Confession time…I have become a Birder. I know, I know, it sounds like a terrible thing for me to say. But it is true. I am officially a Birder. Not exactly the blog people expected on a shark diving page, especially after such a long break from posting blogs. I was supposed to write up a blog about our kick ass Socorro trip, and our Bimini dolphin trip, from back in April…which I haven't done. But those are coming (I think?). For now, this is the why and how I have morphed into a self-professed Birder.

When I got back from our last two trips, we had just sold our house and had to move into our studio apartment. We down-sized from a 3,500 sq. foot home, to a 700. We decided to change our lifestyle completely, into a travel more, buy less friendly lifestyle ( more on that crazy downsizing later). Anyway, that was a huge undertaking and a big freaking pain. So I had to take a break from traveling / blogging to do what I had to do, - move my family and stuff from point A to point B.

Well, the dust of that has settled, and I got back into the mind set of documenting the journey…however, I was finding it difficult to write about my last experiences. The reason is, I am always moving forward, so it was hard to sit down and go back to those moments and share what I was feeling when I was on those trips. I have shared some images and short videos on our FB and Instagram pages, but I haven't written anything about them. And they were both such amazingly great trips. But like I said, it is hard to go back because I am so zoned out on what I am doing right now.

The month of May was a blur. I have been home here in Texas. No diving, just moving and lots of unpacking. The no diving part kills me. However, I made the most of it… during my 'no traveling' down time, I have been helping my 11 year old daughter, Sophia C. with her photography. She has decided she wants to be a wildlife photographer when she grows up. Specializing in underwater wildlife, of course. So I used this time to help improve here photography skills (and mine). So every morning, we visit our local wildlife and birding centers to seek out animals to shoot.

SOPHIA'S PHOTOGRAPHY

It was during this time that I found out something extremely special about my hometown area. We live in one of the greatest birding hotspots in the world. I always knew birders loved visiting the Rio Grande Valley. What I never realized was how special this place really is. There has been over 600 species of birds documented in the state of Texas. Of those 600, more than 500 can be found here in the RGV.

So with this new information, me and my Sophia have decided that we want to photograph as many of them as possible, in between trips, when I am home. So we set a goal of photographing 500 LRGV (Lower Rio Grande Valley) bird species. This is something that will take us many years to accomplish. But this is a great project that me and my Sophie can do together… it will help my Sophie (and me) with learning how to shoot wildlife better, and the best part, I get to hang out with my girl all the time.

So there it is, I have officially become a birder. We will be documenting this journey as well. Both me and Sophia will be co-writing in a new LRGV Bird Blog we are starting. Sharing the images, videos and more importantly the journey, of our own Big Year. Here we will share, her progress as a wildlife photographer and the countdown from one to 500 birds of the LRGV. Hope you guys will enjoy, again sorry for the long break in between blogs - and thanks again for following along on my ever evolving craziness of a life.