Hebridean Landscapes

ImageArt said:
Fantastic! I got interested in birds properly after studying for a year in the US when I was 30. I had a spare subject I needed to take so I did Ornothology. We studied the birds in a forest on the banks of the Mississippi - we must have got to know about 40 birds and most of their calls too which I am now hopeless at. I studied the pileated woodpecker for my oral talk, a wonderful bird, and was lucky to see their courtship. The course made it so much easier for me to identify birds in the future knowing the classification.

Funnily enough I’ve done hardly any birding in the UK even though I’m a member of the RSPB - too busy with life. My favourite is probably South Africa. Costa Rica was a little disappointing only because I felt we should have seen more. Goa sounds right up my street!
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That sounds like a fun class! Wish they had offered something like that for an elective when I was in college.
 
RoseCat said:
That sounds like a fun class! Wish they had offered something like that for an elective when I was in college.
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Actually, I wanted to do photography but it was oversubscribed and I didn’t have a fancy camera anyway :(. Probably one of my biggest disappointments but the birding one was well worth it!
 
ImageArt said:
Actually, I wanted to do photography but it was oversubscribed and I didn’t have a fancy camera anyway :(. Probably one of my biggest disappointments but the birding one was well worth it!
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One of the things I regret is not majoring in something that interested me, like photography. I took business classes “cause, well, I guess they’ll help me get a job”. :barf: I hated most of my classes... Wish I’d had someone tell me “Screw that! Take classes you love.” But I’m grateful that I had the college experience - I had a blast and made some lifelong friends.
 
ImageArt said:
Fantastic! I got interested in birds properly after studying for a year in the US when I was 30. I had a spare subject I needed to take so I did Ornothology. We studied the birds in a forest on the banks of the Mississippi - we must have got to know about 40 birds and most of their calls too which I am now hopeless at. I studied the pileated woodpecker for my oral talk, a wonderful bird, and was lucky to see their courtship. The course made it so much easier for me to identify birds in the future knowing the classification.

Funnily enough I’ve done hardly any birding in the UK even though I’m a member of the RSPB - too busy with life. My favourite is probably South Africa. Costa Rica was a little disappointing only because I felt we should have seen more. Goa sounds right up my street!
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Costa Rica disappointing???:eek: I’m shocked Ann. We saw sooo many different species there, particularly in the south at Lapa Rios. Trinidad, in particular The Asa Wright Centre was truly wonderful. I know we were on honeymoon and everything :D, but we didn’t have to go very far to see the most amazing birds - they put feeders out for the nectar feeders and fruit out for the others. I know someone who said that Goa was the best placed he’d ever been for birds, and he’d been all over the world.
 
RoseCat said:
One of the things I regret is not majoring in something that interested me, like photography. I took business classes “cause, well, I guess they’ll help me get a job”. :barf: I hated most of my classes... Wish I’d had someone tell me “Screw that! Take classes you love.” But I’m grateful that I had the college experience - I had a blast and made some lifelong friends.
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Well you’re a wonderful photographer now, so I don’t think it would have helped.:)
 
RoseCat said:
One of the things I regret is not majoring in something that interested me, like photography. I took business classes “cause, well, I guess they’ll help me get a job”. :barf: I hated most of my classes... Wish I’d had someone tell me “Screw that! Take classes you love.” But I’m grateful that I had the college experience - I had a blast and made some lifelong friends.
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I was given a wonderful opportunity to study in the US for a year on a scholarship and I had just changed my career to computer programming so I took computer science and business classes like you. I wished afterwards that I had skipped the business classes (the computer ones were invaluable) and done silversmithing, photography and art. It was however a wonderful year. I wish too that I hadn’t taken it quite so seriously. I worked way too hard, getting on the Dean’s list but really I should have played much more but that’s the problem when you are a mature student - you are far too diligent.
 
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JillyG said:
Costa Rica disappointing???:eek: I’m shocked Ann. We saw sooo many different species there, particularly in the south at Lapa Rios. Trinidad, in particular The Asa Wright Centre was truly wonderful. I know we were on honeymoon and everything :D, but we didn’t have to go very far to see the most amazing birds - they put feeders out for the nectar feeders and fruit out for the others. I know someone who said that Goa was the best placed he’d ever been for birds, and he’d been all over the world.
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You have to remember that I share my holidays with a golfer! Yes, we saw some interesting birds on the golf course particularly the trogons. For me, I organised a 2 day trip into the rainforests with a birding specialist and it was these 2 days that were disappointing. We spent way too much time travelling and the accommodation that the specialist choose was truly appalling with dirty sheets. We ended up sleeping with towels over the pillows etc. I don’t think we will go again - too many other places to see but I would do it quite differently next time.

I haven’t been to Trinidad but I did go to Tobago and we saw some wonderful birds there.

