Great Backyard Bird Count
02/12/10 to 02/15/10 - The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual 4 day event that brings together data from all over the United States. The purpose of the count is to track where different species are, how climate effects the populations, how the birds are migrating etc, for more information visit the website GBBC. My personal backyard count was pretty good, I counted 12 species, including Nuthatches, Woodpeckers, Juncos, Chickadees, and a Brown Creeper. Here are 2 of my favourite back yard visitors.
Staying Local
12/09 to 01/10 - Winter is often a slow period for photography, many areas become unaccessable, and many roads a little more hazardous. I find Winter a great time to get out and explore my local area more thoroughly, especially in the snow!. I have found some great spots in and around Longmont, and always come away with a different perspective no matter how many times I visit them.
New Zealand and Australia, October 2009
10-16-09 to 10-31-09 - Not quite last minute, but nearly, we decided to head to NZ again, with a stop in Sydney. This was our second visit to NZ, the first being back in early 2007.
This trip we decided to tackle just the North Island, see our route marked in red below.
Day 1 we began our journey in Auckland, the main gateway into NZ, where we picked up our campervan from Wendekreisen. Sonci was the designated driver, and I the map reader to start with. Quite scary for Sonci driving on the Left, on a motorway through Auckland, after a 13 hour flight, but she did fine. We headed North towards Whangarei (pronounced Fangerei), the motorway quickly turned into a 2 lane winding road, and boy was the wind blowing. We made it to Whangarei in good time, stopped for Beer and groceries, and found our campground next to the wonderful Whangarei Falls.
Day 2 we headed North towards Kerikeri, stopped to see the Old Stone Store circa 1836 (NZ's oldest Stone building), and a old hilltop fort (Pa). From Kerikeri we headed West to Hokianga Harbour, then South hugging the coast through ancient Kauri Tree forests. We stopped for the night in the Trounson Kauri Park area.
Day 3 was mostly spent driving to the Coromandel Peninsula, with a stop at the Gannet Colony at Muriwai Beach along the way.
Day 4 we traveled from Coromandel over the hills to the Pacific Ocean side of the Peninsula, first stop was Cathedral Cove. This is a much photographed and iconic coastal feature of the Peninsula, little did we know it was quite the hike to reach it - and we wondered why there was a food and water stand in the car park. Well we did make it to the Cove, and it was definitely worth it, pretty amazing example of what erosion can do. From here we kept heading South until we reached Mount Maunganui, our stop for the night. Mount Mauganui is about as close as you get in NZ to a Mediterranean Beach resort, expensive apartment blocks, restaurants, and a very modern and well equiped beach side campground. The "Mount" is literally right next to the campground, and it is pretty high!.
Day 5 we headed inland to Rotorua, then South East through Te Urewera National Park on an amazing gravel road. It is quite the treat when you first get sight of Lake Waikaremoana, which was our stop for the night.
Day 6 we headed from Te Urewera towards Napier. We spent a while walking around Napier and seeing the amazing Art Deco Architecture, the town is said to be the Art Deco Capital of the World!. From Napier we headed West to the Hawkes Bay wine region, where we did some tasting at 3 great vineyards: Ngatarawa, Crossroads, and Crab Farm. Crab Farm Winery was more by chance than anything, our campground for the night was opposite the winery, and it just so happened to have a highly recommended restaurant. The restaurant was very unique and eclectic, it was kind of set up under a lean-t0, with a HUGE fire pit in the middle. It so happened that this particular Friday was the start of a NZ 3 day holiday, so the restaurant was booked solidly. By luck we arrived early, and they found us a sofa and table for us to sit and eat at, in exchange for the more casual dining furniture our wine was free. Great food, very unique and memorable!.
Day 7 we headed West towards Lake Taupo, where we stopped for groceries and a picnic by the lake. From the Lake we headed South towards Tongariro National Park, from highway 4 we got our first sight of the VERY impressive Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom). In 2007 we only got to see the base of the volcanoe, since the rest was cloud covered. This time we saw the entire cone briefly, and snow covered. We stopped a couple of times for short hikes, before reaching our campground in the National Park (my favourite campground of the trip!).
