A birdwatcher's diary

I've not been birding, well not much anyway. One of the main reasons in Boulder was snow and below freezing temperatures, the second was lack of transportation. I think I'm slowly getting used to both in a reluctant sort of way. But I'm taking a lesser number of courses this time and the big burden of the M.Phil defense is now behind me. I hope I can get out a bit more this semester.

Read a couple of great books though, so I thought I'd blog about those. The first was "Loke Wan Tho's Birds", a coffee-table book sent to me for my birthday. It includes some of Loke Wan Tho's (LWT) black and white bird photographs and excerpts from his diary. I loved the bird photos, many of them taken during the field surveys with Salim Ali. He describes his first visit to the Rann of Kutch:


He has several interesting tales about birding with Salim Ali and there's one photograph in the book that I really loved- probably taken by someone other than LWT? It shows LWT and SA walking purposefully down a long road leading down a slope. It's titled 'Walking the Mile' and it seems to capture the adventure, hardship and excitement that exploration entails. 
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The second was Aldo Leopod's 'A Sand County Almanac', which I picked up at the visitor centre in Glacier NP (never got round to blogging about that trip!). The book is a classic and also has a couple of essays that describe in detail some of Leopold's ideas about conservation. For him, equally relevant are education and the ability to be perceptive about nature. But most importantly perhaps, the ability to be humble. Here, he talks about different kinds of outdoor recreation from hunting to birdwatching to isolation and a sense of community with the land.


There are many other insights in his essays, reflections of a scientist's mind and the experience of managing the wilderness areas in the U.S. In addition of course are the nature essays, which are hard to quote as there are so many things he describes pithily and tenderly. I'm happily re-reading this one.

A separate entry for the beautiful Cottonwood tree, which is fast becoming a big favourite with me. We saw a lot of these trees with leaves turned completely yellow because of the fall season.

I decided to stop sulking and get out -- and it did me a lot of good. I went with my room mate's host family to Grand Junction-about a 4 hour drive from Boulder last weekend. It was an interesting drive as we climbed 11,000 ft and then back down again. We effectively travelled through winter in the high passes to early fall in the foothills on the other side. That was fun.

Observing the changes in habitat was also interesting. The coniferous forests gave way to hills covered with sage brush(?) and then to almost arid rock. On the way was Glenwood Canyon cut through by the winding Colorado river. Also saw some of the old mining towns that had sprung up during the Colorado Gold Rush. Yes, the mountains had gold and silver and prospectors came from far away for the precious metals. Reminders that this was indeed the West of all the novels and movies.

We passed through Copper mountain and Vail, which are the top skiing destinations. Aspen is also not too far from here. Skiing looks scary because I don't think I like snow much. But it might be thrilling. People are very excited about winter here because of all the skiing opportunities. Mostly, I am just stunned by the sight of so much snow. Here are some pictures showing changes in landscape as we crossed different altitudes.




( More pictures )

 
Link to this wonderful flickr set about a meteorologist's life in Antarctica. Via the flickr blog.

Reached Boulder :)