Bird Blind Update

Actually, there is really nothing much to update.  As far as I know there has been no progress on this project since our last meeting.  I don’t know what the holdup is as I haven’t talked to Kurt Kemp since.  I and Ruth Jordan received, by e-mail, a booklet of different plans for bird blinds.  It was sent by Jim Miller who is currently at Wright-Patterson AFB attending some classes.  Some of them looked pretty neat, from square ones to round ones that are set so birders can look out on all sides.  That would be great for bird photography also, because of the changing light directions.  Ruth said she would send a copy to Kurt for him to look it.

I haven’t been birding since we returned from our trip to Lake Ivie.  But yesterday, as I was driving down College Hill Blvd, we spotted a Great Blue Heron in that little creek by the empty gas station.  I had accidently left my

Great Blue Heron

 camera with my 100-400mm lens on it at home.  But I still had my other set-up with my 500mm on it, so I managed to hand-hold it out the van window.  I caught this picture as he flew off.  I think I distracted him when I was adjusting that heavy camera through the window.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the airport.   Jodie Wolslager, who I am coaching on her photography,  has her office at their hangar where her airplane is kept.  She is new to Photoshop Elements and I am helping her on that.  She has some very good photographs.  Both birds and landscapes.  I guess maybe I can teach after all.  She is getting great results.

Today I have to start framing some more pictures.  I sold two more yesterday.  Both were framed 16×20 photos.  One of a Red-tailed Hawk, the other of a Snowy Egret.  They both had been hanging at Kenny Blanek’s Village Cafe.  I really appreciate him letting me show my work there.  Since I don’t have a studio, it gives me an option to tell folks where they can view my images.  And, by the way, I did replace those that were sold, so there are some very nice new ones in their place.  Go have a look.  If you haven’t been to the restaurant before, I have three pictures hanging immediately when you come in the door, then there are four more hanging in the far back corner.

Happy Birding!!

more photos at www.zellertexasphotos.com

San Angelo Water Lily Collection

San Angelo is home to one of the largest water lily collections in the world   It has over 300 international specimens.  It is one of my favorite haunts to photograph water lilies.  What does this have to do with birding, you may

Green Heron with minno

 ask.  Well, it is also a favorite place for Green Herons to come and fish for minnows, etc.  You can see one of my photos of one to the right.  This one was one of two that were stealing the show at the Lily Fest in 2008.  They were hopping from lily pad to lily pad, much to the enjoyment of the spectators.

But since I am on the subject of water lilies, allow me to show off a few of my other images.  All of them were taken at the International Water Lily Collection in downtown San Angelo.  I hope you enjoy them.  If you are interested in purchasing prints, just contact me at zellerphotoart@suddenlink.net.

Happy Birding!!

"Reflections"

"Aquatic Beauty"

"Lady in Red"

"Magnificent Ballerina"

Visit to Lake Ivie

Before I get to reporting on our trip Saturday to O. H. Ivie Resevoir, I wish to touch on something personal.  I and Ann have been a little distracted the last few days.  My dearest friend, Deb Tappan of Knoxville, Tennessee, lost her father a few days ago.  She and her husband Paul are more like family to us.  Deb was the one that talked me into me starting this blog.  I didn’t think I could do it, but she pushed, then Ann pushed and this where I am today.  So, Deb and Paul, please know that we are thinking about you.

Suzanne and Sid came up from Eldorado, Saturday morning to join us on our birding  trip.   Both of them wanted to have some fun time before the weather got to changing too much.

We left San Angelo about 9:30 Saturday morning, and saw quite a few birds on the way there.  Lots of various hawk and kestrels.  We visited all of the

Northern Flicker

 various parks around the lake, plus along the Colorado River.  We ended up with seeing 40 species.  Not up to Mary’s and Sue’s total of 61, but more than I expected.  We also saw some species that they didn’t see.  We were able to add six White-faced Ibises, one Northern Flicker, and one Red Head, the latter which is a lifer for me.  The weather was very nice, around 80 degrees, but quite windy.  But that is West Texas for you.

Afterward, on the way home, we left Padgett Park going north and stopped in Valera to eat.  We found this little place, called the Grazin’ Patch.  They have great food.  If you’re in the area and hungry, you would be pleased to give them a try.  They are open Thursday thru Sunday.

