Sandy Hook is a 1,665 acre barrier beach peninsula at the northern tip of the New Jersey Shore. The park includes seven miles of ocean beaches, salt marshes, hiking trails and maritime holly forest. The Hook is home to the oldest surviving lighthouse in the U.S. and to Sandy Hook Bird Observatory. It also happens to be one of my favorite local birding and photographing locations. A major migration path in both spring and fall, Sandy Hook has attracted approximately 340 bird species to its varying habitats. Over 50 species of butterflies have also been recorded.

For the last few years I have been going with a group of friends to scuba dive in the Galapagos Islands situated in the Pacific Ocean, straddling the equator, about 600 miles west of Ecuador. Our group takes a special charter to the 2 northern most islands, Wolf and Darwin, for special underwater encounters that are found nowhere else on the planet. The unique convergence of 5 currents creates an upwelling that provides a rich source of food for many of the seabirds and marine mammals that occur in the Galapagos. We go for the vast diversity of sea life including Galapagos Sharks, schooling Hammerheads, and the largest fish in the sea the Whale Shark (I’m also looking for birds). The video in this Gallery is broken into seven parts each file about 10mb or the complete version which is 68mb. This is for people with HIGHSPEED connections. Please do not run the video from this site, right click on the file and choose “save link as” to download and play.

Bonaire is a small island located in the southern Caribbean 30 miles (48 km) from Curacao; 50 miles (80 km) north of Venezuela and 86 miles (129 km) east of Aruba, outside of the Caribbean hurricane belt. Known for its pioneering role in the preservation of nature, in particular the preservation of the marine environment, and for its excellent scuba diving, snorkeling, and windsurfing, among other things.