February 25, 2010 - Oregon and Washington
As promised, photos from the remainder of my Pacific Northwest trip are
now online.
February 3, 2010 - New Birds Page!
I finally found time to implement a change I've been planning for a while.
All of my bird photos are now linked from a single taxonomic list. The
new system will make it easier for editors and other customers to find
images of particular species. The old set of bird galleries is still up, since
these galleries are good for casual browsing of pretty birds, though not so
good for quickly locating a particular species.
January 30, 2010 - Vancouver Island
I spent a week and a half in the Pacific Northwest over the holidays, and
while there had the opportunity to take a brief trip to Vancouver Island.
Photos from the island are now online, and photos from the rest of the
trip will be posted shortly.
December 22, 2009 - California
Pictures from my California trip have been posted in two new galleries -
grebes through gulls and hummingbirds through sparrows. I've birded
Southern California quite a bit in years past, and most of the areas I
visited on this trip were areas I was already familiar with, but it was my
first photography trip to California, so I was able to photograph quite a
few species for the first time. I saw some gorgeous scenery in
Anza-Borrego and Joshua Tree as well, but for some reason I wasn't in the
mood to work on landscapes... too many birds to work on, I suppose.
November 21, 2009
I got back late last night from a week in Southern California, and will be
posting photos soon. Before I get to those, I am posting some older
photos that had not yet appeared here. 2008 was a very busy year for me,
and in my struggles to keep my image posting on pace with my
photography, lots of images went overlooked. I'm taking the opportunity
to fix that by posting two new galleries - one with new bird photos from
2008, and one with new non-bird photos from 2008.
October 12, 2009 - Texas
Images from my third annual late April trip to the Upper Texas Coast
have been posted in two new galleries - cormorants through shorebirds
and gulls through blackbirds. I went for a full week this time, but
weather wasn't as cooperative as in past trips, and I didn't fare as well as I
did in 2008. Strong south winds persisted the entire week, so most
migrants blew overhead and most of the mudflats (what little remains
after Hurricane Ike) were underwater. It wasn't the best week to be
shooting there, but there are always plenty of birds around to work with,
so even though the trip wasn't as productive as last year, I certainly didn't
come home empty-handed. Haven't decided yet whether I'll make the
trip a fourth time next year, or branch out to somewhere new.
August 9, 2009
Images from a late spring trip to the Delaware Bay are now online.
August 2, 2009
Contrary to reports you may have heard, I have not fallen off the face of
the earth. I have, however, moved to a slightly different part of the earth,
and it may take me a bit of time to get back up to speed again. In the
mean time, I still have photos from the spring that I am working on, and
that I hope to share with you soon.
June 2, 2009 - New Mexico and Colorado
The gallery added today covers late winter and early spring in Colorado
and Northern New Mexico. Additional photos from New Mexico, Texas,
Maryland, and Delaware will be posted as time permits.
February 19, 2009 - Colorado
Images from a long weekend trip through Colorado are now online. The
first half of the trip was spent photographing Rosy-Finches and Pine
Grosbeaks in the Elk Range, while the second half was devoted to looking
for White-winged Crossbills on Grand Mesa. I found only a few
White-wings, and they weren't particularly cooperative, but Red
Crossbills were present in abundance and posed on a few occasions for
my camera. Unfortunately, most of my best opportunities with Red
Crossbills came when the birds were coming down from the treetops to
eat grit scattered on the roadways (grit aids their digestion), putting them
in danger from careless drivers. In the space of an hour I found six
crossbills struck by cars along a short stretch of the road, including three
struck by a single vehicle. I carried the injured birds to a snow bank, and
three of the six were eventually able to fly off, but the other three never
regained consciousness. Countless numbers of crossbills, redpolls, and
other finches are killed every year by drivers who don't care enough to
slow down for them.
January 25, 2009 - New Mexico
With the New Mexico gallery added today, Tringa.org is up to date again.
I bet it won't last long.
January 24, 2009
The remainder of the Oregon photos, as well as a few photos from a
holiday trip to Edmonton, are now posted.
January 22, 2009 - Northeast Minnesota
I'm going a bit out of order with my updates at the moment - I have a big
backlog of photos to work through from New Mexico, Oregon, and
Alberta, but I enjoyed my recent Minnesota trip so much that I decided to
work through those images first. Photos from this very, very cold trip to
the northeastern part of the state (Saint Louis and Lake counties) are now
online. I was mostly aiming for boreal finches, and was able to
photograph three of the species I'd hoped for - Pine Grosbeak and
Common and Hoary Redpolls. My fourth target, White-winged Crossbill,
eluded my camera, but hopefully I'll get some more chances at them later
this winter. Of course, given the extreme conditions (extreme even by
northern Minnesota standards!), I was pretty happy just to make it
through without too much frostbite. I was also happy to get to enjoy the
beautiful spruce, tamarack, and birch forests, which were breathtakingly
lovely in the snow. I do love the boreal forests!
