Fences and Patterns and Textures

I love fences. Not everybody does. As I travel around, I spot fences that I like. I love fences that have been on the ground for a long time. I love fences that go up and down over hills. Sometimes I can’t tell why the fence is there because it’s falling apart or overgrown. Sometimes the purpose of the fence is perfectly clear, like to keep animals in. Sometimes I like where the fence is and what’s around it or who’s sitting on it.

I also like to photograph patterns and textures. You’ll see what I mean. I see a certain pattern and imagine throwing a frame around it and sharing it. It could be rocks, wood grains, leaves, etc. You don’t have to travel very far to take see fences and patterns. I’ve thrown in a couple of other photographic wrinkles as well, including a couple of birds.

I’m not going to write very much this time. Hope you see something you like.

forgotten fence in a grassy field

Arlyne peering over fence into the center of the world

NZ fence leading to the snows of Mt. Taranaki

fence above it all

pebbles

A fence engineered against EVERY New Zealand predator – to protect birds

fence in dry grass – lovely place to hike

holes in dry log

beautiful fence on the beach…..

New Zealand welcome swallows

somewhere in NZ…..

Not really a fence.  But little red riding hood thinks it is

spotted near a train depot

the random nature of wood chips

disappearing fence

Hope you find one you like.  I liked all these places.

Bob and Arlyne Draper – see you next time

 

International Birds

Arlyne and I enjoy traveling and birding. We’ve been quite fortunate to see great birds in wonderful places. Cameras have gotten a lot better since we started and we’ve gotten a little better as photographers. We love to photographs birds of course, but even the locations where birds live and nest and roost are often as beautiful as the creatures themselves.

Our bird lists are growing a little each year but not much lately. We keep track of the birds we’ve seen, where we were, what the birds were doing, how many there were and usually a few notes. We’re closing in on 800 birds on our life lists. Nearly half, 340, we have “collected” internationally. This sounds pretty good except there are more than 10,000 bird species in the world. We just want 1000, which would be really nice. Our best bets to increase our lists are Costa Rica and the entire east coast of the U.S., which we haven’t explored much. It’s so sad that nearby Mexico is basically out of bounds for us. We’ve read too many news accounts and talked to too many former visitors to Mexico to ever go birdwatching there. It’s too bad. Mexico is (so far) filled with exotic bird life.

Consequently, in this piece, we want to show you some of the birds we’ve seen outside the U.S. The world of birds, when I was growing up in Arizona, consisted of vultures, sparrows, red-winged blackbirds and the occasional woodpecker. I never knew birds had curved bills. Arlyne grew up in Costa Rica but was too busy growing up to check out birds. We can’t go back but we can go forward.

So this blog is an easy one. Most of you probably don’t “follow” birds like we do, but here’s your chance to see a few you may not have seen or even knew existed.

not your normal California sea gull – very cute

probably flew from Australia to NZ south island

seen in Bogota – very common but beautiful

seen while standing on a bridge over Tarcoles river

several in small park outside Bogota – very pretty

in small wetlands outside of Lima

several hopping around in a small park

seen about 50 miles north of Sydney, Australia

hiked five miles before we saw this guy

we were birding, they were working…..

this bird (believe it or not) lives in a burrow in the ground

not here but everywhere in New Zealand

We love spectacled birds. Pretty and easier to identify

I would have named it a gray-headed gull as well

island far out was first colony, pinnacle was second, birds now on mainland

gannets hovering over the pinnacle at Murawai, New Zealand

Huge bird. Seen on pelagic boat trip in Hauraki Gulf out of Auckland, New Zealand

only bird in the world with a bill that curves sideways….for turning over shells

This is really fun.  We hope to go to Costa Rica next year and get a few more bird pictures.

Bob and Arlyne Draper