Goa has just been added to my list of places to see!
 
terse said:
The Snapseed healing tool works pretty well, but it can have problems when you're trying to remove something that's touching (or very close to) a defined edge (like the side of a house). TouchRetouch has an array of tools that cover different situations, including a clone tool and a special tool for removing lines (like overhead wires). It goes on sale at intervals, and somebody usually mentions that in the Bargains thread.
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HandyPhoto is the newer version of Touch/Retouch
 
ImageArt said:
I worked way too hard, getting on the Dean’s list but really I should have played much more but that’s the problem when you are a mature student - you are far too diligent.
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Well.....I went the other route.... play play play!! I got okay grades, but because I hated most of the subjects. I even managed to fail GYM (cuz my bestie had lunch at the same time, so I’d skip class to eat with her :rolleyes: :whistle: :lmao:)
 
ImageArt said:
Fantastic! I got interested in birds properly after studying for a year in the US when I was 30. I had a spare subject I needed to take so I did Ornothology. We studied the birds in a forest on the banks of the Mississippi - we must have got to know about 40 birds and most of their calls too which I am now hopeless at. I studied the pileated woodpecker for my oral talk, a wonderful bird, and was lucky to see their courtship. The course made it so much easier for me to identify birds in the future knowing the classification.

Funnily enough I’ve done hardly any birding in the UK even though I’m a member of the RSPB - too busy with life. My favourite is probably South Africa. Costa Rica was a little disappointing only because I felt we should have seen more. Goa sounds right up my street!
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That sounds amazing! Yes it's funny how the calls evaporate from your memory - even from one year to the next... I'd have loved to have formally studied ornithology. Birmingham University here in the UK used to do an ornithology degree but the year i signed up for it there were not enough people to run the course :( Pileated Woodpeckers are pretty amazing, one of my favourite birds. South Africa sounds good - plenty of colourful birds there i'm sure - haven't visted there. Sad that you were disappointed with Costa Rica it always sounds like it has such potential!
 
ImageArt said:
Actually, I wanted to do photography but it was oversubscribed and I didn’t have a fancy camera anyway :(. Probably one of my biggest disappointments but the birding one was well worth it!
Click to expand...
I did part of a photography degree but dropped it - partly because of the expense and partly because the academic side of things drove me nuts!
 
ImageArt said:
You have to remember that I share my holidays with a golfer! Yes, we saw some interesting birds on the golf course particularly the trogons. For me, I organised a 2 day trip into the rainforests with a birding specialist and it was these 2 days that were disappointing. We spent way too much time travelling and the accommodation that the specialist choose was truly appalling with dirty sheets. We ended up sleeping with towels over the pillows etc. I don’t think we will go again - too many other places to see but I would do it quite differently next time.

I haven’t been to Trinidad but I did go to Tobago and we saw some wonderful birds there.

Goa has just been added to my list of places to see!
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Gosh your two day Rainforest trip with the dirty sheets sounds pretty grim! Yes i highly recommend Goa, if you need any info just PM me :)
 
WildPlace said:
Pileated Woodpeckers are pretty amazing, one of my favourite birds.
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I love them too. One time when I was camping, and taking a walk around the lake, I came upon one just a few feet in front of me pecking on a tree (I’d been hearing him and was hoping to see him). I ran all the way back to my tent to grab my camera, ran back... he was still there!!! :D So, OCD me is fiddling with the composition and zooming in trying to get it JUST RIGHT, and literally 1 second before I pushed the shutter button HE FLEW AWAY. o_O :mad: :eek: :poo:
 
RoseCat said:
I love them too. One time when I was camping, and taking a walk around the lake, I came upon one just a few feet in front of me pecking on a tree (I’d been hearing him and was hoping to see him). I ran all the way back to my tent to grab my camera, ran back... he was still there!!! :D So, OCD me is fiddling with the composition and zooming in trying to get it JUST RIGHT, and literally 1 second before I pushed the shutter button HE FLEW AWAY. o_O :mad: :eek: :poo:
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Nooooooooo! You must have been so disappointed! :eek: :(
 
WildPlace said:
I did part of a photography degree but dropped it - partly because of the expense and partly because the academic side of things drove me nuts!
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Yes, always the reason why I decided not to study art after I retired. Too much time doing academic work when I could be actually doing it. Decided weekend, short courses were the way to go although I do miss having some theoretically knowledge like colour theory.
 
ImageArt said:
Yes, always the reason why I decided not to study art after I retired. Too much time doing academic work when I could be actually doing it. Decided weekend, short courses were the way to go although I do miss having some theoretically knowledge like colour theory.
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Yes, actually doing it is much preferable, so much better to just be out there, trying things. :)
 
RoseCat said:
I love them too. One time when I was camping, and taking a walk around the lake, I came upon one just a few feet in front of me pecking on a tree (I’d been hearing him and was hoping to see him). I ran all the way back to my tent to grab my camera, ran back... he was still there!!! :D So, OCD me is fiddling with the composition and zooming in trying to get it JUST RIGHT, and literally 1 second before I pushed the shutter button HE FLEW AWAY. o_O :mad: :eek: :poo:
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Been there, done that. :lol:
 
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