Birds, birds, birds! Everywhere we look there are birds.

Birds live in practically every environment. Birds live in the forest, in swamps, in the desert, in the fields, on the water, at the beach and around the lake. We see birds in the parks, we see them in the parking lots, we see them when we are driving, we can see them in the back yard without even leaving the house and we see them when we travel.

Birds are so common that we see them all of the time but we don’t really notice them.

Most of my life I was just like that, I never paid any attention to the birds that were all around me. The first time I really noticed birds was when I lived in Trinidad and Tobago. There were so many really colorful birds. After my time in Trinidad, I started looking for birds every time I traveled.

During the pandemic, I spent a lot of time in the urban parks, state parks and nearby wildlife reserves and wow there are a lot of beautiful birds close to my home also. My revelation about birds has made me a bird enthusiast.

I still consider myself primarily a traveler and photographer but I always keep a sharp eye out for wildlife including birds.

In my travels and now near my home, I have photographed a lot of birds! For some time I have struggled with trying to include my bird photos into my website without compromising the intent of focusing on travel destinations.

Over the past few months I have developed a group of pages on my website that are dedicated to birds around the world. Each page features birds that fit into a specific set of bird characteristics. The bird pages that I have included in my website are:

• Birds of prey
• Blackbirds
• Cardinals and Tanagers
• Doves and Pigeons
• Fast aerial feeders
• Finches and Sparrows
• Flycatchers
• Honeyeaters and Sunbirds
• Hummingbirds
• Kingfishers
• Parrots and Toucans
• Perching birds (large)
• Perching birds (medium)
• Perching birds (small)
• Seabirds
• Shorebirds
• Terrestrial birds
• Underwater birds of prey
• Wading birds
• Waterfowl
• Woodpeckers

At the time of this post there are  400 bird species included in the website that are featured in over 1600 photos. I will continue to add more species to these pages and upgrade to better photos as I see more birds or take better photos. These bird pages can be seen by clicking on the photo below or by going to the wildlife tab on the top selection bar and then going to the main bird page.

Hopefully this solution will allow my readers that are fellow bird enthusiast to enjoy my bird encounters without taking away from the primary intent of featuring travel topics.

The Dust on My Shoes

I have been a world traveler almost my entire adult life. I am amazed by the different cultures, architecture, food, nature and wildlife that I have seen in my travels. The pandemic has prevented me from traveling to many destinations that was on my schedule. During this time I changed my focus from foreign travel to domestic sites to see and even local things that are so common to me that I never took the time to notice.

Each bird photo designates a location where the photo was taken. Almost all of the photos that are designated as “Texas” were taken within 50 miles of my home. There are over 600 species of birds that can be seen in Texas. Many birds are residents of Texas, others spend their summer or winter here and some only stay a few weeks as they migrate through.

I love to travel and hopefully I will be able to resume my normal travels soon but my recent experience has taught me that there are endless things to see and do without flying for hours and staying in hotel rooms.

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

I have always been an outdoorsman. I like beautiful scenery and I have always had an appreciation for wildlife. My recent experiences have forced me to focus on the small details that I overlooked for so long.

We live in an amazing world, even the parts of it that are close to us!