January 6, 2009 - Northwest Oregon
Lots of new photos are on the way, but I won't have time to get them all
uploaded for some time yet. I did scrape together a new gallery for the
first half of my recent trip to Northwest Oregon, but the rest of the
Oregon photos, along with more from New Mexico and from Alberta,
will have to wait for now.
November 29, 2008 - Central and Northern New Mexico
I split up my photos from the last two months into two separate galleries,
one for Central New Mexico and one for Northern New Mexico. After
some beautiful time photographing fall color in early October, I didn't do
much local photography for the rest of the month, largely since I spent
half of it on Oahu and Hawai'i. November has been a good month
locally, though, with wonderful conditions at Bosque del Apache, some
fun sessions with Wood Ducks, and the usual birds of the Jemez
Mountains.
October 28, 2008 - Hawai'i
I spent last week on the big island of Hawai'i. I had little luck with the
endemic forest birds, and spent only limited time with other birds, but
the non-avian aspects of the trip were great. Especially the lava!
Spending a whole night standing on a mountainside, on a few inches of
solidified lava over a great molten flow, with my tripod feet melting,
breathing sulfur fumes and watching the trees in the forest blaze up, was
an experience I'll not soon forget. What a spectacular place. I hope to
have many more opportunities to visit there in the future. For now, here
are photos from the trip.
October 1, 2008 - Wildflowers
Late summer is a great time for wildflowers in the mountains of Northern
New Mexico. I just added a new gallery with a few images from right
here in town - mostly wildflowers, but with the obligatory couple of
birds. One of these days I'll post an update gallery without any birds...
really I will...
September 23, 2008 - Great Plains
New galleries have been added with images from two trips to Maxwell
NWR and environs, including prairie dogs, pronghorns, a variety of
sparrows, and a few other subjects. The first trip was especially good,
with the opportunity to photograph Sabine's Gulls and a Baird's Sparrow.
The second trip was intended to be focused more intensely on sparrows,
but they weren't as cooperative as hoped, though I did get a few photos.
In addition to these trips to the plains, I've also been doing some
photography here in the mountains, the results of which will be posted
within a few weeks (or months, depending on how busy I am).
August 8, 2008 - Southeast Arizona
With the gallery added today, from Southeast Arizona, Tringa.org is now
completely up to date! Yay! Time to get out in the field and start falling
behind again...
August 3, 2008
At long last, Tringa.org has been updated. It's still not completely up to
date, but at least now it is close. Two new galleries were added today:
one from my April trip to the Upper Texas Coast, and one with
miscellaneous pictures from around New Mexico (and one picture from
Colorado), spanning March - June. I've recently taken a two-month
photography hiatus, while I attend to the work that I actually get paid for,
but I'm hoping to get back to photography later this summer or in early
fall.
May 1, 2008 - Finches of Northern New Mexico
It's been a finchy couple of months in Northern New Mexico! Starting in
late winter we had a big movement of Cassin's Finches into the area, and,
a short time later, numerous Evening Grosbeaks appeared. At the same
time, Rosy Finches continued on in the high mountains. More recently,
I've been noticing good numbers of Pine Siskins in the area, but so far this
spring they have eluded my camera (though the complete finches gallery
has images of them from last fall and earlier). The gallery added today
contains only my recent finch photos. I've also been photographing the
local warblers, sparrows, and other birds, but I haven't had time to
process and upload those images yet. Four fantastic days of photography
on the Upper Texas Coast last weekend has only added to the backlog of
images. My new computer will be arriving next week, and image
processing should proceed at a much higher rate once I have it set up, so I
hope to get this site up to date soon.
March 18, 2008
Although Sandia Crest is famous for its abundant Rosy Finches, I have
found them to be difficult subjects to photograph. After many trips and
many hours of photography, most of them fruitless, I have finally taken
some Rosy Finch photos that I hope show the beauty of these
alpine-dwelling birds. They are posted along with a few other photos in a
new gallery. Most of my time spent photographing Rosy Finches was at
Sandia Crest, but I also had some productive sessions in the Sangre de
Cristo Mountains. I would love to visit the Rosy Finches again before
they depart for the year, but I'm not sure I'll have time to do it. At least I
finally have some photos I'm happy with, which will make it much easier
to wait for the return of the Rosy Finches next winter.
