Archive for southeast asia

Books for Sale!

Posted in Birding, Birds, Conservation, Natural History, Reading Suggestions, Science, Southeast Asia with tags , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2012 by Brendan McGarry

I suppose writing, taking photographs, designing, and getting everything just right, even with a small book, is a decent endeavor. Truth be told, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I set out to create a small book. This was a trial and error experiment and an offer to people who backed my Kickstarter campaign last winter. I’ve never been efficient at getting entries on Wingtrip without making sure they’re relatively perfect (yes, errors still happen), despite knowing that blogging is more about posting and fixing later. Perfection seemed necessary for this book and now it’s finally done.

The books I owe people have “gone to press.” But I discovered that I have an opportunity to sell what I created in an ePub format. To be fair to patrons who helped support me at the level that received this book, I will not be offering a print copy (EDIT – I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get rid of the physical copy as an option, so it’s still on there, slightly marked up.  My patience and computer time is full tapped for the day). Equally so, small run, self published books are expensive and I think it’s almost outrageous that a copy is almost $40 for a paperback version. I’m not discrediting the work or the content, just saying I wouldn’t expect anyone to buy an 80 page book for that much. If someone feels very strongly about having a physical copy, we can talk about it elsewhere.

All in all I’m very pleased with this rendition of my travels in Southeast Asia. I’m excited that I have an opportunity to share something that I worked very hard on. Tempted by Ecology: A Naturalist’s Travels Through Southeast Asia is full of what I think is good travel and nature writing. The photos aren’t too bad either!

There are a couple ways to read/download this. I do not personally own an eReader or tablet but the format downloaded is a very universal ePub file. I’ve had luck reading it with photos visible with the Firefox add-on for reading ePublications. Adobe Digital Editions didn’t like my book however and MobiPocket Reader didn’t seem to want to display my images aside from the cover photos. My suspicion is that an iPad or iPod touch will work the best, but I have no way to test that at the moment.

Here is a link to buy a copy for yourself. At $4.99 plus tax this is not a bad deal if you ask me. (In the near future I might have a friend work with me to get this published in another venue, stay tuned).

Thanks for all your support and your readership. A big goal for the coming year is to have more on Wingtrip. I hope you all continue to coming back with a thirst to learn about and enjoy nature, birds, and nerdy hijinks.

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A (Photographic) Year in Review

Posted in Bird Banding, Birding, Birds, Borneo, California, Chiang Mai, Doi Inthanon, Eastern Washington, Field Work, Fire Ecology, Indonesia, Kao Yai National Park, Malaysia, Natural History, Orangutan, Oregon, Pak Thale, Plants, Road Tripping, Science, Seattle, Southeast Asia, Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Sumatra, Thailand, United States, Washington, Western Forests with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 20, 2012 by Brendan McGarry

It’s been a year since I left for an adventure in Southeast Asia. With the extremely tardy completion of a small book I made for those who supported my Kickstarter campaign for the trip, I started feeling like I’d never be on the road again. Modern expectations, the realities of money, and my desire to be a part of a stable community all seemed to be working against me, pulling me down. Yet, instead of dragging myself down the anguished path of the grounded traveler, I decided that some careful reflection was in order.

This year I’ve been a lot of places, there’s no doubt. From the temperate land I call home to the Asian tropics. To the crest of the Sierras and down to the Great Basin. Consciously or subconsciously, mountains played an undeniable role in my explorations. I was in the the shrub steppe of Steens Mountain in Oregon, the forests and alpine of Mt. Lassen in California and Mt. Rainier in Washington, the elfin evergreens of Doi Inthanon in Thailand, eruption scarred Gunung Sibayak in Sumatra, and the ancient oaks and tree ferns of Gunung Kinabalu in Borneo. In my home I wound through the high desert of interior western North America, the temperate rainforest of the Pacific Northwest coast, the snow of the Cascade range, and the mosaic of forests in the Sierra Nevada. Abroad I traipsed the lowland rainforests of Borneo and clambered about the monsoonal forests of Thailand. I drove to the summit of Doi Inthanon, the tallest mountain in Thailand, and hiked halfway up to the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia, Gunung Kinabalu.