Day 8 we spent the morning doing a 6km round trip hike to Taranaki Falls, great hike through a variety of scenery. After the hike we headed North to Rotorua, spending the night at Blue Lake.
Day 9 we hiked a loop around the Redwoods park in Rotorua, then explored the "free" thermal park in town. For lunch we stopped by one of NZ's best Fish and Chip shops, then headed West to the Waikato region, and the town of Otorohanga. Otorohanga is home to "The Kiwi house", a bird sanctuary and nocturnal Kiwi house, which we visited. It just so happened there was a campground right next door to the Kiwi House, this campground was run by the two friendliest people in NZ, a Kiwi and an American. What was cool about the campground is that you can see and hear the birds from the sanctuary next door, even Kiwis and Weka's.
Day 10 we drove a loop from Otorohanga to Waitoma, to Kawhia (Kafia) and back to Otorohanga. We stopped many times for short hikes to waterfalls, caves, and scenic reserves. Unknown to us though was that the back road to Kawhia was closed for a leg of the Rally of New Zealand, and was closed to traffic evidently whilst we were on it. It was quite interesting when race official cars with flashing lights came full throttle towards us, only to screech to a halt and ask how we got on the road!. Turns out they had to halt the Rally until we reached the Start of the Stage location.
Day 11 we headed North to Auckland to drop off the camper and spend the night in a hotel, early flight next morning to Sydney.
For a photographic tour of the trip please visit the New Zealand 09 gallery.
Boreas Pass, Breckenridge
9-19-09 - Rumours that the Fall colours in Colorado would change a little early were confirmed when I traveled over Boreas Pass, but we were treated to some great reds. Boreas Pass is an old railroad bed that starts at Como, and ends in Breckenridge.
Sprague Lake , Rocky Mountain National Park
9-06-09 - September brings cooler Fall tempertaures to the mountains, but we got lucky this morning and it was in the 40's. The clouds played nicely and picked up some sunrise colours, unfortunately a slight breeze gave the lake a less than perfect glass like reflection.
Sunflowers, Longmont
8-03-09 - Since moving back to Colorado, and moving out to a more rural area, I've always wanted to find some Sunflower fields. This year thanks to another photographers help, I found some fields 15 minutes from my house, what a result!. I spent 3 days shooting these fields, sunset mainly and one sunrise, here are 3 of the best images.
Snowy Range, Wyoming
8-02-09 - July has been a busy month, and I have got behind on my blog entry's. Besides from several more sunrise trips to Rocky Mountain National Park (See Rocky Mountains gallery), we travelled up to the Snowy Range in Wyoming for the first time. This was more of a scouting trip since we didn't arrive until 2 hours after sunrise, but I'll post a couple of images here. I really like the area, lots of lakes, flowers, tarns, moose, and few people!.
Rocky Mountain National Park
6-26-09 -The past month or so my regular work schedule has meant my weekend starts on a Friday, so I have been using this additional day to avoid crowds and go out shooting. On this particular day I hedged my bets on sunrise in Moraine park, and the cool wave clouds didn't disappoint!. I was also lucky enough to have this mountain bluebird land reasonably close to me.
Cattail Pond, Longmont
6-15-09 - I recently discovered that there is an Osprey nest right on my doorstep, as far as I can tell there are 3 or 4 chicks in the nest. They are quite beautiful birds, and always fun to watch as the fly low over the pond scooping up fish. As a bonus, I captured this Great Blue Heron too one night.
The Flatirons , Boulder
6-13-09 - Mid June usually means a great time for the front range wildflowers, and this year so far has been the best in years!. Abundant Spring rainfall has meant Colorado is green and blooming. I timed this trip to the meadows with the moon aligned at sunrise too.