Happy Birding!!

more photos at www.zellertexasphotos.com

Lake Ivie Report

I got an e-mail this morning forwarded by Terry Richmond, written by Sue Oliver.  It seems that Sue and Mary Creel made a trip to Lake Ivie to do some birding.  I would say that they were successful as they counted 61 species for the trip, 49 which were at Lake Ivie itself, and 12 more on the road enroute.  It is enough to convince me that I must make the trip, maybe tomorrow.  If so, I will report back on this blog how well I and Ann did.  I don’t expect to do as well, as we aren’t as experienced as those ladies are.

Lake Ivie, for you readers not from this area, is about 55 miles east of San Angelo, Texas.  It was impounded with a dam in 1990, by the Colorado River Municipal Water District.  It was filled by the waters of the Concho River and the Colorado River.  It covers 19,149 acres, and has maximum depth of 119 feet.  Not only is the birding great, but is also a favored fishing lake.

I must relate this experience of a previous birding trip.  Several months ago Suzanne and Sid Johnson, Ann and I, decided that we were going to Lake Ivie to bird.  For some reason that I can’t remember, we changed our mind and decided to go north to Cedar Gap Farm. We left San Angelo at around 8:30 in the morning.  It seems that the birding was pretty good along the way.  We arrived in Ballinger around noon.  The kicker is that Ballinger is only about 30 miles away. Three hours and a half to get to Ballinger, would you believe??  Anyway, we ate lunch there, and decided to return to San Angelo by way of Bronte and Robert Lee.  That took us another three hours or so.  Why do you ask??  Birding along the way, of course.  All in all, I think we scored 47 species for the trip.  Not bad for not making it to our original destination of Cedar Gap Farm..

If anyone else has anything else to report, e-mail me and I’ll pass the word.

Happy Birding!!

visit www.zellertexasphotos.com

A slow chilly day…

A beautiful sunshiny day, albeit a little cool with a strong north wind.  Didn’t get out to do any birding.  I had the sniffles a bit and didn’t want to catch anything.   I worked instead out in my shop and framed some pictures for display.  I do my own printing, mat cutting, and framing.   It’s all part of the creative process.  Pat Bales called and confirmed that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department had cleared me to lead the Birding tours at the park starting in January.  I thought I’d put three of my favorite pictures on the blog today for your, hopefully enjoyment.

Yellow Warbler

White-faced Ibis

Red-tailed Hawk

Actually I have a lot of “favorite ” pictures.  I will be adding more.  By the way, thes “framed” images are just for digital display.   My actual frames differ quite a bit from these.  And they are for sale.  If anyone’s interested in owning one,  just contact me.

Happy Birding!!

more photos at www.zellertexasphotos.com

Big Bend National Park

Since we made that short trip to the Big Bend last week, I haven’t touched on it much in my blog.  Now that I have gotten things caught up here a bit, I think I will try to enlighten you a little bit.

First of all, Big Bend National Park is located in Brewster County, Texas.  A

Mule Ears Peak in drizzly rain

 few facts about Brewster County.  It is the largest county in Texas.  It is larger than the state of Connecticut.  It is larger than the combined states of Vermont and New Hampshire.  Now mind you, this is a County that I am talking about.  The largest city in Brewster county is Alpine, population a little over 6,000  and it is the county seat.

Mount Casa Grande

Big Bend National Park covers 801,000 acres.  It is the largest in land area of the national parks, but the least visited.  That honor goes to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  On the busiest day of Big Bend NP it is still less busier than the slowest day in Great Smoky Mountains NP.  It is estimated that on an average day in Big Bend NP there is 200 acres per visitor.  That is lots of elbow room.  But of course, that is by no means a negative against Great Smoky Mountains NP.  I’ve been there twice and I absolutely love it, even though there are more people.  I just wanted to make the point that Big Bend NP is desolate, dry, sparsely populated, but there is a rugged beauty that will leave you in awe.  But you must take care.  Everything there will either sting you, prick you, or bite you.

There are approximately 2 dozen each of mountain lions and black bears.

Santa Elena Canyon

You will also see coyotes, javelinas, white-tailed deer, red coach-whips, scorpians, etc.  But will you will also see awesome rock formations, mountains, and deep canyons.  One of the most accessible canyons is Santa Elena Canyon, formed by the Rio Grande river.  The walls tower above you to 1,500 feet and it is less than 100 yard wide.  It stretches about nine miles along it’s length.  The Ross Maxwell Drive takes you right up to the mouth of it.

