Return to K-Mart Creek

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About four blocks from our home there is a vacated K-Mart store.  It has been empty for a few years, the parking lot overgrown with weeds.  It is located in the southwest part of San Angelo, on the frontage road that runs paralell to Loop 306.  Between the parking lot and the frontage road is a borrow ditch, or “bar-ditch” as we call them here in west Texas.

There is usually water running there, drainage and run-off, etc.  Birds of different species frequent the place.  Ann and I started referring to it as K-Mart Creek.  There would be herons, egrets, ducks and various others.  During the last year, during our terrible drought, it was dry most of the time, and there were very few birds.  Now with recent rains there is a little water and birds are beginning to return to the creek and the surrounding grasses.  A few days ago we spotted several Northern Pin-tailed Ducks.

Northern Pintail

This morning as we were coming home from breakfast, we decided, as we do often, to check out the ‘creek’.  There were no ducks this time, but in the brush along with a couple of White-winged Doves, there was this Eastern Phoebe.  We were in the parking lot side of the ditch, and the brush was on our side of the ditch.  I was able to use my Canon 7D with my Canon 100-400mm lens for the shot.  I also used the same set-up previously for the image of the Northern Pintail above.

Eastern Phoebe

Please click on either image to see nice enlargements.  Exposure data follows:

Northern Pintail: 1/1250 sec. @ f5.6, +0.3EV, ISO 800

Eastern Phoebe: 1/500 sec. @ f7.1, +0.7EV, ISO 1000

36 thoughts on “Return to K-Mart Creek”

    • Thanks for the link. I will look into that. In the meantime, I hope you get a camera soon. 🙂

      P.S. I live in San Angelo, Texas, but I was born and raised in Muskegon, Michigan.

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  7. My husband I are hosts at SASP and I take pictures of anything that I see. (just about) I love looking at your pictures, as I am a new viewer. I have several birds I don’t know their names. Would I be imposing to ask you to name a couple?

    cam

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  10. Beautiful images, especially the pintail – he is gorgeous. You have such a wealth of wildlife, and in surprising places!

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    • Thanks, Mia. Because I up a slope from the ducks, I think that I was partially away from distracting them. I was actually looking over the top of the rise and I think that helped. I appreciate your compliments. 🙂

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  13. We have a Target Creek that is usually full of swans, ducks, turtles and herons. It’s where I saw my first kingfisher too. Glad TX got some rain! xo

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  14. You do very well with the 100-400 Bob. As you noted previously we have the same gear (including two lenses) but I nearly always use the 500 when I can for the extra sharpness and speed. That’s hurt me with tightness on the subject at times. Your shots here demonstrate to me that I should work on my skills with the zoom again. Look forward to following your blog.

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    • I love using my 500mm as much as I can for the same reason you mentioned, but, even though, the 500mm is always in my car, I can’t always reach it as fast as I can the 100-400mm. The thing about the zoom is I feel that I must be very careful about not letting the zoom slip when I am shooting. When I first started using it, I think I may have lost some sharpness with being a little careless in that aspect. I will look forward to following your blog, too. It’s always fun to compare notes, etc, on each other’s methods, etc.

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  15. The Northern Pintail is such a lovely bird and the Phoebe is so soft looking. It is amazing where you find birds and ducks. Here is the spring, we see Mallards dabbling in any little puddle they can find. Great photos..

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