Blog - Chuq Von Rospach - Birds - Landscapes - Nature

I’m happy to announce I’ve released a new set of free wallpapers you can use on your computer. Please go to my Free Desktop Wallpaper page to download any or all of them. You can see the new images below:I love putting my images up on my computer as wallpapers as a way to always have them in view where I can study and enjoy them. I also like making them available so others can enjoy them as well.These are some of my favorite images that I feel work nicely as wallpapers. They are sized with an…

Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.Welcome to July, where every year we celebrate our independence on the 4th, and I celebrate another year of being vertical (#68) which I consider a win. And out in the garden, the berries are ripening. For my birthday Laurie bought me a really nice Lego kit that I am looking forward to putting together. I’m a couple of kits behind because I’ve been doing other things instead, but this will be a nice one to display.

I finally had tides, weather and free time cooperate so I was able to get over to Seabeck to spend time with the eagles. I had a total of about 2.5 hours over two days with tides ranging from -1 to -4, and they did not disappoint. On day one there were a total of 33 there at one point, and on day 2, about 25. There’s a Purple Swallow nest tower near there so I was able to grab a few photos of them as well.1500 images shot, edited down to 36 keepers; not a bad ratio. View fullsize View fullsize

Welcome to Middle Age6FPS V8#6: June 8, 2026E-mail: chuqvr@gmail.com • Site: https://chuq.meBlueSky: (https://bsky.app/profile/chuq.bsky.social)Know someone who might want to subscribe?Want to see previous issues? Visit here:

In May, I spent two nights down in the Grays Harbor area to do some birding. This was towards the tail end of spring migration, and I was hoping to see some nice shorebirds. Overall, the birding was okay, although I wasn’t able to bird Grays Harbor NWR properly because it’s half a mile walk each way to the main trails, and my knee did a big NOPE on the idea. Highlight bird was a Glaucous Gull, a rarity that was hanging out on the beach in Ocean Shores. It was also one of the easiest lifer…

I am someone who haven’t used the new AI chatbots much, but I have been curious about how they might be useful in the things I do. So when I read in the Summer 2026 Avocet (from Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance) about how Matthew Dodder (an old friend and birding mentor) decided to try AI as a tool to plan some birding trips, I figured I’d try out Claude and see if it would give me useful suggestions. I asked Claude two questions:I am planning a "big day" birding outing for Kitsap county,…

I’ve been a user of the Bird ID tool Merlin for a number of years now, and it has improved massively since it was first released. That said, there was one thing it didn’t do well, and that’s help a user of the tool understand how reliable it’s ID was — it more or less treated it’s findings as 100% correct, which is incorrect (and honestly, not possible). However, a couple of months ago Merlin made a significant update to the app, and now it does take into consideration the likelihood of a…

While I am getting ready for a few days down in the Gray’s Harbor area chasing shorebirds, I had a day where I could get out and bird locally, and I realized the Caspian Terns were back from their winter sabbatical, so I headed out to Port Gamble hoping some would be there and that maybe I could get a few photographs. I was not disappointed. It was a good day birding, and a better day taking photos of them, with 20+ species found and a good 45 minutes watching and chasing photos of the Terns…

Shop Tour6FPS V8#4: April 13, 2026E-mail: chuqvr@gmail.com • Site: https://chuq.meBlueSky: (https://bsky.app/profile/chuq.bsky.social)Know someone who might want to subscribe?Want to see previous issues? Visit here:

congrats apple on making it 50 years

I did a lot.

I talk about Steve. It’s complicated

Apple is turning 50. I have thoughts

The March issue of my monthly newsletter is out