It was dusk when we got to the end of the Volcanoes National Park's Crater Road. In the distance we could see the steam rising from lava flows, and below us the waves crashed on the new cliffs that mark the end of the island.

We stood there for a while, in some of the freshest air on the planet.

Suddenly there was a flicker of wings, and a small flock of dark grey birds flew out of the south, arrowing out of the sky.

They were Black Noddies, a Pacific ocean tern.





Kilauea, Hawaii
June 2009

Our street's summer visitors are back as usual, screaming their way across the summer sky. Up on the roof to catch a summer sunset, I caught one as it zipped past my lens.

Putney, London
July 2008

Laughing Gull making a close flypast.

Honeymoon Island, Florida
June 2008

Today was our last day on the Gulf Coast, and despite the rainy start we ended up on yet more barrier islands. This time we drove over the Sunshine Skyway bridge to near St Petersburg. It's a spectacular drive, all causeways and low bridges until you climb up over the main span of the bridge.

I wasn't expecting to see more skimmers, but a beach near an old fort turned out to be one of their daytime resting places, and I was able to get quite close (with a nice long lens). On the ground they look like Spike Milligan's Milliganimal birds, all legs akimbo and looking rather unbalanced - quite the contrast to the grace of their flight.



Someone disturbed them, and the whole flock floated into the air for a moment, before descending to form in ranks, all facing out to sea.



Beautiful birds. I'm glad I've seen them.

WES this year was, as always, excellent. We got access to many of the people we wanted to talk to, including sessions with the co-CEOs of RIM, talking about the future of Blackberry and the role of the smartphone in a connected contextual world. It's left me with a lot to think about and the inklings of a thesis I want to explore in articles and blog entries over the next few months.

WES, also, was self-contained, and we didn't leave the air-conditioned halls of the combined hotel and conference centre from the moment we arrived (escaping the dodgy taxi driver who stiffed us $30 while accusing us of under-paying) to the point nearly four days later where I had to go ask the folk at the rental car agency just how to release the parking brake on the mini-van they'd just upgraded us to (there's a lever above the foot pedal for the parking brake that releases it)...

So we drove west, across the narrow peninsula, to one of my favourite coastlines, the white soft beaches and azure seas of the sand keys of Florida's Gulf Coast.

Currently we're on Anna Maria Island, where I spent a pleasant sunset chatting to a local photographer and twitcher about the various sea birds that made their way along the beaches. Coal-black frigate birds drifted effortlessly overhead on long thin wings, while brown pelicans bobbed their way up and down, alternately skimming the waves and soaring.

The stars of the show were the skimmers, with their strange asymmetric beaks - the lower portion much longer than the upper - and their striking black and white plumage. It was when the beaks hit the water that you could see why they were shaped the way they were. Open-mouthed the skimmers shot across the surface of the waves, leaving a wake as they aimed to catch fish swimming just below the surface.

Alone they were impressive, in formation they were amazing. Banking sharply they wove around each other, all the while skimming the waves.



If you're ever in Florida, this part of the Gulf Coast is well worth the two hour drive from the tourist hotspots of Orlando.

On our last full day in the US, we stood on the edge of the stormy Pacific and watched yet another storm system roll on to shore. The winds whipped up the waves, and torqued the gulls around the sky.

Pebble Beach, San Mateo, California
January 2008

We spent yesterday at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, where I met this fine bird.





She's a Laysan Albatross, one of the North Pacific species. Sadly she's been injured so, can't fly.

Monterey Bay Aquarium
January 2008

...if a woodpecker could peck telegraph poles?



A woodpecker with a bright scarlet cap, seen on a pole in Paso Robles, outside the delightful Norman winery, home of the cracking Monster zinfandel. If you're nice to us we might just let you try some...

Paso Robles, California
January 2008

A california condor drifts slowly through the mists over Nepenthe, in the Big Sur.

Big Sur, California
September 2007

Down below us the massive shape of a condor was circling, its wings spread wide to catch the plentiful thermals.

Looking out across the Grand Canyon from near Bright Angel Lodge.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
June 2007

On our first trip to New Zealand we only saw tui once, deep in a dark rain forest near Rotorua. This time it was different, as the native flax was in flower, and the beautiful blue-green birds with the white neck tufts were taking advantage of the season to eat pollen and drink nectar. Their strange call twittered and boomed around the forests and flashes of bright colour leapt across the roads.

Here's one we saw at Marahau, on the edge of the Abel Tasman National national park.



( More tui, getting its head into a flower... )

Beautiful birds.

Walking through Embankment Gardens, I just watched a young thrush taking a cooling shower in a fountain...

A most unexpected behaviour.

[Edit: what was unespected was the fact that it was darting in and out of an intermittent fountain - coming in when it was active, moving out when it wasn't. So it was aware of the pattern and watching for changes.]

Mating swallows.

Jersey
April 2006

I caught this little chap at just the right time...

A jay, in a marina at Fort Lauderdale. April 2006

I'm currently sat in a meeting room on top of a Soho Square building watching a sparrow hawk stunt around the Centrepoint tower.

Beautiful.

Plus of course the joys of the 3G data on my laptop