of the fort for a cleaner background — and then shooting white-belly birds against it.

Fog at Point Reyes

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The marine layer eats half the day and makes the other half.

Finally, a decent kingfisher

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

After a year of trying.

Ethics of pishing

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking harder about what I owe the bird.

Kakadu at the end of the wet

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Darwin and drove down. Kakadu at the beginning of the dry season is when the wetlands start shrinking but birds are still concentrated on the open water. I did a Yellow Water boat tour at dawn on day two and it delivered: Black-necked Stork (the local ‘Jabiru’), Magpie Geese in thousands, Azure Kingfisher on a branch for thirty seconds.

The light down there is harder than anywhere else I’ve been. High and harsh by 9 a.m. I stopped trying and slept midday.

Belted Kingfisher

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into belted kingfishers in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Perch posture is half the ID. A belted kingfisher hunched, a belted kingfisher alert, and a belted kingfisher in the wind look like three different birds.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the north america part of its range.

The best individual bird I’ve had was hunting in thin morning light, long enough for me to watch rather than shoot for once.

Got beat by a local at a hide

Wed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A small lesson in photography etiquette.

A new-to-me woodpecker

Sun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

First Red-bellied of the season and first of the year.

Pawnee National Grassland in late May

Sun, 26 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove out from Fort Collins before dawn. Pawnee at the end of May is peak short-grass prairie — McCown’s and Chestnut-collared Longspurs displaying over nothing but grass, Mountain Plovers on dirt patches where the cattle have flattened the ground. I worked the auto tour roads from the kiosk and also walked a small loop near Crow Valley. Ferruginous Hawk on a power pole stayed put long enough for a decent frame.

Snake instead of a warbler

Tue, 21 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A garter snake stole the morning.

Everglades National Park

Mon, 20 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Everglades National Park sits in that useful middle ground between “too obscure to bother with” and “too famous to enjoy.”

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

You can spend three days at Everglades National Park and only scratch the surface of the sawgrass marsh.

My default advice is to go december through april (dry season). Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Blackburnian Warbler

Sun, 19 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the blackburnian warbler; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

In my experience, sex differences show up more reliably in the field than any field guide suggests; the plates always look cleaner than the bird.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

The best individual bird I’ve had was hunting in thin morning light, long enough for me to watch rather than shoot for once.

Tarangire after the rains

Sat, 18 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Kilimanjaro and drove south. Tarangire at the end of the long rains is bright green and much less visited than Serengeti. The elephants weren’t concentrated at the river like they are in dry season, but I preferred the thornbush-walking herds. Birds were everywhere: hornbills, glossy starlings, lilac-breasted rollers on every other bush. A Pearl-spotted Owlet in the middle of the day was a lucky find.

Baobabs don’t photograph well in midday light. I tried. I failed. I tried again.

What 'pale' means in a field guide

Wed, 15 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Color terms are relative and the context is always missing.

Galveston migrant fallout

Fri, 10 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down to High Island after checking the weather radar from the hotel. A good strong cold front had passed through overnight and the radar from the coast was full of migrants. By 7:30 a.m. Boy Scout Woods had warblers in every mulberry tree. I’ve been coming for a few years and this was the best fallout I’ve seen.

I never know how to describe fallout days to non-birders. Imagine Christmas morning except you are crouched in a bog at 4 a.m.

A quiet morning at Magee

Wed, 08 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Not every fallout fallout-s.

Yellow Warbler

Mon, 06 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I started keeping a separate sightings list for the yellow warbler because I was tired of paging through notebooks to find the last one.

Perch posture is half the ID. A yellow warbler hunched, a yellow warbler alert, and a yellow warbler in the wind look like three different birds.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

First recorded sighting in this notebook was at a marshy edge near home in summer 2023. Since then I’ve logged sightings in four different states.

Backlight

Thu, 02 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Stop fighting it. Start using it.

Lake Nakuru

Thu, 02 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove from Nairobi with a guide. Lake Nakuru in early May is less of a flamingo spectacle than it used to be — water levels rose and most of the birds moved to Lake Bogoria — but there were still big groups at the southeast end. The park is also the easiest place in Kenya to see both black and white rhinos, and we got both inside two hours.

I’m still getting used to shooting large mammals from a vehicle. Very different rhythm from walking with binoculars.

Plant ID is different

Tue, 30 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Botanical keys make bird ID feel simple.

