Our purchase of the telescope was a bit of a haste job. Because scopes do not come cheap, virtually all birdwatchers that we know or met or read on-line, advise buying a second-hand scope if you are a beginner. We followed the Swedish go-to second-hand website (called blocket.se) for a while but nothing in our price range showed up. … More Our birdwatching gear. Part 3 : Celestron Ultima 80 telescope
Some years ago, when our interest in bird-watching started, I bought a pair of Kite Forster 10 x 50 binoculars. At that time, it was a well-reviewed model for bird watching. Very good value for money, also for experienced birdwatchers. … More Our birdwatching gear. Part 2 : Kite Forster 10 x 50 binoculars
If you look around the internet a bit for beginners tips for bird watching, you will find the tip not to gear up too much at the beginning. The equipment such as binoculars, cameras, and telescopes are available in a great price range, starting from not cheap to insanely expensive. If you ask me, the very cheap equipment is not worth your money because the quality simply does not suffice. So we have a mix of equipment with various qualities for wildlife observation. … More Our birdwatching gear. Part 1 : Eyes, books, binos, scopes and cameras
La semana pasada, cuando íbamos de camino al veterinario con Matilda, al lado de la carretera pasamos un cartel pintado a mano anunciando la venta -a bombo y platillo- de “Mamones transgénicos”. Jesús pensé, esbozando una sonrisa, a saber qué serán mamones transgénicos en Costa Rica…. al tiempo que intentaba explicarle a Frank entre risas … More Mamones transgénicos y maridos de alquiler
A friend recently asked us how did we find the organizations in which we will be volunteering in Costa Rica, which triggered us to write this blog. Here are some of the strategies that we tried and how they worked for us. … More How to find volunteering opportunities in nature conservation
A beautiful bird with a very long tail, making it about 33 cm long. It is a common bird in the North East of Costa Rica during winter months. Common to Costa Rica but downright exotic to us. … More Scissor-tailed Flycatcher – Tyrannus forficatus
Pelicans are awesome flyers. They do amazing formation flying without any effort. I am sure that we will show you some pictures or videos of that some time. It is also quite impressive to see them dive for fish, as Cristina and I did two days ago at the beach. I was again very upset … More Brown pelican – Pelecanus occidentalis
De afgelopen week leek een week van echt ‘niets doen’ te zijn geweest. Toch moest er wel wat gebeuren. Matilda’s ogen doen al meer dan een maand een beetje raar. … More Week 3. Niks doen net niet helemaal gelukt
In addition to the two dogs, the howler monkeys and Manchita (the resident cat), the house we are staying in has a large collection of local fauna. I’m not talking about the birds that delight our daytime, but other creatures with more nocturnal habits … More Scorpions, tarantulas and other night creatures
Among the purposes of this first month of the sabbatical were to sleep, relax, recover and “do nothing”. But even on holidays, we are always doing “something”: reading, birdwatching, organizing photos, strolling on the beach, snorkeling or nowadays, writing a blog. So, what do we mean by doing nothing? … More Learning the art of doing nothing
THE FLIP FLOP LIFE 