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Marty’s photo of the day #4496: When Deb and I visited the island of Bonaire earlier this month, we enjoyed 26 hour-long snorkels. I fell in love with above-water wildlife photography many years ago, but all those snorkels made me passionate about underwater wildlife photography, too. It’s incredibly challenging, as underwater creatures never stop moving. […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4495: Troupials (a type of oriole) were among the most colorful birds Deb and I saw on the island of Bonaire. They were introduced from the nearby island of Curaçao in 1973, so they aren’t a native species. Though, being that the islands are only 50 miles apart, I’m surprised […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4494: Honeycomb cowfish were among the most unusual, “should be in a science-fiction movie,” fish occupying the reef around Bonaire. If you look closely, they even have horns. They were also shy, making them difficult to photograph. Behind the honeycomb cowfish is a spotlight parrotfish (immature phase).
Marty’s photo of the day #4493: Deb and I have returned from 13 wonderful days on the island of Bonaire, surrounded by 2 travel days getting there and 2 travel days getting home. All of them bookended by a hurricane hitting Texas, just a day after we had a connecting flight in Dallas, and a […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4491: Goodbye from Bonaire. Deb and I return to the United States today, but because we have a connecting flight through Miami, just ahead of Hurricane Helene, I suspect some delays. In fact, our flight out of Bonaire has already been delayed by 20 minutes, and it doesn’t even leave […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4490: This long-spine porcupinefish is about 20 inches long. If frightened, it could swallow a large amount of water to inflate a pouch near its stomach, thereby doubling in size and raising spines all over its body. Deb and I didn’t see any of these fish during our first week […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4489: During Deb’s and my first few days on Bonaire, every flamingo sighting warranted a stop. Now, after two weeks, they are basically pigeons. Just kidding. We’ll still stop from time to time to watch them. And we see them in light pink, deep pink, and basic white. There’s a […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4488: If I could figure out a way to bring this mother and her foal back to Montana with me, I would! Humans brought donkeys to Bonaire in the 1600s to perform manual labor. Later, machines replaced the donkeys, and they were abandoned to roam the island. Wild donkeys have […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4487: Yesterday, Deb and I drove to the northern end of Bonaire for a second visit of Washington-Slagbaai National Park. At midday, we found an out-of-the-way picnic table and enjoyed a delightful lunch, accompanied by thirty or so blauw-blauw (six-inch-long whiptail lizards with bright blue tails). The blauw-blauw obviously knew […]
Deb and I had another outstanding day on the island of Bonaire. First, we went to Washington-Slagbaai National Park on the north end of the island. We had intended to visit the two springs in the park that attract birds, but we didn’t have the luck we had the last time we were there. Today, […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4486: Bonaire has a dry climate, and there are only two tiny freshwater springs in Washington-Slagbaai National Park. While Deb and I were staking out one of those springs earlier in our trip, this black-crowned night heron flew in to join us. Today we are headed back to Washington-Slagbaai National […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4485: Bonaire has a dry climate, and there are only two tiny freshwater springs in Washington-Slagbaai National Park (which takes up the northern quarter of the island). Those springs were outstanding for birding, and I will be posting quite a few bird portraits from them in the coming weeks. A […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4484: Humans brought donkeys to Bonaire in the 1600s to perform manual labor. Later, machines replaced the donkeys, and they were abandoned by the humans. Bad humans! Good donkeys! As such, wild donkeys still roam the island. They have a tough life here, and being that Bonaire has a dry […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4481: Deb and I spent part of yesterday on the balcony of the condo we are renting in Bonaire, watching frigatebirds soar and feed. Photographing them was a challenge, however, because the birds changed direction often, and they were at the outer limits of my most powerful lens. I think […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4480: Greetings from Bonaire. When traveling, I enjoy the challenge of finding and photographing exotic snakes, but here there is only one, tiny underground snake—so that’s not gonna happen. Replacing that challenge are exotic birds. And photographing fast-moving ones—like this ruby-topaz hummingbird—are, indeed, a challenge.
Marty’s photo of the day #4479: Greetings from Bonaire! Today, Deb and I drove to the quiet side of the island and spent the day at Washington-Slagbaai National Park. The park contains a maze of rough gravel roads, giving our rental truck the workout it deserved. I hadn’t driven a manual transmission since growing up […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4477: Greetings from Miami! Yesterday, Deb and I started our two-day trip to the island of Bonaire to celebrate our 40th anniversary. We flew from Missoula to Dallas to Miami. In Miami, we had a 12-hour layover, so we stayed in a hotel at the airport. Hopefully, our luggage spent […]
Marty’s photo of the day #4476: Here’s a scenic shot, taken this past July at the American Prairie in Montana. We didn’t see another person all day!
