Wordless Wednesday
Adult Bald Eagle surveying its domain beneath Longs Peak in Boulder County, Colorado, 2 Feb. 2014. Photo by Bill Schmoker, Leica Birding Team.
Archive for the ‘Photographers’ Category
Suet Piranhas
For most of the winter I’ve been enjoying the hit-and-run tactics of a Bushtit flock in my Longmont, Colorado back yard. Up to about 15 of the wee long-tailed fuzz balls will make a raid on my home-made suet in the morning, attacking it with fierce gusto like a school of suet piranhas.
Travis’s final day on St. Paul Island
Tom Johnson has left St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea, with Travis the Traveling Trinovid it tow, but before they left Travis had another great day of birding. Come read about it!
Should I stay or should I go? (hint: still surrounded by water)
Getting to and from the Pribilof Islands can be a daunting experience as any number of logistical snafus can creep up unexpectedly, not the least of which is the weather. Word from our intrepid tour guide, Tom Johnson, is that he and Travis are stuck on St. Paul Island for another night. Though they may be literally stuck on the island, I can’t imagine a better place to be told I have to spend another day. Can you?
Travis in the Pribs: Part Deux
Travis’s adventures on St. Paul Island continue with this second installment from the Bering Sea. What lifer did Travis get in yesterday’s fog and wind? Read on to find out!
BONUS BIRD QUIZ! Can you identify this gull? Post your answers and justification in the comments section at the end of the post
Go West, Young Travis
This week Travis finds himself on St. Paul Island between Siberia and Alaska. Travis has some excellent companions to get him lifers including all three of the St. Paul Island Tour guides (Scott Schuette, Doug Gochfeld and Cameron Cox) and a fellow visiting ace birder Tom Johnson. Come read about Travis’s newest exploits on this most special rock in the Bering Sea…
Talk to Me of Mendocino
Back in California in mid May for a county birding trip to Lake County with John Sterling and Todd Easterla, then a pelagic trip off the Mendocino coast the following day. Sterling needed three county birds in Lake County to get to 233 which is 75% of the total county list and Todd needed nine [...]
Some Florida Specialties!
With a late evening start, my son and I had just over two hours to see how many species we could add to the Traveling Trinovid’s ever growing year list. We hoped to reach the 350 species mark with some of the 10-12 localized Florida specialty species possible in our area. It would be a race against the clock!
An Ohio Big Day! (in a big year)…
When we found out Katie Andersen & Erik Bruhnke were doing an impromptu big day, we asked if they would mind bringing our Traveling Trinovid along!
The Biggest Week at the Warbler Capital
The Leica Trinovids are no strangers to me – I’ve had the pleasure of using them under extreme field conditions for entire migration seasons at the Florida Keys Hawkwatch. I was very happy to learn I’d be carrying “Travis” the Traveling Trinovid for several days during The Biggest Week in American Birding in northwestern Ohio. I knew this would be a welcome contrast after spending the month of April in the Keys studying the ecological relationships of migratory birds in tropical rockland habitats. I’d experienced several migratory waves, particularly those of warblers arriving to Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West, and had spent plenty of time doing field sketches and paintings of warblers in South Florida habitats. It was therefore a great pleasure to fly up to Ohio following the flight of migrants as they arrived at the Warbler Capital of the World.
Crane Creek Surprise
The boardwalk at Crane Creek / Magee Marsh on the shores of Lake Erie in NW Ohio is most renowned for the warblers one sees here. In spring many thousands of these tiny, brightly-colored, winged jewels can be found here and the boardwalk fills with many human observers appreciating them. With such a great concentration [...]
David La Puma: Traveling with T-Bone on the Texas Coast
I’ve been a card-carrying Leica user since 2001 when our research lab purchased a 77mm APO-77 Televid spotting scope for our Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow research in the Florida Everglades. In 2004 I purchased my first Leica binocular, the Trinovid BN 8×42, which remains the finest piece of birding equipment that I own. So when Jeff asked me to carry T-Bone, the Traveling Trinovid, I was both honored and excited at the opportunity to get this brand new binocular (and possibly myself) some lifers.
Our second host – David La Puma
The second birder to host the Traveling Trinovid was Dr. David La Puma. David is great choice for hosting our newly famous bins. A professional ornithologist with a doctorate on Seaside Sparrows from Rutgers University, and a hardcore recreational birder participating in big day competitions, avid digiscoper, etc… the best of both worlds! It seemed [...]
In 2013 you followed the trials and tribulations of a pair of Leica Trinovid 8x42 binoculars passed from hand to hand across the Americas on a “big year” quest to see as many bird species as possible!
In 2014 we have a sleek 7x42 Ultravid HD binocular traveling the globe and soaking in many spectacular sights! Follow along with us vicariously here.
