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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.”

Today we took a “float” down the Rio Grand. Anne was surprised that we had to paddle, and I was surprised that we hit white water. Happily, neither surprise did us in, and we did see some more amazing sights. Here are a couple of the highlights. There were several black phoebes (Sayornis nigricans) huntingContinue reading “Big Bend National Park, Day 2.”

We made it into Big Bend National Park today, did some great hiking in the Chisos Mountains, and saw some amazing sights. Here’s a pyrrhuloxia or desert cardinal (Cardinalis sinuatus), close cousin to the Northern cardinals we see in Estabrook. Here’s a Say’s phoebe (Sayornis saya) on the hunt for dinner out on the desert north ofContinue reading “Big Bend National Park, Day 1.”

Anne and I finally arrived this afternoon and immediately set out to see who we could see. In short order, we spotted 14 bird species, 8 of which are entirely new to me, and one butterfly. The wifi is kinda slow here, so I’ll just post a couple pictures to whet your appetite. Here’s aContinue reading “Greetings from Terlingua, West Texas”

After I got home from Estabrook yesterday, I got a cryptic message on the facebook that mentioned “saw-whet”, and then I saw on ebird that someone reported seeing a northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus) in our very own park, so I hustled right back over there. Then, as I was methodically checking the trees byContinue reading “Big and small…”