Highlights include Royal Albatross, Little Blue Penguins, and fur seals.
We spent the better part of a day in Dunedin, on the southeastern coast of New Zealand. To reach Dunedin, which is at the head of a long, narrow harbor, we sailed along the Otago Peninsula, which turned out to be where we spent much of our time on-shore today. After a brief visit to the historic train station in downtown Dunedin, next to the harbor, we rode coaches all the way back to the seaward tip of the Otago Peninsula… where we had the opportunity to visit two wildlife sanctuaries.
A strange encounter with a seagull.
Part of a series of posts about my travel in Iceland, including visits to eleven waterfalls.
I was very nervous about visiting this waterfall. From the guidebook description it sounds fascinating, with a challenging approach through a deep ravine. In one section, you can only progress further by holding a chain and doing a sort-of layback along the left edge of the ravine, bypassing a deep pool and a small cascade. Despite passing all those tests, last year my son managed to dislocate both shoulders(!) merely by leaning down to drink from the stream here. Today, as I drove alone up the rough gravel road to this remote location, and seeing only one other person on site, I was wary about a slip or mistake that might leave me injured. Spoiler: I survived unscathed 🙂
Two peaks with famous views, on a day without views.
As I drove past Mount Cube on NH Route 25A, early this morning, I noted that the cloud deck was low. Very low. Indeed, all the way down to the road! The view of Mount Moosilauke, to which drivers are treated as they round the bend at the height of land on this sector of Route 25A, was simply a wall of white. And the subsequent view of Mount Cube – although it is much closer – was a fuzzy mix of green hillside and puffy white clouds, some of which touched the road in front of me. I was headed for a hike, deeper in the White Mountains, in hopes of summiting two of the peaks on the “52 With a View” list. These steamy morning conditions did not portend well for good views today. Read on to see what happened!
Wildlife and Fourth of July holiday in South Carolina.
We spent a few days in Charleston SC around the Fourth of July holiday. It allowed me to enjoy time with family, swimming and boating on the Ashley River, dining in some excellent restaurants, and photographing wildlife.
Christmas on Kiawah Island – and wildlife photography.
We spend nearly every Christmas on Kiawah Island, South Carolina. One of the “sea islands” that form a chain of barrier islands near Charleston, Kiawah is heavily developed with vacation homes and golf courses… but is also carefully managed for green spaces and wildlife. As a result, it is a beautiful place to explore and to photograph wildlife. I enjoyed the perching birds (hawk, osprey, herons) and the shorebirds. But… read on!
Continue reading “Kiawah Island, SC”Happy Thanksgiving!
I spent Thanksgiving week in San Francisco and San Jose – the first half working remotely from a hotel; the second half with family for the holiday. I had a few opportunities to get out and make some photographs, and share a gallery with photos from four experiences: a south-Indian restaurant in San Francisco; planes and shorebirds (and the people who watch them!) at SFO airport; fall foliage in suburban San Jose; and the massive, ancient trees of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, over in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Enjoy!
Who knows why, but the osprey have moved on.
It has been 10 days since I last saw the osprey building a nest, just upriver from here. Unfortunately, they seem to have given up and sought a better location. I saw one osprey, in flight, over the weekend – but not near the nest. One day, when I went to investigate, I found this fellow sitting in a nearby tree. I imagine eagles and osprey compete for territory – they both dine primarily on fish, especially when living alongside a river – and so the osprey may have been pushed out.
Notice the small, dark bird above and to his left. They both sat in contented companionship for tens of minutes, while I watched.
Continue reading “Eagle replaces Osprey?”A new couple is building a home in our neighborhood.
When I row my shell upriver, I pass a manufactured nesting platform – a tall telephone pole with a crude wooden frame nailed on top. It stands on a tiny spit of land, adjacent to the river, and separated from River Road by a small wetland favored by ducks and redwing blackbirds. The pole was placed there by NH Fish & Game to encourage osprey to nest here… but I’ve only seen it occupied once in 25+ years. Last week, as I rowed by, I saw a few dead sticks sitting atop the platform. Hey! That’s new. I paused. Sure enough, a few moments later, an osprey flapped by, carrying a stick, and added it to the growing pile. I rowed quickly home, grabbed my camera gear, and drove up the road where I could get a better view. Over the course of three mornings, I’ve enjoyed watching the two osprey as they build their nest. They don’t need to look far for materials – I’ve seen them flap over to a neighboring snag, grab a dead branch with their talons, snap it off, and bring it back. It is slow, methodical work! Check out the photo gallery, including a video.
From what Wikipedia says about osprey, it sounds like they may be here for another 10-15 weeks until the nest is built, eggs are laid, and chicks are fledged. Many more photos to come!
I also discovered the Osprey Watch website – I’ll check that out next week.
I was back in South Carolina for the Christmas holiday and had a chance to explore some of the wildlife around Kiawah Island and Magnolia Plantation, both near Charleston. The gallery shows some of my favorite photos from that week… deer, ducks, alligators, herons, and seagulls. I especially enjoyed watching a pair of blue herons going about the construction of their nest. They seemed to be taking their time, slowly building it one tiny stick at a time.
Wrapping it all up – with the best photos!
Well, that about wraps it up folks. I’ve just finished blogging about our February-March trip to South Georgia Island and the Falkland Islands. (It’s now mid-June, and I’ve been backdating the posts to keep them in chronological sequence with the trip.) If you’ve landed on this post and want to read the whole story in order, start here.
During the trip I snapped over 10,000 photos and videos. I kept about 2,900, and posted about 400 in the galleries associated with this blog. Four percent – not bad. But I have one final gallery for you: my 40 favorite photographs. Enjoy!
David Kotz 