Magee Marsh at the warbler rush

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove over from Cleveland before first light. The boardwalk at Magee in late April before the festival crowds is already crowded but not insane. Warblers dripped through the willows for three hours — some at boardwalk height, some lower, a few at eye level right on branches. Got a Cerulean that sat still for five clean frames at about four meters. Also a male Prothonotary nearly on my shoe.

This is one of those places where you stop trying to frame the bird against something clean and just shoot, because it’s happening that fast.

Cedar Waxwing

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The cedar waxwing doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

The call is the cheap win, the thing you pick up first because you don’t need the bird to sit still for it.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the north america part of its range.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

A mediocre sunrise at Malheur

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Not every trip produces the cover shot.

Cape May Point

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Cape May Point is a place I return to because it’s never exactly the same twice, even in the same month.

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

You can spend three days at Cape May Point and only scratch the surface of the migratory coastal hawk and songbird funnel.

My default advice is to go september through november. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Kinabalu foothills, Borneo

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Kota Kinabalu and drove up to Poring first, then up to the Kinabalu park HQ. The foothills between 1500 and 2200 meters are the easiest place to get on Borneo’s montane endemics. Hired a local guide both mornings. Whitehead’s Broadbill gave me decent frames from a fruiting tree along the Silau-silau trail and we managed a brief look at a Whitehead’s Trogon, though my photos of that one are not going to win any prizes.

A sparring pair of coots

Sun, 14 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A small drama worked out on the water.

Varied Thrush

Wed, 10 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The varied thrush doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

Perch posture is half the ID. A varied thrush hunched, a varied thrush alert, and a varied thrush in the wind look like three different birds.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Crex Meadows sharp-tails at dawn

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up from Minneapolis the night before. The Crex Meadows sharp-tailed grouse leks are active from mid-March into early May and they’re easy to find if you know where to look. I set up a blind at the edge of a known lek at 4:45 a.m. and watched seven males display for about ninety minutes after first light. Very cold. Very worth it.

Shooting from a blind changes how I think about composition. I can’t move the camera more than a few inches, so I pre-compose and wait. Different pace.

Quail at dawn

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A morning with California Quail at a suburban edge.

Lesvos in spring migration

Sun, 31 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Mytilene and rented a car. Lesvos in late March is one of the classic spring migration hotspots in Europe — birds moving up through the eastern Mediterranean. I worked the north coast salt pans in the morning and the olive groves inland in the afternoon. Kallikerami salt pans had flamingos, stilts, avocets, and a Slender-billed Gull that I’d never seen before.

The guide I’d booked canceled and I worked alone. Still got more target species in three days than I had any right to.

Eastern Bluebird

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The eastern bluebird doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the eastern bluebird has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the eastern north america part of its range.

The best individual bird I’ve had was hunting in thin morning light, long enough for me to watch rather than shoot for once.

Notes on file naming

Wed, 27 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Dull but important.

Danube Delta, early spring

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Bucharest and took the train and then a small boat to a fisherman’s lodge in the delta. The Danube Delta in early spring is about pelicans — both Great White and Dalmatian — arriving back from wintering grounds. We took the small wooden boat out before first light each morning. Dalmatian Pelicans glowing pale in the low light is a photograph that sort of takes itself.

I don’t speak any Romanian. My guide spoke about fifteen English words. We understood each other by the second day.

Point Reyes National Seashore

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been going to Point Reyes National Seashore regularly enough to think of it as a home away from home, though “home” is overstating it for a place I fly or drive several hours to reach.

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

You can spend three days at Point Reyes National Seashore and only scratch the surface of the coastal headland.

Death Valley, early spring

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down from Reno. It wasn’t a superbloom year but the wildflowers along the badwater road were still good — desert gold, phacelia, purple mat. I split attention between flowers in the morning and birding in the shaded canyons after lunch. A Great Horned Owl on a palm frond at Furnace Creek right at sunset was the highlight, even if the light was brutal.

Heat by 11 a.m. was real. Back in the car and running the AC while I ate lunch and thought about being more organized next time.

Swainson's Hawk

Fri, 15 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the swainson’s hawk; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

Perch posture is half the ID. A swainson’s hawk hunched, a swainson’s hawk alert, and a swainson’s hawk in the wind look like three different birds.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the western north america part of its range.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Rented a 600/4 for a week

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

First impressions from seven days with a supertelephoto at a local refuge.

