Exciting Travels Upcoming!
- I have finalized the logistical nightmare that was planning for a week-long business trip in Paris while arranging pet-sitting for 6 special needs cats and now I can actually start thinking about what to do on my day off in Paris. I'm flying into CDG early Saturday morning, will be meeting up with a friend downtown. I have never been to mainland Europe. Where are good/easy places to see LOTS OF GOOD BIRDS? Thnx
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Now I can plan for the Bioblitz in Del Rio!
@silversea_starsong and @psyllidhipster When do y'all plan to arrive in Austin? Would you like to leave at the buttcrack of dawn on Thursday? Leave on Wednesday and take lots of "rest stops"? I don't have to pay for petsitting for my Paris trip so I can afford be in Del Rio longer. Still need to head back to Austin on Sunday, probably late morning/early afternoon.
@alisonnorthup Are you riding with @hydaticus or me? Do you need to borrow any camping equipment?
Also: I am taking my car to get serviced next week so we don't have any surprises on the way!
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Paris sounds fun! Glad you got the pestitting stuff worked out. My flight will arrive in Austin on Wednesday at 5pm, so leaving early thursday morning would be best for me, but if you'd like to leave earlier I may be able to change my flight to get there a night earlier. Dont let me cramp your style!
I'm up for whatever. Wednesday sounds more fun -- in theory, the more time out the better, right??
I will try and mirror Chris's schedule for the most part, and we are probably be sharing accommodation for some of the days. That will help with the carpool. I don't know if we intend to camp. Chris?
I don't intend on doing any camping since I want to travel as light as I can, so I'll probably look at staying at the quality inn and suites that Sam specified in his blog post. But I haven't looked into making any reservations yet.
Link because I keep losing it: https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology/13715-del-rio-details-inat-gathering-and-bioblitz-at-amistad-and-devil-s-river
@nanofishology are you camping? Would hate to ask for carpool to the hotel after the blacklight sessions if so...
I am not camping (staying with @kimberlietx). But I heard @alisonnorthup might be camping and was possibly riding with Robby. I have a tent campers could borrow though!
I'm going to go ahead and move my flight up one night, that way if we want to leave on Wednesday it's an option and if we decide to wait til Thursday morning I can still use Wednesday as my Austin exploration day.
@nanofishology sorry I hadn't gotten back to you on that. It's true I decided to do the camping!
And I'm planning to ride with @hydaticus. I can't take any extra time off work to visit Mexico, unfortunately.
My guess is I will also arrive Wednesday as well, even if we don't meet that day. Some of the areas close to Austin look pretty spectacular.
If I was close I would have helped out with the special needs cat/kids 🙋🏻
Yippeeeee!!!! :-D
Where are you staying in Paris? We stayed by Sacre Coeur (18th Arrondisement) in March maaaany years ago. This was during an early instar, well before my eclosure to nature nerd, so I didn't go looking for nature. But it's a LOT of concrete. Very few green spaces at all unless you get out of the city. I remember grass right around churches, the Eiffel Tower, small manicured gardens, and trees along the Champs Elysees. Surely someone has been more recently and will give you suggestions.
I haven't been to Paris for many years but I remember having the same problem. The city itself doesn't really have much in terms of natural areas. We had to travel a little out of the city for that. https://ebird.org/hotspots should give some idea.
I am staying at the airport Hilton 😒 The convention center is there, and thus, so am I. Saturday is my only non-work business day, and I’m doing the Catacombs (!!!) and natural history museum with a friend who lives in Germany.
Monday we’re meeting our client at their facility west of downtown by a river. I have no idea what our full schedule is, but I will be stuck doing whatever the execs decided we’d do.
For what it’s worth, somebody on ebird marked the airport as a hotspot 😂 We’ll see about that.
Worst case, I guess you could go to the zoo and look for the uncaged creatures :) Or maybe ducks on the Seine.
The hotspots just show general birding areas. The number of species reported will give you a good measure of how diverse a site is, so you can use the colour codes to look for good spots I don't know how the airport became a "hotspot" though :)
I am 100% pro-duck
I was looking via the app, haven’t looked at the website yet.
The airport has REALLY BIG BIRDS. :P
🤣
@chris971 might have a suggestion on where to go in Paris for birds.
I had a grand time exploring the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont when I was in Paris last summer. I lucked upon it as it happened to be the greenest looking space on a map within a few kilometers of where I was staying. I tried to walk through the greenest places I could elsewhere in Paris and the most exciting observations I got were rats. I'm no birder, but there's a pond there for what it's worth. And lots of big trees. And varied topography. Super cool park (here's what has been recorded there).
My work trips for the last 18 months have resulted in a lot of observations of sidewalk weeds and pigeons, with a few overcompensating excursions when I can squeeze them in. Have fun! :-)
Did I miss the date of the trip @kimberlietx ? Sorry then... There are many parks in Paris where you may observe birds, I guess. Les Buttes Chaumont, Montsouris, Monceau... You may also have a walk in the Bois de Vincennes (and Parc Floral), or the Bois de Boulogne (and have a look at the old Serres d'Auteuil), and finally the Jardin des Plantes where there also are very interesting old greenhouses. And anyway, mind the pigeons!
Pictures of the cemetery by the Catacombs look nice and planted with trees. Should be birds in there!
@chris971 I am in Paris March 3 through March 9. I only have March 3 to do everything I want to do, all the other days I'm stuck in business meetings and at our booth at the trade show.
I LOVE pigeons, so I'm not worried about those! My pigeon map (@pigeonlover) is hungry for Europe.
OKAY since iNat's message system only allows one-on-ones!
@psyllidhipster & @silversea_starsong RE: Del Rio
I already have Thursday and Friday set as vacation days, but won't be a problem to get Wednesday added as well. However, the petsitter is expensive, especially after needing $700 in car repairs (fun story, my car broke down the night before I left for Paris, turns out my battery was dead but the shop didn't even think to test it when I was in for a full service a few days prior!), so the absolute earliest I could leave on Wednesday and get away with it would be 3 pm. Without stops, the drive is about 4 hours, so we could definitely get there at a reasonable time for me to be banging on @kimberlietx's door. Thoughts/opinions?
I don't want to put any pressure on you since you are being kind enough to provide carpool for us! An extra day in Austin wouldn't hurt, so leaving on Thursday would not be a disappointment for me.
Ok! Also, I am a driving machine. If y'all want to leave at 3 am, I'm down (and no traffic will be a big plus since the shortest route goes through San Antonio!).
Leaving Thursday works for me! Time of departure doesn't matter to me but I recognize the appeal of leaving before sunrise, when I moved from LA to Tucson a couple months ago I drove out at 3am and there is something nice about being able to escape the city before traffic hits and then being able to stretch out at some rest stop midway as the sun is coming up.
I am staying in west Austin close to Barton Creek Greenbelt Park, for reference. Early morning departure is fine for me!
Alysa, I'll make sure you have the address and key lockbox info before you leave or I'll leave the door unlocked, in case you arrive at some ungodly hour, or in the event I'm out iNatting at said ungodly hour.
👍
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