My Journey to Mexico via Houston began with an alarming bit of news – that as a UK citizen visiting the US I now needed (as of January) to apply online for an electronic ESTA BEFORE my journey out (a visa-waiver type thing), not something I was ready for when I turned up bleary-eyed for my 04.30am check-in. Swiftly after I checked in I rushed to the internet station in Quito airport and belatedly completed these new formalities online with time to spare. Had the afternoon for a stop over in Houston with a friend, and local birdman, Glen Olsen. Picked up my new Canon 50D and went to play with it over in Bear Creek Park in Houston. Not much happening during a late afternoon visit, just a few Eastern Bluebirds brightening up the park, and the odd Pine Warbler hanging around in the pines (where else).
A pair of tits (Blue and Great) in a London park 30 years back changed my life; I became a birder, and an obsessive birder by the following weekend. Works like Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book and Richard Millington's A Twitcher's Diary helped in no small part to nurture this in my formative years.
30 years on I am still an avid birder but have also learnt to appreciate other sectors of the natural world, especially frogs and primates in particular, through the undoubted influence of David Attenborough The Great and others. I now work as a full-time professional tour leader for Tropical Birding Tours, and now reside in the Andes of Ecuador. I love my job, sharing birds with people provides every bit of a buzz as a lifebird, which, of course, still creates a wave of excitement every time. I have been lucky enough to see well over 6550 bird species on my travels, which does not make me any more talented than anyone else, just one that is always greedy and impatient for more, which has taken me to all seven continents, and always yearning for that ONE...MORE...B-I-R-D!
I use Swarovski binoculars & scope, & shoot with Canon 7D and Canon 400m f5.6L lens.
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