February 28, 2008 - South Texas
Photos from my recent South Texas trip have now been posted. This was
my second trip to the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and I enjoyed revisiting
several of my favorite places from my previous trip in 2003. I also
explored a few new areas that I thought would be good for photography.
Green Jays, Kiskadees, and Chachalacas proved to be every bit as
abundant and delightful as on my previous trip, and I also got to see some
of the rarer lower valley specialties, such as Tropical Parula and
Clay-colored Robin. One of my all-time favorite birding areas,
Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, has changed quite a bit in the last
five years - the old trailer loop is no more, and you can no longer drive
through the park - but for those who don't mind a lot of walking it
continues to be a great area for birding and photography. Quinta
Mazatlan proved to be excellent for photography as well. I had only four
days on this trip, which sadly limited the number of places I could visit,
and I never even made it to some of my favorite lower valley spots, such
as Santa Ana NWR. Revisiting those places will have to wait until next
winter at the earliest.
January 29, 2008
Two new galleries have been added recently: one with photos from a
variety of Central New Mexico locations including Sandia Crest, Bosque
del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and White Sands National
Monument, and one with photos from a holiday trip to Oregon. I'm
hoping to make at least one more Sandia Crest trip this winter, since I feel
that my Rosy Finch pictures don't come close to doing these remarkable
birds justice. Also in the plans is a South Texas trip in mid-February.
November 14, 2007
The first batch of November pictures have now been posted in a new
gallery. Most of these are from last weekend's trip to Bosque del Apache
NWR and the Magdalena Mountains, along with a few pictures from Los
Alamos County. I am planning to take the next week off from work and
devote almost all of it to photography, so with luck I will soon have a
bunch more pictures to add to the gallery.
November 6, 2007
I have added an October gallery with pictures from Colfax and Los
Alamos Counties. My weekend trip to Colfax County was fantastic. I
spent the days dodging tumbleweed, looking for owls in the few stands of
trees at Maxwell National Wildlife Refuge, watching pronghorns and
jackrabbits dash across the plains, and hanging out in one of my favorite
towns - the prairie dog town north of Springer Lake. Nightfall brought
gorgeous sunsets and the Orionid meteor shower. I saw spectacular fall
colors on my drive home over the Sangre de Cristos, but heavy overcast
and a snowstorm kept me from taking many pictures.
September 28, 2007
I've added some more bird pictures, along with one flower, to the
September Northern New Mexico gallery. These are all from Guaje
Canyon and Rendija Canyon, in the Santa Fe National Forest just north of
Los Alamos.
September 16, 2007
Pictures from a variety of northern New Mexico locations, including
Wheeler Peak, Bandelier National Monument, Santa Fe National Forest,
and Los Alamos are now online. The heavy rains of the last month have
given rise to a great wildflower bloom here in Los Alamos and the
surrounding areas, of which I've posted several pictures. There are also
some bird pictures, of course. As always, I welcome all comments.
Contact info can be found on the about page.
August 21, 2007
Pictures from last week's trip to southeastern Arizona are now online. I
started the trip Wednesday morning in Portal, on the eastern edge of the
Chiricahuas, then spent the next few days shooting in the Huachucas and
the Santa Ritas, before returning to the Chiricahuas for Sunday morning
and afternoon. This was my first bird photography in two and a half
months, and it felt great to be out in the field again.
June 6, 2007
I have added a new gallery with photos from my recent Minnesota trip.
Warblers were the focus of the trip, and though I wasn't as successful as I
had hoped, I did get a few acceptable pictures. I spent a week in the
woods, mostly shooting in the inland boreal forests north of Lake
Superior, but also working in the deciduous forests along the north shore.
I had a great time and saw lots of interesting wildlife, including two
species of fox, several moose, and a black bear, though I wasn't able to
photograph most of these. I also enjoyed walking through miles and
miles of beautiful forest. The spruce and tamarack bogs are one of my
favorite types of habitat, and would be even without all the interesting
wildlife they hold. Although I enjoyed the scenery immensely, the
photography wasn't always easy. The sky was heavily overcast for most
of the trip, with rain most of the day on several days, and I had very little
light to work with. Still, the light I had was of good quality for showing
warbler colors, and it was a lot better than direct sunlight would have
been. A bigger challenge was getting my subjects to cooperate. Although
I found lots of male warblers vociferously defending their territories, they
tended to do it from high up in the trees. I encountered twenty warbler
species on the trip, and hundreds of individual birds, but only a few came
low and close enough for photographs, and even then they rarely sat still
for more than a few seconds. Even when they weren't cooperating, I still
enjoyed getting to watch them, and I learned quite a bit about warbler
songs. We'll see how much of it I still remember next spring, when I'll
surely take some more trips back east for migrant and breeding warblers.