Great bustards in Extremadura

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Madrid and drove west. The Llanos de Cáceres in early March is classic pseudo-steppe: wide rolling grain fields with wintering and resident birds, and in March the Great Bustards are starting to display. I spent most of one morning sitting at the edge of a dirt road in the car — a kind of impromptu hide — watching four males work the far edge of a fallow field.

Earmarking a new patch

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How I decide whether a place is worth a second visit.

Osprey

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The osprey doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

Perch posture is half the ID. A osprey hunched, a osprey alert, and a osprey in the wind look like three different birds.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Accipitriformes / Pandionidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

One winter I had a pair stay on the same river bend from November into late March and I wasn’t sick of them at the end.

Late winter raptors at Malheur

Wed, 28 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove out from Bend the night before. Malheur in late winter is mostly frozen ponds and raptors, which is fine because raptors are what I was there for. Rough-legged Hawks on every third fence post and a Prairie Falcon that flushed a huge flock of blackbirds off a stubble field. Got a Northern Shrike that perched on the same sage bush for ten minutes and let me work angles.

Frozen mornings at Malheur will make you reconsider why you chose this hobby, and then a harrier comes through at waist height and you remember.

When the trip produces nothing

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

How to find value in an empty day.

Monteverde cloud forest

Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into San José and drove up the afternoon before. Monteverde in the wet season is exactly what you’d hope — wet, green, full of sound. Hired a local guide at the reserve gate. Resplendent Quetzals were feeding in a fruiting aguacatillo tree about thirty meters up, and we watched a male come in and eat for maybe four minutes. That’s the bird I came for.

Everything was wet by ten minutes in. My rain cover didn’t quite keep the elements off the 150-600 and I was paranoid the rest of the day.

Peregrine Falcon

Sun, 18 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Of all the birds on this site, the peregrine falcon is the one I feel I understand best, which is a weak claim given how little I actually know.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the peregrine falcon has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

Malheur NWR

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Malheur NWR is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

The trip in is less complicated than it looks on a map, provided you’re flexible about where you sleep.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the high desert marsh and meadow and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

Cleaning a sensor the wrong way

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t do what I did. Here’s what I did.

Winter in the Chisos

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Midland, drove six hours, and was camped at Chisos Basin by dark. Morning walks into the basin in February are quiet and the birds are different from what you’d get in summer — no Colima Warblers, but Mexican Jays right on the picnic tables and a Zone-tailed Hawk soaring with turkey vultures long enough for me to sort the differences. Javelinas through camp at dusk.

Drove down to the Rio Grande village one afternoon. Vermilion Flycatcher on a cottonwood above the river is still one of my favorite ways to end a day.

Ferruginous Hawk

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the ferruginous hawk; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

The call is the cheap win, the thing you pick up first because you don’t need the bird to sit still for it.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Amboseli in February: dust and elephants

Sun, 04 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Nairobi and took the small plane to Amboseli. The park is flat and mostly open, which makes the photography different from anywhere else I’ve been — you can see a long way and the backgrounds are clean. Kilimanjaro showed for about forty minutes at dawn on day one before disappearing into haze for the rest of the trip. Elephants were everywhere: herds crossing between swamps, one big bull by himself in dust.

Tide table notes for Bolinas

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Working out when to arrive and when to leave the mudflats.

Chincoteague beach in January

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down from DC before dawn. Chincoteague in January is nothing like the pony-crossing summer version — it’s cold and the birds are what’s left after the fall migration. A flock of about 80 Snow Buntings was working the wrack line on Assateague Beach when I walked up, and they let me get low and close. I spent an hour on them, alone on that stretch of beach, and walked back with numb hands happy.

Northern Harrier

Tue, 23 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the northern harrier; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

Perch posture is half the ID. A northern harrier hunched, a northern harrier alert, and a northern harrier in the wind look like three different birds.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Accipitriformes / Accipitridae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

Sinharaja in January

Fri, 19 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Colombo and took the slow road up to the reserve. Sinharaja is a UNESCO rainforest and most of Sri Lanka’s endemic birds live in it. I hired a local guide for three full days. Mixed flocks here move fast and high, and I spent a lot of time listening for the lead species (an Orange-billed Babbler) and then trying to track what was moving through behind it.

Got four endemics in one flock on day two: Sri Lanka Blue Magpie, Red-faced Malkoha, Ashy-headed Laughingthrush, Sri Lanka Hanging Parrot. That doesn’t happen often.

