Memorial Day Weekend
Ruby-throated Hummingbird on nest — digiscoped with Nikon 50mm field scope and Leica C-Lux 3 in very low light at sunset.A bird-filled weekend at Promised Land State Park. Work to be done on the cabin and a few rolling thunderstorms curtailed the birding a bit, however, many great birds were heard or seen –not the…
Hornsby Bend
Arguably the best known birding site in Austin, Texas, is Hornsby Bend (below), a stone’s throw north of the airport. The site is part of the 1200 acre Austin Water Utilities and Biosolids Management Plant where three impoundments are surrounded by aquatic vegetation including mudflats in the West Pond. One can drive around the ponds…
Balcones Canyonland NWR
It is only a short drive north west of Austin before one is in the Texas Hill Country. One of the most accessible places to locate two hill country specialty birds is the Balcones Canyonlands NWR. Here amongst the limestone hills and spring fed canyons that make up most of the refuge breeds the endangered…
Travis Audubon Meeting
Yesterday evening I was in Austin to I present a program on “East Africa’s Unique Wildlife” to an enthusiastic Travis Audubon Society audience. Travis is the name of the county that surrounds Austin. The meeting began with Jesse (i’ve forgotten his last name) giving a power point summary of his successful Great Texas Birding Classic…
Austin, Texas: Holy Bat…
One of nature’s most amazing spectacles is the emergence at dusk of about 750,000 Mexican Free-tail Bats. Even more remarkable is that since they began roosting under the Congress Avenue Bridge in the mid 1980’s it has become not only Austin’s main tourist attraction but North America’s largest urban bat colony. Most of the colony…
(Still) On The Road
This is day 87 of almost continuos back to back trips. It began in Kenya sometime in late February where I successfully completed my professional safari guides exam prior to scouting out some new locations. That was around the time of my last blog! An amazing 3 week tour in Northern Tanzania and Coastal Kenya…
Why did the Woodcock cross the road?
The weather held for us all weekend and we did not get rained upon during the Waterfall Photography Workshop. We had many wonderful hours of photographing different falls found in the Delaware Water Gap area. This morning after departing Indian Ladder Falls I spotted something crossing the road ahead of us. It moved slowly and…
10,000 Birders!
10,000 birders. That’s the number of birders Kim Kaufman told me would converge upon Magee Marsh during the International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) celebration. I was skeptical. 10,000 birders in one location? How could that be? Was the spectacle of migration at this particular location that incredible? I had to find out for myself, so…
The Kaufmans ROCK with 6-7-8-OH!
As promised, more incriminating photos of Kim and Kenn Kaufman jammin’ with their Rock n’ Roll band 6-7-8-OH! Friday night’s performance was fun and financially rewarding as they earned over $800 for the Ohio Young Birders Club education programs. Way to go! Kenn Kaufman on Bass Kim Kaufman – Lead Vocals Bob Hille – Guitar…