I always feel very fortunate to live in an area of Japan that is surrounded by some of the best winter birding locations in the country and, indeed, in all of East Asia. From my home in Shimabara, Nagasaki, it is just a short ferry ride and drive to Hikawa and Yatsushiro in Kumamoto, while […]
Great Southern White Butterfly
Great Southern White (Ascia monuste). Note the distinctive blue antennae tips. Taken at Gilchrist Park, Punta Gorda, Florida.
Fin Whales off the Irish south coast…
The second largest mammal of earth, the mighty fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus) is frequently seen in Irish inshore waters during the autumn and winter months. A pelagic species that spends most of their time well offshore; these large baleen whales move into coastal waters off the southern Irish coastline every year in search of the […]
A Coyote and Falcon Leftovers
I had a marvelous photographic experience with Coyote along the shoreline of the Great Salt Lake last week and wanted to share some of the images that I created. The temperatures have fluctuated often the past few weeks in the Salt Lake Valley, for a while it was very cold and the Great Salt Lake […]
My Local Patch – Dhahran Camp (Saudi Arabia)
This post will give you all a flavor of my local ‘patch’ and the habits that occur there before I post anything about birds seen. Dhahran Camp, Saudi Aramco’s compound, is a man-made environment, where a remarkable greening of the environment has occurred, which now helps support a varied range of flora and fauna, including […]
Gosforth Park Nature Reserve
On Thursday, a glorious sunny but cool day, Brian Moorhead and myself visited Gosforth Park Nature Reserve. The reserve compromises of 60ha of lake, reed-bed and mixed woodland, fewer than 4 miles from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne’s City centre. Managed by the Natural History Society of Northumbria since 1929, it boasts a vast diversity of flora and fauna, […]
Birding in Saudi Arabia – Challenges
Birding in Saudi Arabia is a relatively challenging task for a number of reasons but the main one is probably not the one you are expecting. Saudi Arabia has a relatively poor press in Western countries as well as elsewhere in the world and this press makes the country out to be a dangerous place […]
Some who welcome the drought in Oklahoma
Mornings dawn bright in Oklahoma, and one of my favorite places to revel in the awakening landscape is Lake Carl Blackwell, west of Stillwater. In addition to the reservoir itself, the park’s mix of forest, shrub woodlands, and native prairie provides great opportunities for birding and other wildlife viewing. I took advantage of all of […]