Tongass National Forest

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Tongass National Forest sits in that useful middle ground between “too obscure to bother with” and “too famous to enjoy.”

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the temperate rainforest and fjords and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

My default advice is to go may through september. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Sacramento NWR wintering waterfowl

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up from Sacramento before light. The auto tour route opens early and the first ponds were full of ross’s, snow, and greater white-fronted geese, with pintails and wigeon along every edge. Fog was still lifting at 9 a.m. and it stripped out to a clean flat backlit stage. A Peregrine came through hard at about 9:30 and the whole pond blew up. I only got three frames, all blurry.

Piping Plover

Wed, 10 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Of all the birds on this site, the piping plover is the one I feel I understand best, which is a weak claim given how little I actually know.

Perch posture is half the ID. A piping plover hunched, a piping plover alert, and a piping plover in the wind look like three different birds.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

Sparrow ID is a winter project

Sun, 07 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Chipping away at LBJs from the kitchen window.

Ria Formosa waders in January

Wed, 03 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Faro with friends the day before. The Ria Formosa is a big shallow lagoon system along the Algarve, and in January it holds huge numbers of European waders and ducks. We walked the trails out of Quinta do Lago in the morning and spent afternoon on the coastal edge at Ludo. Greater Flamingos close to the trail, three or four spoonbills in a little flock.

Didn’t expect the light to hold flat all day but it did. Perfect for the white birds.

Ruddy Turnstone

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into ruddy turnstones in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the ruddy turnstone has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Anhinga Trail the day after Christmas

Tue, 26 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Booked the ticket a few weeks out knowing the park would be busy. Anhinga Trail was shoulder-to-shoulder by 10 a.m. but at 7 I had the boardwalk almost to myself. This is the easiest wading-bird photography in the country — birds are habituated and the backlight off the slough in morning is soft enough to handle the usual white-bird dynamic range.

I gave up on getting a clean background and started leaning into the chaos. Got a couple of frames of an anhinga swallowing a fish that I was pretty happy with.

Red-crowned cranes at Tsurui

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Kushiro and drove to Tsurui. The red-crowned cranes come to the feeding grounds in late fall and stay through March. The Tsurui-Ito station opens before sunrise and the birds are standing in the snow by first light. I spent both days there, and a half-day at the Setsurigawa River bridge for the roost shots. The cranes dance even on cold mornings — head back, bow, leap — and I could not pick favorites.

Farallon Islands

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Farallon Islands is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the rocky offshore seabird colony and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

Long-billed Curlew

Fri, 15 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The long-billed curlew doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

In my experience, sex differences show up more reliably in the field than any field guide suggests; the plates always look cleaner than the bird.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the western north america part of its range.

First recorded sighting in this notebook was at a marshy edge near home in summer 2023. Since then I’ve logged sightings in four different states.

December cranes at Bosque del Apache

Sun, 10 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down from Albuquerque the night before, slept in the car at a pullout outside the refuge. First light was about twenty minutes slower to build than I wanted — the sandhills started lifting before I had good enough light on them — but once the sun cleared the Chupadera ridge they kept coming off in groups of fifty or sixty for the next hour.

I finally broke down and bought ear protection for this trip. The racket at the main flight pond at 7 a.m. is worth the twenty bucks.

A grackle is a grackle

Tue, 05 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Learning to appreciate the common.

Black-necked Stilt

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Of all the birds on this site, the black-necked stilt is the one I feel I understand best, which is a weak claim given how little I actually know.

In my experience, sex differences show up more reliably in the field than any field guide suggests; the plates always look cleaner than the bird.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the americas part of its range.

One winter I had a pair stay on the same river bend from November into late March and I wasn’t sick of them at the end.

Whooping cranes at Aransas

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Booked the Skimmer tour out of Rockport. The whooping cranes come back to this stretch of the Texas coast every fall and it’s still the only reliable way to see the wild population. Our guide put us within reasonable distance of three family groups at different points — a pair, a pair with a juvenile, and a single — across three hours.

The 600 was barely long enough from the boat. You don’t get close. But I’m not going to complain about how much range I have on a federally endangered bird that isn’t bothered.

Sax-Zim Bog for boreal specialties

Fri, 24 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Duluth and rented a 4x4. Sax-Zim in late November is empty of the winter festival crowds but the resident specialties are already back. The bog’s visitor shelter had a Boreal Chickadee coming to the suet and I spent a long dawn hour on a dead tamarack waiting on a Great Gray Owl that never came. Got a Northern Hawk Owl on Admiral Road instead, which might be a better bird anyway.

