Stan Tekiela

Bird migration is one of nature’s most interesting, yet mysterious events. On the surface, migration seems simple and straight forward, but it has many shades of complexity.
There are more than 11,000 species of birds and about 40% migrate in some way. Migrations range from simple elevation changes for mountain species to short distant movements to avoid unfavorable weather, to long distant trips to warm climates to escape winter, to the granddaddy of them all: migration from one end of the planet to the other.

The common names for many species of birds can sometimes be confusing, contradictory, misleading, or a complete mystery. For example, the common name red-winged blackbird has always gotten under my skin, because the wing of this bird isn’t red, it is actually black. The shoulder is red, not the wing.
All of this was running through my head on my recent photo tour of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. One of the most common birds on this island archipelago is the blue-footed booby.

I think it would be safe to say that most people are aware of turtles and tortoises. But at the same time, I think there is a lot of confusion surrounding these cool critters. Even those familiar with these reptiles can sometimes have questions about the differences between turtles and tortoises.

Recently while leading a photo tour to the Galapagos Islands, in Ecuador, I had a chance to show my group the difference between turtles and tortoises.

The long evenings of summer bring out many interesting insects that we don’t find any other time of year. I was thinking about this last night, just before sunset while I was in my backyard and watching hundreds of fireflies or lightning bugs blinking in the warm summer evening.