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The Art

Welcome to Dan’s Bird Cards, a website for ordering note cards and prints of copyrighted photos by Dan Gribbin. Most of the birds presented here were photographed within a short drive of Daytona Beach Shores, on the east coast of Florida. On trips to Bermuda, I do enjoy photographing the beautiful Bermuda Longtails (White-tailed Tropicbirds), pelagic birds that nest in the limestone cliffs along the South Shore near Warwick Long Bay. The note cards featuring my birds are printed on matte paper in the standard size of 4.25” x 5.5” and handsomely boxed with a transparent cover, 8 cards (plus envelopes) per box. They make wonderful gifts for family or friends, or merely as an avian treat to yourself. Price is $15 per box, plus tax and S&H. As you browse the site, you will notice that the birds are arranged in sets of 8 images per gallery. There is considerable flexibility built into the ordering process, since I custom print the cards for each order.

You thus have the opportunity to choose which images in the gallery will be represented in a box:

  • One card each of all eight birds;
  • Two cards each vof four of the birds;
  • Eight copies of a single bird. [Note that enlarged prints are available of most of the images and come in three sizes: 5 x 7, 8 x 10, and 11.5 x 17.]

A note about the photographer:

Dan Gribbin is a retired college English professor living with his wife, Martha Brandt, on the east coast of Florida in Daytona Beach Shores. When not taking photos of birds, he spends his time writing fiction, as well as performing his original music, which can be sampled at www.dangribbin.com.

THE MUSIC

After we moved to the Daytona Beach area in 2001, people in Central Florida began to know me for my songs about birds. So I guess bird photography is a natural offshoot of that musical effort. One of the fan favorites when I performed at the old Eustis Street Grill was a song entitled “The Water Turkey,” a comic song about a bird technically known as the Anhinga. And that explains why the company is officially named Anhinga Harmonics Music. 

I’ve always enjoyed artistic design and composition, so, back in 2009, I decided to create a set of shore bird note cards for each of our grown children and their spouses. Friends at church (the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ormond Beach) enjoyed the note cards, and, after a while, I decided to go public with their sale. 

At this point, there are hundreds of cards, with only a fraction represented here on the site. So if there’s a bird you greatly enjoy, I’ll gladly supply additional sample images from which to choose.  And I always enjoy making prints to share with those who would like larger images than those that appear on the cards.

THE PASSION

We can credit my late Aunt Ellen for taking me birdwatching in Navarre Park in Toledo when I was young. Living in Virginia, where Martha and I were teaching, we had wonderful songbirds working their way through the woods, including a Wood Thrush that chimed exquisitely every evening. But my interest in photographing birds took fire when a pair of Black Skimmers nested on the sand here in Daytona Beach Shores and required constant monitoring. It was thrilling to watch their chicks grow up and learn to skim the waters like their parents. 

I’m often asked which of the birds that I photograph is my favorite—a very difficult question to answer. Snowy egrets are incredible gymnasts when they’re going after small fish in the receding waters after a breaker washes ashore. So my shots of snowy egrets, which often make it onto the note cards, are among my favorites. The rather rare Reddish Egret runs a close second, and, in fact, my action shot of the Reddish Egret in full leap is my very favorite image.

I have to put in a word for the Belted Kingfisher, though, since nothing thrills me more than to hear one of them rattling away nearby. It is devilishly difficult to catch a good image of a Kingfisher in action. My shot of a female Kingfisher perched high in a tree catches the bird in an unusually calm moment, demonstrating that we all need to take a rest occasionally. 

I’d love to hear from you about which shots are your favorites. Meanwhile, enjoy these marvels of nature who make our lives so much richer by their presence.