More than you ever wanted to know about Alabama native Joe Watts
Other than a visit to Alabama’s Wiregrass (life bird Blue-headed Vireo!!!) and a VERY quick trip to Washington, D.C. for a National Audubon board meeting, we’ve stayed pretty close to home. Multiple trips to Flagg Mountain for a project, but otherwise Shelby County has been about as far afield as I’ve been this year. A few photos from birds near (and a little bit far).
I’ve been enjoying taking photos of birds for about 10 years now, with very varied success. Here are a few of the ones I’ve snapped through the years. I’m glad I took them all–most aren’t all that good, but it helps me remember when I saw the bird and gives me a better idea of what I was looking at!
Photos from a May trip to Shoal Creek Park. What a lovely location that we’ve recently added to the Alabama Birding Trails program. It’s really a treasure.
Wow! So many birds. In the two half day trips I was able to participate in during our board meeting in Bogota, Colombia, I managed to see 50 new species of birds! Amazing stuff! Lots of discussion of hemispheric work, the importance of habitat, etc. We discussed the importance of bird tourism to bringing people to the table and the fact that it, by itself, will never do enough to protect the birds we love or create a strong enough economy to protect the people. (It DOES make a difference, but isn’t enough to fix the issues.)
The joys of having a backyard bird bath! This Cooper’s Hawk is welcome by us, but not so much by our usual bird feeder and bird bath visitors.
