For the birdwatchers out there...

Kevin has a task to do this morning which I am sure he will talk about in tomorrow's post, so it was either take a day off from the blog or turn the blog over to me (Ruth!). Seeing that you are reading this blog post I guess you can figure out what the choice ended up being.

Something that travel has taught us in the last 7 years is that you become more aware of things around you. We spend most of our time traveling in the country rather than the big cities. We love visiting big cities but we prefer the country with the nature and wildlife around us.

We have never been "bird" people, so we have never spent time trying to learn about them or the names of them but once we started seeing some pretty ones in Mexico we started (I started) to become a little more interested in them and wanted to know the names of the birds. Then being in Namibia, it really started to peak OUR interest in them.

So I decided today to show you some of the interesting birds that we have seen in our travels through North America and abroad.

A Pale-billed woodpecker seen in Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico

An Orange-fronted parakeet in Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico

Pileated Woodpecker at Sturgeon Lake Regional Park, Saskatchewan

A Tawny eagle, Etosha National Park, Namibia

A Secretary bird Etosha National Park, Namibia

A Kori bustard in Etosha National Park, Namibia

European bee-eater in Etosha National Park, Namibia

A southern Pale chanting goshawk in Etosha National Park, Namibia

A Southern yellow-billed hornbill in Etosha National Park, Namibia

A Verreaux's eagle-owl in Etosha National Park, Namibia

A Martial eagle, Namibia

A young African Fish eagle in the Zambezi Region, Namibia

Lilac-breasted Roller in the Zambezi Region, Namibia

A Great Horned Owl and her young one at Cabri Regional Park, Saskatchewan

A whippoorwill at Cabri Regional Park, Saskatchewan

We certainly have a lot more pictures of birds but these were some that I thought were different and interesting.

As I mentioned earlier we never considered ourselves as bird watching people but when you start to see some of these amazing creatures you just find that you need to know what type they are and just more about them in general. 

Traveling is definitely a way to learn more about the world around us.

Have you acquired a new hobby that you became interested in solely because of your travels? If so we would love to hear what it is and how or what you did that caused you to follow it.

And in keeping with the theme of today's post, here's our Amazon.com deal of the day...

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America