It is frigid again here this morning, and not expected to get above 40 degrees with winds up to 25mph. Possible snow flurries forecasted over the weekend, but not expected to stay on the ground very long. Stay tuned on that. Maybe San Angelo will have a white Christmas. If so, maybe I can get out and get some snowy photos.
Anyway, yesterday was beautiful, got into the 60s, so Ann and I took advantage and went to Middle Concho Park to do a little birding. We saw 28 species this time. (see list below). A few that were new, that we hadn’t seen for a long time. Here are some photo highlights. EXIF data will be at the bottom of this page.
Western Meadowlark
Vermilion Flycatcher - female
Eastern Bluebird - with attitude
Some of these photos are not up to my standards, but they are passable. For some reason, I wasn’t on my A-game. I was making exposure mistakes, accidentally moving my settings and not discovering them until it was too late, then had to try to fix the errors in Photoshop. I guess I was enjoying the weather too much and not paying attention. We sure saw a lot of birds though, and here is that list.
- Mockingbird 8
- Black Vulture 2
- American Coot 100+
- Gadwall 25+
- House Finch 50+
- Pied-billed Grebe 14
- Great Egret 3
- Yellow-rumped Warbler 75+
- Golden-fronted Woodpecker 8
- Western Meadowlark 35
- Ladder-backed Woodpecker 1
- American Goldfinch 15
- Lesser Goldfinch 6
- Eastern Bluebirds 75+
- Northern Shovelers 24
- Double-crested Cormorants 10
- Great Blue Heron 2
- White-crowned Sparrow 24
- White-winged Dove 50+
- Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- Red-tailed Hawk 1
- Great-tailed Grackle 20
- Marsh Wren 1
- Vermilion Flycatcher 4
- Bewick’s Wren 1
- Ring-billed Gull 20
- Red-winged Blackbird 24
- Mute Swan 3
About the photos: All photos were taken with my Canon 7D and 500mm lens with a 1.4 tele-converter. Aperture priority and partial metering. Handheld from the window of my car.
Western Meadowlark. 1/640 sec. @ f6.3 ISO 400
Vermilion Flycatcher. 1/4000 sec. @ f6.3, +0.3 EV, ISO 400 Distance 50 feet.
Eastern Bluebird 1/5000 sec. @f5.6 ISO 400 Distance 30 feet.
Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller 