Up Close and Personal

Here's another sea turtle.

But it's not from the aquarium. It's from the sea.

A Galapagos Green Turtle that Patty and I had the pleasure of swimming with in the Galapagos.

There's a rule that you are not allowed to touch the wildlife there. The wildlife have no such rule. Making for a wonderful close encounter.

Hey, I Can Do Art Too!

After several years of judging, Patty and I were again contestants in the DVOC annual members photography contest. And we both won awards, although we came up short of the grand prize.

I took first place in the Flora category, with this shot, Ninebark Flowers.

Patty took second place with Dewy Phlox.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

We flip-flopped in the Scenery category, Patty taking first place with Sedona Sky.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

And me second place, with The Bridge.

Patty also received and Honorable Mention  in the Birds category for her Juvenile Willow Ptarmigan.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

You can see a list of the winners here and the images here. Congrats to all the winners!

👩‍⚖️  👨‍⚖️  ⚖️  👨‍⚖️  👩‍⚖️

Of course, those were not the only images we entered. So here are the images which did not sufficiently impress the judges. You can decide for yourself if they are worthy or not.

Patty's entries included  these images.

In Fauna category, Io Moth.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

In Scenery, Mt Ranier.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

In Flora, Desert Fivespot.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

In Birds, Prairie Warbler ...

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

... and a baby Piping Plover.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

And in Birders, Birding in the Land of Polar Bears ...

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

... and Shooting up the Joint.

Image courtesy Patty Rehn

And my entries included the following.

In Birds, Giant Kingfisher, ...

... Yellow-billed Duck, ...

... and Blue Flower-piercer.

In Scenery, Arches Sunset.

In Fauna, Napo Tamarin.

📸  📸  📷  📸  📸

It was a fun night with many excellent photographs. And I didn't miss judging at all.

Moth Night

One evening this past March ...

... I did a bit of mothing.

Yet try as I might ...

... I've not identified a single one.

Zippo, Nada, None.

You can see they are rather distinctive.

So you'd think it would be easy.

I mean, ...

... I should at least get a couple.

Or even just one.

But nope.

All my reference works ...

... and online resources have failed me.

Of course, I was in Ecuador at the time. And the only reference work I could fine is the series Butterflies and Moths of Ecuador, which has at least twenty volumes. The most recent of which is volume 10A, which is only £78.99, plus shipping (from England).

So I guess I'll just be enjoying the pretty pictures of moth sp.

Last Bird

The last bird we saw in Ecuador was the Andean Condor, a very large bird with a wingspan of over ten feet (the world's largest bird by wingspan and weight). It was bird # 480 for the trip.

That's a lot of birds.

When we first spotted it it looked like this:

High, distant, and backlit. And unmistakable. Our guide, Juan Carlos Calvachi, excitedly called it to our attention. Two caracaras joined it in flight, raven sized birds, puny in comparison.

It then landed on a cliff face, no doubt its roost for the night, and we got good looks through a scope. This iPhone image, taken through said scope, gives an idea of what we saw.

Note the bromeliads clinging to the cliff face, they were everywhere.

After taking these images we packed up the scope, got into the car, and headed to the airport for our journey home.  It really was the last bird we saw. And it really was a great trip. We are already planning to go back.

After This ...

... we stopped using the handrails.

I mentioned tarantulas in the previous post. Patty spotted this one as we were walking to dinner at Sacha Lodge one evening.

Alas, this was the only tarantula we saw at Sacha. 

We did encounter a group coming back from a night hike who told Patty that they had seen numerous tarantulas in the forest.

Far from frightening, we thought that pretty cool. And we were bummed that we had not gone exploring in the forests surrounding the lodge at night.