American Avocet

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into american avocets in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the american avocet has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

I avoid published counts of population estimates here. My interest is a sightings journal, not a density map.

The best individual bird I’ve had was hunting in thin morning light, long enough for me to watch rather than shoot for once.

Atlas Mountains, arid morning

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Marrakech a few days earlier. Drove up to Oukaïmeden with a local guide at sunrise. The high valleys above the ski village have a specialty group of birds I’d never photographed — Crimson-winged Finch, Atlas Horned Lark, Moussier’s Redstart. Got all three in a slow morning walk of maybe three kilometers.

Morocco light is harsh once the sun is up, but the first hour was every bit as useful as dawn back home. Drove back down for lunch in a Berber village; not the worst way to spend a morning.

Bolinas Lagoon

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Of the spots I’ve covered in this notebook, Bolinas Lagoon is the one I most often recommend to people who ask where to go with a week and a camera.

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

On a strong day in the right season you can work your way through the tidal lagoon and mudflats and tick off most of the headliners before lunch.

Found a pellet

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Under an alder by the creek. What it told me and what it didn’t.

Merritt Island in November

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Drove out on Black Point Wildlife Drive at 6:15. The refuge opens early and the light on the water is good for about ninety minutes. Waders were piled on every pond — tricolored herons, reddish egrets dancing, roseate spoonbills in small groups, and a few American White Pelicans already down for the winter. Anhingas drying wings on every mangrove island. I spent more time than I meant to on a single Reddish Egret with the perfect white-phase feather.

Canvasback

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into canvasbacks in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

In my experience, sex differences show up more reliably in the field than any field guide suggests; the plates always look cleaner than the bird.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the north america part of its range.

One winter I had a pair stay on the same river bend from November into late March and I wasn’t sick of them at the end.

Mono Lake grebes in late fall

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up from Mammoth the night before. Mono Lake in late October is mostly about the eared grebes — they stage here by the hundreds of thousands before moving south — and the alkali flies that feed them. The south tufa area was closed at the main lot but I walked in from the south road and had the whole shoreline to myself. Phalaropes were done, but gulls and grebes were the show.

Trumpeter Swan

Tue, 24 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I started keeping a separate sightings list for the trumpeter swan because I was tired of paging through notebooks to find the last one.

The call is the cheap win, the thing you pick up first because you don’t need the bird to sit still for it.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Anseriformes / Anatidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

A local patch has produced this species on roughly one in three visits, which is probably more than I deserve.

Doñana in October: flamingos and white storks

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Seville and drove to El Rocío the night before. The marshes around Doñana in October are past the summer heat but still plenty busy. Greater Flamingos in big blocks of pink across the far ponds, White Storks everywhere on the farm fields, and an Iberian Magpie bothering a Hoopoe in a dusty parking lot. I did the guided 4x4 in the morning for a look at the forested section and hit El Acebuche hide in the afternoon.

Magee Marsh

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been going to Magee Marsh regularly enough to think of it as a home away from home, though “home” is overstating it for a place I fly or drive several hours to reach.

Access is the first thing to plan: entry points, permits, and the time of day the road is drivable.

You can spend three days at Magee Marsh and only scratch the surface of the lake erie marsh and boardwalk woodland.

Hoh rainforest, wet understory

Sun, 15 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Drove out from Forks before first light. The Hoh in October is almost all mine — the summer crowds are gone and the winter storms haven’t started yet. I wanted bird sound and I wanted to try a couple of macro shots of moss and lichens under rain. Got two solid hours of wren and warbler work in before a heavy squall forced me back to the truck. Pacific Wrens called nonstop through the rain.

Autumn warblers are impossible

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

On the humbling experience of fall warbler ID.

Common Merganser

Wed, 11 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the common merganser; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

Behavior tells the story: watch for twenty minutes and the bird tells you what it is in three or four actions.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

A local patch has produced this species on roughly one in three visits, which is probably more than I deserve.

Hornstrandir at the end of the season

Sat, 07 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Booked the last boat of the season out of Ísafjörður. The rangers had already left. I hiked from Hesteyri toward the old whaling station at Hloduvik, camping once on the beach. The reserve is closed to motor vehicles and in October it is completely quiet. I was most hoping for an Arctic Fox close enough to photograph — they’re habituated to people in summer but wilder by fall — and I got one in blue phase on day two.