I was captivated by small natural wonders in my own backyard (literally) and stood in awe of a bull elephant thousands of miles away. Birds were held, eyes were met with Orangutans. Animal and plant life always figure highly in my explorations, communities shaped by the landscapes I learned in my wend.

That’s the key. My excitement and passion for this world result from a desire to learn. Curiosity rules my spirit, anyone reading Wingtrip will know that.

Below I’ve compiled a long (yet also very punctuated) series of images from my year in the natural world. If you are curious about the stories behind them please ask or follow a few of the links I’ve provided above (unfortunately, through a flaw in the program I upload photos to Flickr with, literally hundreds of the photos in other entries linked to above are not visible right on wingtrip though still on Flickr – when I have time to sit down to this arduous task, it’ll be fixed). There’s so much worth working to save, these images should remind us all of that.

In short, I’ve got nothing to complain about. I hope you enjoy these shots. May you all have a fruitful year of discovery.

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Wingtrip Goes to Southeast Asia Pt. 1

Posted in Birds, Southeast Asia, Thailand with tags , , , , , , , , , on January 18, 2011 by Brendan McGarry

Blogging follows a trend in immediacy. What’s interesting about this, in conjunction with what I intend to initiate with Wingtrip, is the dualism that arises. As fast paced as the natural world can be, careful, exacting observation is absolutely necessary to make satisfactory conclusions. Time is paramount.

My two and a half month long trip seems a good length, yet compared to the expeditions of those I admire, it is slight. With many departures, countless hours slogging through malarial rainforest and slipping over verdant mountains, many natural historians have provided much to our comprehension. Alfred Russel Wallace, a scientist who tiptoed in prepubescent evolutionary theory with Darwin, spent 8 years traveling the archipelagos stretching between the Malayan peninsula and Australia. Emulating the collecting, the explorations, the things he saw, and his amazingly accurate theories will never be a possibility for me. That is a world past yet one highly worth looking back to.

So I embark for the time I have allowed myself, albeit financially deemed, to document in my modern way. It is no less exciting; there’s a chance I’ll photograph or witness something no one else has ever captured in image or word. Maybe that’s an overstatement yet the prospect is beautifully exciting. Possibly people don’t need to know everything about the ecosystems and organisms of Southeast Asia, but as far as I am concerned the more the better.

I write this on a 12 hour flight somewhere over the Seward Peninsula en route to Seoul, South Korea. Then it is another 6 hours to Bangkok where I grab my bag, hop a taxi, and meet my good friend Scott in the pulsing tourist lane of Kao San Road (or KSR) at 12:15 AM Bangkok time (EDIT – I’m here and in good health). The next night, Ryan (a birding friend) arrives and we all jaunt off into the North of Thailand. From there, we’ll see what happens. With luck we’ll have an opportunity to visit some Hornbill Research Group sites and travel to the tallest mountain in Thailand, Doi Inthanon before Ryan’s and my month long visa is up.

The items that I somehow deem necessary to observe wildlife are somewhat ludicrous. The point is to watch birds, monkeys, elephants, insects – whatever I come upon. Somehow I ended up with a backpack full of the minutia of documentation. I’m excited by the uncertainty of having yet to discover what I’ll experience. The first bird (Pigeons!), the first mammal (huge city rats!), the first body of water (Chao Phraya River). I’ve got a camera, a Grinnel Journal (I’ll let you all figure that one out), and a blog raring to go.

So long for now – I would check back in 3 days if you haven’t yet bookmarked or subscribed. Thanks for all your support and if you are someone waiting to see what this is all about before backing the project on Kickstarter, I will convince you of the worth shortly!

(quick note – because of internet issues in Seoul, I couldn’t get this posted until today in Bangkok. A few life birds, cultural delving, and tasty street food were had. More soon)

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