The Chisos Mountains is the center-piece of the park.  Towering to an altitude of around 8,000 feet they are hard to miss.  The center of the range is bowl shaped and the floor of it, at an altitude of 5,000 feet, is referred to as the Basin.  There you find the Lodge with excellent accomadations.  Also camping facilities.  There are hiking trails galore in the Chisos, with one that will take you up to the south rim where is there is sheer 2,000 foot drop-off, and a view where you can see forever.

The Window

Two of the most photographed sights in the Chisos are Mount Casa Grande and The Window.  The Window is a large V-shaped opening on the west side of the mountain range.  All of the water that falls in the Basin drains down through that opening.  At the pour-off there is a steep, very slippery, drop-off.  The sunsets that can be seen through The Window are a sight that you won’t soon forget.  And the view isn’t bad either.  You can see for 50-60 miles to the west from that 5000 foot elevation.

When we made the trip last week, we were unable to get reservations at the

Mountains in the Mist

Lodge in the Basin.  It books up several months in advance.  We however, had nice accomadations outside the west park entrance in Study Butte.  Our first day we traveled up into the Chisos and the Basin.  We ate lunch there, done a little birding, then we left and proceeded to tour the Ross Maxwell highway.  There are a lot of interesting sights along there, including some awesome scenic view pull-offs.  We stopped at the store in Castolon for a break, then proceded to Santa Elena Canyon.  After doing a little photography there we headed back to Study Butte, for dinner at La Kiva restaurant.  Then back to the motel where we sat outside our rooms and watched the sun set over the mountains to the west.

On Tuesday, we drove back in to the park, all the way over to the east side, to Rio Grande Village.  Nearby is an equally impressive Bouquillas Canyon, but because of muddy conditions, and because we had seen it on two other occasions, we by-passed taking that trail back to the entrance.  Rio Grande Village is an RV park.  There was a massive, devastating  flood in Big Bend NP nearly a year ago.  The Rio Grande was 24 feet over flood stage, the worst flood since the park opened in 1944.  It took quite a toll on the infrastructure, and you can still see the signs of the damage.  But on the other hand, there are great signs of recovery, too.

So, that’s about in on my travelogue.

Happy Birding!!

more photos at www.zellertexasphotos.com

Trapped in the bird blind.

Oh, the horror of it all!  Hey, it could have been serious. 

We went out to the San Angelo State Park Friday morning to check things out early.  Ann and I were sitting in the bird blind, which to you readers who have never been there, is actually a small building with viewing windows and benches to sit on.  While we were there, Charlie Rudd, one of the park hosts, dropped by for a moment to visit.   Upon leaving, he absent-mindedly latched the door from the outside.

What to do!  What to do!  We didn’t panic or scream or anything horrific like that.  Ann says heck, I’ll just climb out the window.  So since she is shorter than me, that sounded like a good idea.  So she lithely (yeah, right)  climbed out the window, but not without help from me.  She got on the sill, got one leg out the window, but had problem getting her other knee bent.  So I gave her a boost in that area, without breaking any of her bones.  She then went around and opened the door.  It gave us quite a laugh.  Just wait ’til we see Charlie Rudd again.

In other news it seems like I will be leading the monthly Adult Birding Adventure on the second Saturday of each month beginning in January of 2010.  Terry Richmond, who has lead it for several years is retiring.  I am the only person that showed any interest in taking over, according to Ranger Pat Bales.  I have to take the necessary papers to Pat this morning, so the Texas Parks and Wildlife Service can check my non-criminal record, and look at my character references.  Several people I know say that I am a character, so that should be no problem.

My plan is to start the program at 9:00 AM.  That is a little later than the current 7:30 starting time.  I feel that starting later may bring more people out to the park.  I hope to get larger gatherings, and to encourage participants to bring cameras, binoculars, and spotting scopes.  I am far from being an expert birder, but I feel I can learn from others in the group that are more informed.  It should be great fun for all.

Suzanne Johnson, of Eldorado, called us to say some new birds appeared at the water treatment ponds down there.  So we went down there for a few hours yesterday morning.  We saw one Ruddy Duck, and several Eared Grebes.  Both lifers for me.  I tried to get some photos but they were too far away to get usable images.  But what I did get were good enough to make a positive ID.  Suzanne said that she had also seen an American White Pelican, some widgeons, and gadwalls.