Walden & Sawhill Ponds, Boulder
6-9-09 & 6-10-09 - For most of June so far my photography has taken a new direction, partly due to my friend Bill Meikle. We have spent the better part of many mornings and evenings shooting Colorado's diverse range of birds along the front range. It has been a learning experience for me, photographying birds is quite different from landscapes, and requires using completely different camera control. We have visited locations in Fort Collins, and Boulder, the following collection are all from Boulder. In order the birds are as follows: Red-winged Blackbird; Yellow warbler; Eastern Kingbird; Cormorant; Great Horned Owl; Osprey.
Golden Ponds, Longmont
5-20-09 - We had guests staying for a week, and when the clouds started forming nicely for a sunset, what better way to introduce them to a Colourful Colorado evening than an evening at my local gravel pit ponds. The sky lit up above Longs and Mount Meeker, and we had quite the show.
Rocky Mountain National Park
4-13-09 - Sunday brought cloud cover and drizzle to the Front range, and forecast was for the storm to move out of the area by late night leaving clear skies. Since I had Monday off of work, I was determined to shoot sunrise somewhere. It was a last minute decision to head upto RMNP, only just made it in time to catch sunrise colour. The whole Park was a Ghost town, I had the entire trail upto Dream lake to myself. Fresh powder snow made the trail a little tricky to follow in places, but it felt wonderful being the first person to tread foot on the trail, except for some animal tracks.
Settlers park, Boulder
3-28-09 - Finally we got a decent sized Spring snow storm, bringing 10" or more to the Colorado Front Range. This was a good opportunity to get out and shoot locally, in perhaps the last snow of this season. I headed to a new location for a sunrise shoot, although I had hiked there once before 6 or so years ago. This is quite a gem, although it was hard going hiking through 18" deep snow and ice, it was well worth it.
Sawhill Ponds, Boulder
3-15-09 - A Last minute decision to take a chance on the clouds at sunset paid off, which is unusual when myself and fellow photographer Steven Peckham get together. Sawhill Ponds was the location of choice this evening; Steven had never been there so it was something new for him, and it was my first time there in probably 6 years. We were there solely to shoot the sunset and clouds, but later discovered from a friendly couple there was aso a Coyotte wandering around, and an Owl. Needless to say, we'll be back soon!.
Golden Ponds, Longmont
2-15-09 - Had arranged to meet for a sunrise shoot, but thick fog put an end to shooting any grand scenics. Instead of making getting up at 5.30 worthless, I opted to try and make the most of the rare atmospheric conditions (rare for Colorado), so I headed to Golden Ponds. I spent the best part of 2 hours exploring the 4 main pond areas, until finally the fog burnt off. The fog made for some interesting images though!.
Sandstone Ranch, Longmont
2-7-09 - Went back to Sandstone Ranch for sunrise. Forecast was for clouds to the east, which potentially could of ruined sunrise, but there was a break and the sun lit up the ranch area nicely. Clouds were hugging the Continental divide, and the sun didn't quite light up Longs peak. This is an area though I will be working with the camera alot more; I also saw white tail deer, rabbits, and many birds.
Sandstone Ranch, Longmont
2-1-09 - Took a quick hike around Sandstone Ranch Homestead in Longmont, mainly on a recon exercise for sunrise & wildlife photography. Definitely some possibilities there at sunrise, and the chance for capturing some birds on film too.
Rocky Mountain National Park
1-31-09 - Took a trip upto Rocky Mountain National Park. Left Longmont at 5am, and made it to Sprague Lake for 6.15am. The skies were clear, wind was howling, and it was frigid- not ideal conditions for capturing a spectacular sunrise!. Conversation was good though, met a couple of fellow photographers, and had a nice morning surrounded by amazing scenery.
Fort Collins
1-24-09 - Took an early morning trip to meet a fellow photographer, and fellow Brit. We spent the morning wandering around some creeks and wooded open space trails. Even though the weather was very overcast, and it was a little chilly we did run into some wildlife - Ducks and Deer.
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