Nothing could be finah, than to see a Carolina…..

A Carolina Wren.  That’s what I am talking about.  We have seen several over the weeks, but never was able to get a quality image.  This one posed quite beautifully for me on a fence post before moving inside the wire fence.

Carolina Wren

Carolina Wren

It was good day for birding.  We saw 28 species including our first of the year sighting of a Vermilion Flycatcher.  Yesterday we saw our first Bullock’s Oriole, a female at the north unit of San Angelo State Park.

Today, though, we headed to Spring Creek Park and that is where we saw the above Carolina Wrens.

Here are some photos from the past few days, since my last post to this blog.

Black-throated Sparrow

Osprey

Northern Flicker (red-shafted sub-specie)

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

How about another photo of an Osprey.  This time is being protective of that fish dinner he is working on.

Osprey

So now the weather is more spring-like and I think we will be seeing more of the spring and summer species arrive.  Our 2015 Big Year list stands at 118 right now.  Our goal by December 31 is to reach 210.  With nine months to go it should be no problem……right??

Until the next post…….Happy Birding

Birding fun in Uvalde, Texas

Okay, boys and girls, hang on to your hats.  I have a brazilion photos to show you from our two day trip to Uvalde, Texas.  At only about 195 miles south of San Angelo, it has much to offer in the way of birding.

Green Jay

First, I would like to mention that we arrived Wednesday afternoon at the Live Oaks Bed and Breakfast.  Owned and operated by Pat and Gaye Morris, it is a perfect way to spend a few days.  All the amenities that you would expect, plus a great breakfast.  Four rooms inside the main house, and three individual casitas of which we stayed in one called “Treehouse”.  No, silly people, we weren’t in a tree, but a wonderful little comfy cabin.  Click the above link for more information.

We decided to come to Uvalde when a Facebook friend, Bob Shackleford mentioned that his place was nearly overrun with Green Jays.  That really got my attention, as that was one bird that have dreamed of seeing and photographing for years.  I contacted him and invited myself to visit him when we came to Uvalde.  He has this delightful little bird blind, and sure enough there were more than enough Green Jays to satisfy any photographer.

Bob Shackleford’s bird blind

We were able to check in early Wednesday afternoon, so I called Bob and we decided to pay him and his wife, Marianne, a visit.  He wanted us to try out the blind immediately, and for a few minutes, I was rewarded with photo opportunities right away.

Green Jay

Northern Cardinal

We didn’t stay in the blind very long since it was very hot, and we wanted to visit with Bob and Anne (pronounced Anna) a bit longer, before we had to go check in to our little casita.  Before we left, we made arrangements to return the following day which was my birthday, and spend the day.  Anne, had already baked a cake for my birthday.  How great is that?

Green Jay

The following morning, after a sumptuous breakfast, cooked by Gaye, we headed back to the Shacklefords.  We headed right for Bob’s “Chicken House Bird Blind”.  Of course, I first photographed another Green Jay, then a few others.  Here are a few highlights.

Green Jay

Northern Cardinal, female

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Audubon variety

Black-crested Titmouse

Later, after going back to our room for a brief nap, we returned to have supper with the Shacklefords.  Wow!  That man knows how to use a barbeque grill.  He grilled some chicken breasts along with a bunch of veggies.  Then to top it off we had some of Anne’s pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and pecans.  Fantastic!

After that, Bob mentioned that we should drive out along the highway, as we could probably find some various hawks.  So we all piled into our little Ford Escape and headed out.  Here are some of the highlights of that drive.  There are many.  I forgot to mention, click on any of the photos in this post and you will see beautiful enlargements.

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk in flight

Forgive the clipped wings in the above photo, but I thought it was too beautiful to leave out of this post.

Scaled Quail – in late afternoon light.

Harris’s Hawk

Two Crested Caracaras share a utility pole crossbar.

Swainson’s Hawk

A drive along a country drive wouldn’t be complete with seeing one of these vultures.

Black Vulture surveys the landscape.

After saying goodbye to the Shacklefords, and promising to return in a few months we headed to our room, feeling great about our birding and photographic adventures.  We had hoped to see a Great Kiskadee, but that will have to wait until the next time.

The next morning after another great breakfast, I began my first day as an eighty-year old, and we headed back to San Angelo.  We were making good time, so we made a brief stop at the South Llano River State Park.  They have wonderful bird blinds there so we had time to check out one of them.

