Ann and I had an awesome day birding (and walking, and looking at the blooms) at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens today. Such a perfect day to be outside enjoying Alabama’s environment!
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Photos from Gadsden’s Mall: An Alabama Birding Trail Site
Just a couple of quick snapshots from a recent trip to the Gadsden, Alabama shopping mall. A really easy-to-access birding trail site with an almost certainty of seeing birds. Notice all the cormorants in the trees nesting!
Excellent Vacation to New England
Fall leaves, wonderful weather, great food–a surprise small earthquake–and very relaxing. Plus, got to pick up some excellent materials to use in Alabama over the next year!
Desoto State Park Birding Trip
A spring trip to Desoto State Park before heading on to Little River Canyon and a meeting of the Appalachian Highlands Birding Trail group at the Canyon Center. I remember going here as a child with my siblings and mother and father. Great times were had along the trails at Desoto State Park–every single trail…. Thanks Mama!
Birding in West Alabama
Had a great Friday several weeks ago, spending the day with Corps of Engineers folks and several folks from the Birmingham Audubon Society as we looked at Corps of Engineers properties that are potentially on the new West Alabama and Black Belt Birding Trails, all part of the Alabama Birding Trails project I’m working on with the University of Alabama Center for Economic Development in partnership with the Alabama Tourism Department.
West Alabama is filled with birds. We really couldn’t have timed it better: we saw a Bald Eagle soaring overhead, a Belted Kingfisher fishing, along with lots of smaller birds and several hundred wading birds, all in the course of a long but enjoyable day topped off with BBQ chicken in Demopolis, Alabama!
One of the photos I snapped near Backbone Creek at the edge of Marengo and Greene Counties.
National Association of Interpretation Conference 2011
Just returned from a great 5 day workshop in Saint Paul, Minnesota hosted by the National Association of Interpretation (NAI). Learned a lot about developing interpretive media for sites (from printed display panels to ipad apps), got to travel along the Mississippi River to see Bald Eagles and Tundra Swans (as well as probably 150,000 various ducks floating in rafts). Really educational AND fun trip. Met lots of really interesting folks–everyone from nature center directors to National Park Service front-line interpreters (the folks that tell you the story of the tree while you hike along) and Bureau of Land Management folks. So much stuff for us to do in Alabama!