Virginian Elk

 It all started with a chat while kayaking. Last year my wife and I went on a kayak trip at a local Nature Conservancy (TNC) property. There were about 15 of us, including a few TNC staff, in addition to our guide. During the three hour trip, I had the chance to chat with most of the participants. One of the TNC staff told me about a trip she had just taken to another TNC property in the far western corner of Virginia to see elk and said if we were interested, to let her know and she would get us included in next year’s trip. It sounded really interesting, so my wife and I put it on our fall trip-list and, after a few coordination emails, we were headed to Abingdon, VA to see elk this fall.

Tours of The Biggest Week

This is part 2 of a planned multi-part series about our trip to Ohio for the Biggest Week in American Birding. Part 1 talked about some general impressions and highlights. Today, I will share our experiences from the guided tours we took. 

We took advantage of a few types of guided tours. For some, you meet the guides at the location. Tours are generally 20 people plus two guides and last a couple of hours. We also took a couple of bus tours where you meet at the festival headquarters and they provide transportation. This is limited to about 10 people plus two guides and last half or the full day. These are typically further away and might include multiple stops. We chose two of each, and a night walk, although as I said in the previous post, we could have been just as happy with less scheduled time. 

Bird Photos [short]

 As I'm refocusing on this blog and my nature photography I will be doing bi-weekly posts here along with occasional short posts for special events or occurrences. On the off weeks, I will be adding more photographs to my Flickr feed. To help start things off, here are a few bird photographs from this year that I just uploaded. Check the feed for more. Enjoy, and be sure to return next week for the next installment from the Biggest Week In American Birding.

Pair of hooded mergansers on a local pond

Of course I include a great blue heron

Black skimmers returning to settle on the beach

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