I hope to put some of my pictures of the Big Bend trip on my website this afternoon.  I have already framed a couple to exhibit for sale.  So later today, check my site, www.zellertexasphotos.com.  I will have some scenics from the Big Bend, and some new Red-tailed Hawk photos. 

Happy Birding!!

visit www.zellertexasphotos.com.

Back From the Big Bend

Wow!!  What a great time we had.  The trip started when we left San Angelo on Sunday morning.  We had a lot of drizzly, wet, and very foggy on the way

Big Bend Moutains

 down.  When we did get to Big Bend National Park we were greeted to scenes like this one.  The foggy clouds drifting in and out among the mountain peaks.  So since we couldn’t see the birds for awhile I decided to take advantage of the beautiful scenes and get some nice images of the vistas.

The weather was pretty much like this through Monday evening.  But we really dodged the showers.  The sun would come out in sporadic bursts and we would catch sight of various birds and wildlife.  We saw several javelinas, a red coachwhip snake, a coyote, a couple of antelope and mule-eared deer.

Later Tuesday afternoon we saw this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk sitting atop a

Red-tailed Hawk

sotol.  He was maybe a 100 yards off the highway, far enough that he wasn’t disturbed by our presence.  I had time to unload my tripod and 500mm lens and get set up.  I took a few shots of him sitting there, then after about 5 minutes he must have spotted some dinner, so he took off.  I was ready for him and got off several shots of him in flight.  One is pictured here.  Then furthur on we came across this meadowlark, sitting on a barbed-wire fence, just singing his heart out.  I had my 500mm resting on

Western Meadowlark

 the floor between the front seats, so I just pulled to the side of the road.  I hand-held the camera for this shot, as I knew I wouldn’t have too much time to make the photograph.  In actuallity I really wasn’t sure if this is an Eastern or a Western Meadowlark.  I just decided to go with the Western for the sake of “convenience”.

During our stay we stayed at the Chisos Mining Company Motel in Study Butte.   A very nice clean and inexpensive accomodation.  We ate our evening meals at a nearby restaurant by the name of La Kiva.  So named becaused it is partially “under-ground”, it is built into the bank of Terlingua Creek.  Excellent food and drink.  Think “margarita”.   It just so happened that Tuesday was Kareoki Night.  I was somehow talked into doing my part to entertain the locals, and rendered my version of a couple ballads.  It went very well, considering I hadn’t sang in public in about 25 years.

So it is good to be back, but I can be ready in a couple of hours, if  someone wants to invite me to go again.

Happy birding!!

More photos at www.zellertexasphotos.com

Howdy from The Big Bend

Just a few lines this morning while I’ve got an internet connection.  We arrived here late Sunday afternoon to foggy drizzles in the mountains.  In some places we couldn’t even see the mountains.  But making the best of it and having a great time.  Yesterday was a bit better, but still heavy fog earlier in the day ’til about noon.  Birding not great yet, I guess because the cool temps sent some of them further south into Mexico. 

We’re going out again the morning after we get some breakfast.  We will head across the park to Rio Grand Village and see what we can find there.  I hope they have re-built the little board walk across the marsh on the nature trail.  It was destroyed last spring during the devastating flood there.

We ate the last two evenings at a neat restaurant near Terlingua called the La Kiva.  Great steaks, etc, and wonderful margaritas.

More later today or tomorrow.

Headin’ for Big Bend

Tomorrow Ann and I are heading for Big Bend area of southwest Texas.  We’ll

Mexican Jay

 be back sometime late Wednesday afternoon.  I hope to keep posting to the blog if possible.  It depends on if I can find a wi-fi hot-spot.  If not I will catch up with you readers on Thursday.

We hope to spend most of the time in Big Bend National Park and do a little birding.  The Chisos Mountains are home to the Colima Warbler and is the only place it can be found in the United States.  The mountains are also the only place in Texas that the Mexican Jay, seen pictured here, can be seen.   It can also be found in southern Arizona.  I have never seen a Colima Warbler, so it will be a lifer for me if I can spot one.  Of course, I would like the opportunity to photograph the Mexican Jay again.

So check back frequently, and I’ll try to keep you updated if conditions permit, i.e. finding a internet connection.  We’ll be staying in Terlingua at the Chisos Mining Company at Easter Egg Valley motel. 

Happy Birding!!

more photos at www.zellertexasphotos.com.