On my most recent trip to southeastern Brazil I hooked up with two local birders/guides via the *Birdingpal website.  Gustavo, our driver and interpreter, was joined by his friend and bird guide, Luciano.  It was only for a day so being with the local birders allowed for quick identification and saved time getting to the specific birding locations.  I came up with 120+ species, not including how many birds were heard – tack on another 30+.  At just 'one' of our stops Luciano

When driving through mountain slopes of eucalypt forest, with Pretty-faced Wallabies ( Natamocropus parryi ) greeting you along the way, how can you not be anxious - especially after a thirty-six-year hiatus!   We make a sudden stop for the presiding ‘King of the Road,” an impressive Lace Monitor ( Varanus varius ), then slowly creep forward to persuade it to give up the throne.  A gain in altitude realizes a greater variety of trees, where cooler moist air hosts rainforest

Today’s venture may not be a pristine ‘hike in the great outdoors,’ but a walk along fields of rice amid swaths of oak and bamboo offers plenty of activity for hours on end.  This quilt work is indicative of the Chiba Prefecture of Japan, which is about a 90-minute drive west of Tokyo.  It harbors the Narita International Airport (NRT) that has brought commerce into this farming community.  Expansion continues to bulldoze these verdant pastures; however, the remaining country

Springtime in the temperate parts of the world is from late March to early June; it is a time of transition. Here in North America birds...

Seeing is believing!  Across a ways, on the highest branch sits a Red-tailed Hawk ( Buteo jamaicensis ).  A lone Crow ( Corvus...

Comes the month of May, the lakefront parks along Chicago’s eastern boundaries become magnets for our neotropical migrants; the contour...

Mid-March in Buenos Aires signals that summer is coming to an end.  So for the next two days I am excited to see what new brush strokes...

A Botanical Garden is a piece of art. It is an illustration of man’s imagination utilizing nature’s design as its center piece.  The...

How can one not be amazed with your first encounter of a Blue-faced Honeyeater? Peering into that penetrating yellow eye, augmented by...

Imagine sleek lines of a tiny duck with a vibrant color scheme of iridescent feathers that is topped off with an incredible headdress...

After arriving at the hotel, we quickly changed our clothes, grabbed our packs and went directly back to the airport, more specifically,...

The shroud of moisture tries its best to not surrender to the rising sun; it feels as if one is peering into another dimension - a lone...

“How long has it been?“ I knew you were going to ask me that, so yesterday I had to go check on my lifelist knowing it was when I...

Until 1988, the San Joaquin Gun Club used this area for recreational duck hunting for more than 60 years. Eventually, urban sprawl swayed...

Grevillea spartina is a tree native to Australia, with an ancient lineage.  It has atypical blooms, no petals, instead the calyx are...

What a wonderful way to end the day, strolling along the Kealia Coastal Boardwalk.  Actually, our arrival on Maui allowed us about two...

Tremulous night sounds drift into the dawn, the horizon captures the first light of the rising sun; her soul, its warmth, emanating within the distant clouds.  Lilts from larks and longspurs rejoice in the stillness of this wind-swept land. As shadows gravitate towards my body, thermals rise, a stiff breeze begins to unfurl; blowing thru reeds like a woodwind instrument, the undulating sound ebbs and flows with each passing breeze.  A harrier skirts across this rolling sea of

“Spring is in the air!”  Well, it is actually the aves that are, literally.  And one could not ask for a more suitable representative...

Please do not be alarmed as I am not inferring to a cannibalistic condition of our fellow man, rather the carnivorous diet of certain...

“Senior, adonde vas?” “Sie, Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur .” We will see which entrance/road the taxi driver takes me; he takes...