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Anne and I took the bus from Ljubljana down to Piran, which is a beautiful old town on the east coast of the Adriatic Sea (Slovenia’s west coast), and this morning we visited the Sečovlje Saltpans Natural Park. The city bus doesn’t go all the way to the saltpans, so we had a nice littleContinue reading “Birds of the Sečovlje Saltpans”

Anne got herself a paper accepted at a conference here in Slovenia, so I flew down from Delft to see the sights with her. Ljubljana, the capitol, is very nice, and there is a huge park on the edge of town, called Tivoli City Park, which I visited this morning. Right off the bat, thereContinue reading “Critters of Ljubljana”

Well, the forecast was correct, and the skies this morning were as grey as clouds that form a thick blanket that blocks out most of the sun. Luckily for us, I have plenty of bird pictures left over from yesterday when the sun was out and the sky was blue. Let’s start with a greatContinue reading “Nonaquatic birds of Delft on a mild and sunny winter day”

My apartment in Delft has huge, old-timey windows in one end, and even though they are in pretty good shape, my apartment is a lot warmer if I keep the heavy curtains closed. Thus, I don’t really know what the weather is like outside until I explicitly look, and this morning I was pleasantly surprisedContinue reading “Aquatic birds of Delft on a sunny and mild winter day”

I did find a mute swan in town yesterday, but it was taking a break from the water, so that could explain why I didn’t spot it Saturday when I merely looked down the canals. It seemed perfectly content to sit right there, between a parked bicycle and a park car, and preen its feathers.Continue reading “Birds of Delft in Winter, PS”

Phew! Good thing I saved some pictures from yesterday, because the weather here has returned to its dark and dreary self this morning. In any case, on to the water birds, and the ubiquitous Eurasian coot deserves top billing. If there’s only one bird in a body of water around here, odds are that it’sContinue reading “Birds of Delft in Winter, Part 2 – Aquatic”

Well, miracles never cease, and the sun “rose” over clear skies in Delft this “morning”. I use scare quotes because the sun only breached the horizon at 8:37am and only reaches 18° above the horizon by noon. It will set again at 5:10pm. I think I’ve only seen the sun one other day since I’veContinue reading “Birds of Delft in Winter”

It turns out that my flight back to Delft leaves later today than I thought, so I did have enough time for one last quick visit to Estabrook Park this morning. I was happy to see the great horned owl near its usual spot on the river again, and it was a little less buriedContinue reading “Just one more…”

Big Bend National Park and Terlingua in West Texas were amazing, and we saw a lot of wild life, but it is also always great to be back home and get a chance to visit Estabrook Park. I ship out back to South Holland tomorrow, so this might be my last post for a while.Continue reading “Back in Estabrook, at least for a day…”

It was our third and last day in this amazing park, and the sights just kept on coming. We stopped first at one of the old, abandoned ranches, Sam Nail’s, and the old well acting as a water source worked as advertised. The place was abuzz with birds as the sun came into the valley.Continue reading “Big Bend National Park, Day 3.”