May 17, 2007
A few photos from Illinois in early May have now been posted here.
Although I was in Illinois for a week and a half, work was my first
priority, followed by visiting friends, so I didn't have a lot of time to
spend with the birds. Still, I did enjoy a few magical mornings full of
migrant warblers in Crystal Lake Park, and even got a few pictures.
Hopefully I'll get some better pictures on my upcoming Minnesota trip, in
which I'll be spending a full week in the north woods looking for warblers
and other birds on their breeding grounds.
April 27, 2007
I spent last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shooting on the Texas coast
southeast of Houston, and selected photos from this trip have now been
uploaded. My main goal on this trip was to photograph warblers, and in
this respect, the trip was a complete bust! The upper Texas coast is
famous for hordes of migrant warblers, especially when bad weather
grounds them following their migration across the Gulf, but the weather
was good the whole time I was there, and warblers were few and far
between. A few warblers finally started showing up on Sunday,
including a particularly lovely Cerulean Warbler, but none came down
low enough in the trees for photographs. Fortunately, the upper coast is
loaded with birds even when migrants are scarce, so I had plenty of
subjects to work with. I spent about half my time on High Island, where I
photographed Roseate Spoonbills and other waders at a rookery, as well
as tanagers, grosbeaks, and buntings that were feeding on fruiting
mulberry trees. The rest of my time was divided between Anahuac NWR
and the Bolivar Peninsula. In addition to good photography I had some
great birding, with 112 species sighted on my first day. I didn't bother to
count after that, but Saturday and Sunday were similarly productive.
Waders were particularly evident - I saw 15 species, almost all the
normally occurring North American wader species. The only ones I
missed were American Bittern and Glossy Ibis. The total diversity of birds
was higher than I would have expected, considering the lack of warbler,
vireos, and flycatchers, and I didn't have nearly enough time to properly
enjoy it. Two species, Wilson's Plover and Fulvous Whistling-Duck, were
completely new to me, and I also got to hear the famous "tapping stones"
call of the Yellow Rail for the first time. I saw four Yellow Rails in a single
day at Anahuac, which triples the total I've seen in my life. In addition to
birds, wildflowers were plentiful everywhere I went, but I couldn't tear
myself away from the birds long enough to photograph them. If only I'd
had a few weeks instead of three days!
April 24, 2007
Pictures from my recent trip to southeastern New Mexico have now been
uploaded. I photographed Lesser Prairie-Chickens on a lek east of
Roswell on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning (the 13th through the
15th). On Friday I birded some in the afternoon at Bitter Lake NWR, but
rain and high winds kept me from doing any photography. On Saturday
afternoon I visited Carlsbad Caverns, then went to nearby Rattlesnake
Springs for a couple hours in the evening. I didn't even bother to get my
camera out at Rattlesnake Springs, since I didn't have much time, but the
birding was good and it looks like it could be a good destination for a
future photo trip. Notable birds there included several Vermilion
Flycatchers, Summer Tanagers, a Bell's Vireo, and a Hooded Oriole. On
Sunday afternoon I finally did some photography at Bitter Lake NWR,
where I had a lucky encounter with a Scaled Quail and some good
photo-ops with Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets. I also had my
closest ever encounter with a Rattlesnake at Bitter Lake. Thank goodness
they warn before striking! Last weekend I had a fun and productive trip
to the upper Texas coast, and now that my southeast New Mexico images
are posted I am working on processing the images from my Texas trip.
April 11, 2007
I added a new gallery today, mostly of pictures from the Jemez
Mountains and other areas around Los Alamos, but also including a few
Rosy Finch pictures from Sandia Crest in early March. Photographing the
Rosy Finches was frustrating. Most of the birds in the area have been
banded, and it was difficult to find any non-banded individuals to
photograph. I'm planning to go back next November, and hopefully I'll
be able to photograph the hatch-year birds before they are banded. Aside
from the Rosy Finches, I haven't done any significant bird photography
since February. That will change this weekend, when I head down to the
Lesser Prairie-Chicken leks east of Roswell. In addition to Prairie
Chickens, I'll be looking for shorebirds at nearby Bitter Lake, and
landbirds at Rattlesnake Springs. Even more exciting is my trip planned
for the following weekend, when I'll be looking for warblers and other
migrants on the upper Texas coast.
All photographs copyright of Jacob S. Spendelow, Tringa.org