Cape May warbler push

Fri, 29 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Slept in the car at the lot and woke to cold air and a good NW wind. That’s the setup Cape May is famous for. The bunker trail was full of warblers dripping out of the pines by 6:45 a.m. — redstarts, palm, yellow-rumps, and a Cape May that I actually photographed in Cape May, which I’ve been trying to check off for three years. Also a Connecticut Warbler reported at the state park that I looked for and missed.

Northern Pintail

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

There is no single easy ID on the northern pintail; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

Structure is the best clue at distance: in flight the northern pintail has a particular proportion you start to recognize before any field mark resolves.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the holarctic part of its range.

The best individual bird I’ve had was hunting in thin morning light, long enough for me to watch rather than shoot for once.

Skomer Island, late shearwater evening

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Took the overnight stay on Skomer mostly to be there after the day-trippers left. The Manx Shearwaters come back to their burrows after dark in numbers that are hard to believe unless you’ve heard them — a rising, cackling roar starting about half an hour after sunset. I didn’t try to photograph them in the dark; the ethics feel off with flashes around nesting birds. Daytime had plenty of other work.

Bosque del Apache NWR

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Bosque del Apache NWR sits in that useful middle ground between “too obscure to bother with” and “too famous to enjoy.”

Getting there is straightforward if you plan around the road access and the weather window for the season.

You can spend three days at Bosque del Apache NWR and only scratch the surface of the riparian wetland.

My default advice is to go november through february for cranes and geese. Outside that window there are still good days here, but the baseline quality drops.

Wood Duck

Fri, 15 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I keep running into wood ducks in the same spots every year, and every year I think I’ve worked them out. I haven’t.

The call is the cheap win, the thing you pick up first because you don’t need the bird to sit still for it.

My images for this species are all made with available light. I don’t use fill flash in the field.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Broad-winged peak at Hawk Mountain

Wed, 13 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up the night before and was on the North Lookout by 7:45. The forecast called for NW winds and the kettles started forming by 10:30. Counted my personal best — one kettle with at least 180 broad-wings spiraling up at eye level against the ridge. It lasted maybe three minutes. I switched to the 23mm for a couple of frames because I wanted the scale of it.

Plenty of Sharp-shinneds low through the trees too. Hawk Mountain earns its reputation on days like this.

Cairngorms ridgeline in September

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Flew into Edinburgh and drove up the night before. Started from the Cairngorm base at 7 a.m. in a drizzle that turned into a steady clearing wind. Red Grouse were everywhere in the heather on the way up and I found a small family of Rock Ptarmigan on the plateau at about 3500 feet. Golden Eagles are in the area but I didn’t get lucky — one distant silhouette that was probably one, unconfirmable.

Monsoon morning in Saguaro

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The monsoon had been active for a week and the desert smelled like creosote. I hiked the Douglas Spring trail from the east entrance at 5:30 a.m. Gila woodpeckers were calling from every other saguaro and a Harris’s Hawk flew low across the wash as I crossed it. Got my first decent shot of a Gilded Flicker — a species I’d missed the last two trips.

Heat was up by 9:30 and I was back at the car by ten. Lens cleaning after the monsoon dust is a whole operation but worth it for that low, wet light.

Late-summer shorebirds at Bombay Hook

Sun, 20 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Drove down from home before first light and was on the wildlife loop by 6 a.m. Tide was dropping, which meant the big flats at Raymond Pool had plenty of working shorebirds. Mostly yellowlegs and short-billed dowitchers, but I got onto a Stilt Sandpiper that held in decent light for a solid minute. A Hudsonian Godwit was reported the day before; I didn’t find it.

The greenheads are relentless at Bombay Hook in August. I wore long sleeves and still came home with bites on my knuckles. Worth it.

Alpine ridgeline on Mount Blue Sky

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Drove up before sunrise. The road was empty until about 7 a.m. and the parking lot at Summit Lake was just goats and me. I was hoping for white-tailed ptarmigan on the saddle — they’d been reported the week before. Took me forty-five minutes of walking the talus before I spotted one, crouched still against a rock that looked exactly like its flank. Once I saw it there were three more within fifty feet.

Farallon Islands, summer pelagic

Fri, 04 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Left Half Moon Bay at 6:30 a.m. on a half-day charter. First hour was just murres and cormorants near shore, but once we cleared the shelf the shearwaters started stacking up in the slick. Pink-footed and sooty in big numbers, and a couple of Buller’s shearwaters late in the morning, which was the whole reason I booked the trip.

Settings were tough. The light never really came up through the overcast and the deck was pitching enough that I stayed on 1/2000 or faster all day. Missed a lot of frames to focus-hunting on the chum slick. Still, enough keepers to call it a good morning.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This is a personal archive of photographs I’ve taken on walks since August 2023. I do not sell prints, take commissions, or run workshops. I am not a professional photographer. I am not even a very good amateur photographer. I post here because keeping photos in a folder felt like losing them and I wanted a place to return to.

What the site is

Albums are outings. One walk, one album. Each album is somewhere between 6 and 30 photographs with short captions and a paragraph or two of context.
Species is an index of what I’ve photographed, grouped by species. This is where most of the wildlife identifications live. I try to note uncertainty where I have it.
Places is a list of the parks, trails, and shorelines I return to often, with notes on what’s around and when to visit.
Journal is shorter written entries — corrections to earlier posts, gear notes, observations that don’t fit with a specific photo.

What the site is not

It’s not a birding diary in the eBird sense. I keep a separate eBird checklist offline; this site is about the pictures.

Gear

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

People email me about this, so here it is. Last reviewed February 2026.

Bodies

Fujifilm X-T5 — my main body for nearly everything. The 40 MP sensor is overkill for how I shoot, but I like the files, I like the color profiles, and I like not having to think about the camera when there’s something worth watching. Switched to it from an X-T3 in mid-2024 and it was the first upgrade I’ve made that I immediately noticed every time I used the camera.
Olympus OM-1 — when I’m going to be on my feet for eight hours and don’t want shoulder pain. Smaller, lighter, and the IBIS is genuinely absurd. I mostly use this for long hikes where wildlife is a bonus rather than the goal.
Ricoh GR III — in my jacket pocket, always. About half of my city and close-to-home photos are from this. It is not a wildlife camera.

Lenses

Fujinon XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8 — the reason I chose Fujifilm. For birds and any skittish mammals. Slow aperture on paper; in practice it has been fine 90% of the time. The tripod foot is mandatory.
Fujinon XF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 — my travel zoom. Lighter than the 150-600 and enough reach for most of what I actually shoot when I’m not specifically chasing birds.
Fujinon XF 23mm f/2 — my walkaround prime. Lives on the body when I’m not taking photos of anything in particular.
Fujinon XF 80mm f/2.8 macro — spiders, flowers, mushrooms. I use it rarely but it’s the lens I regret not having when I don’t.
Olympus M.Zuiko 40-150mm f/4 PRO — on the OM-1, basically always.

Glass I’ve tried and returned

The Fujifilm XF 100-400 — decent, but the 150-600 obsoleted it for me the week it arrived.
The Nikkor Z 180-600 on a Z body I rented for a week — excellent lens, but Nikon’s whole system didn’t click with me, or more honestly I didn’t want to learn a new menu.

Binoculars

Swarovski NL Pure 10x42 — my only serious splurge. If you’re tempted, spend half as much as you were planning to and get the best thing at that price. What I like about these is that I can leave them around my neck for a full day and my shoulders don’t notice.
Nikon Monarch M5 8x42 — my backup and loaner pair. Not as good at dawn and dusk, but otherwise honestly pretty close.

Bags

Peak Design Everyday Backpack 20L — for long days with two bodies and a telephoto.
Shimoda Explore V2 25L — when I need a dedicated camera backpack for travel.
Think Tank Turnstyle 5 — for quick outings when I want to look less like a tourist.

Tripods

Gitzo GT2542 + RRS BH-40 — my one tripod. Nothing to add; it works.

Software

Darktable for almost all raw processing. I used Lightroom for years and switched in 2023 when I got tired of the subscription model. It took a weekend to get fluent.
RawTherapee for the odd file Darktable struggles with.
Hugo for this site, with a homegrown theme.

Notebooks

Field Notes Kraft squared — I keep one in my jacket for sightings, weather, and anything I want to remember to look up.
A dedicated species journal — a single notebook, filling slowly, one species per page. Far from any digital app.

What I don’t use

Autofocus subject detection beyond “bird” and “animal” — I find it distracting more than helpful.
Any form of cloud backup that isn’t just a cron job.
Image-recognition apps for ID. If I can’t figure out what I saw from field guides and the iNaturalist community, I write “unidentified” and move on.