Nashville Warbler photographed at South Llano River State Park

For the trip, we saw a total of 40 species of birds.  We added two to my life list: Green Jay and Long-billed Thrasher.  That life list now stands at 275.  Maybe I can get to 300 before I turn 90.

For my 2014 Birding Big Year list, I added those two plus the Crested Caracara and the Harris’s Hawk, bring the total to 189.  Only eleven to go to make my goal of at least 200 species seen this year.

I feel great and I think it is going to be fun being an 80 year-old.  That is as long as I stay away from those senior centers and not let those old people influence me. 🙂

Photographing Birds in Flight

As most of you photographers know, one of the most challenging projects to tackle, is to photograph birds in flight.  A few of my other blogging photographer friends have touched on the subject recently.  I thought I would put my proverbial two cents worth in about this challenge.

Of course what is needed is a fast shutter speed along with a long lens.  Most of the time I am shooting with my Canon 7D or my 70D.  My preferred lens is my Canon 100-400mm zoom.  Sometimes I use the same camera with my Canon 500mm lens attached, using my tripod with a gimbal head for fast maneuverablity.

For the larger birds, I can use the widest angle of the lens to acquire the bird, then zoom in to pan the camera after locking in my auto-focus.  The fact that the large birds, hawks, vultures, pelicans, etc, appear to be flying slower helps quite a bit.  As for the tiny birds, well, I practice a lot and therefore get lucky alot.

House Finch in flight. Canon EOS 7D, 500mm lens /1.4 teleconverter. 1/2500 sec, f5.6, ISo 1000

One of those lucky shots was the one above of the House Finch in flight.  I was on a porch, with the described setup mounted on my tripod with a gimbal head.  The finches were flying back and forth between some shrubs below me.  I kept trying to swing the camera as the birds flew, and fortuntely the odds were with me, and I got lucky and captured it with it’s wings spread.

Red-tailed Hawk . Canon EOS 7D, 100-400mm lens. 1/3200 sec. @f6.3, ISO 400.  Hand-held.

This Red-tailed Hawk pictured above was somewhat easier.  I was driving towards Ballinger when I spotted the bird in the grass off of the left shoulder.  I moved quickly to the right hand side of the road, grabbed my camera off of my lap, where I always have it at the ready.  By then he had started to take flight.  My lens and camera easily acquired him, locked onto the auto-focus.  In burst mode I was able to fire off several exposures.

Red-tailed Hawk.  Canon 40D with 100-400mm lens. 1/800 @ f6.3, ISO 400.  Hand-held.

This photo is an example of being able to pan and therefore not having to use a super fast shutter speed.  The hawk and been perched atop a sotol int the desert of west Texas.  I had stopped to observe it from about 150 yards.  When it decided to take flight, I was ready.  I locked in on him and panned the camera.  Notice the 1/800 second shutter speed versus the 1/3200 speed in the previous photo.

Red-tailed Hawk – Canon EOS 40D, 1/1000 sec. @ f8, ISO 400. Hand-held.

The shot above was quite easy.  He was soaring overhead.  I exited the car and just panned as he flew around.  Again with burst mode, I got several nice exposures.  I liked this pose even though, I clipped a wing a bit.

Great Egret. Canon EOS 7D, 100-400mm lens. 1/500 sec. @ f9, ISO 1600.  Hand-held.

The Great Egret was flying slowly down the Concho River in San Angelo.  I was able to pan with the slower shutter speed again.  The under-exposed dark background is the shadows of a building in the background.

Great Blue Heron. Canon EOS 40D, 100-400mm lens. 1/1000 @ f11, ISO 400.  Hand-held.

Of course, what would my post be without a photo of one of my favorite subjects, the Great Blue Heron.  This photo was made near Lake Nasworthy here in San Angelo, Texas.

You may click on any of the images to see enlargements.

To update my west Texas “Big Year”, I added one more.

#85  Greater Yellowlegs.

Note:  My book, “Birds, Beasts and Buttes” is still going strong.  You can obtain one at this link, here.  Over 100 of my best photographs.

They don’t get no respect……

They are the Rodney Dangerfields of the avian world.  For you youngsters, Rodney Dangerfield was a stand-up comic who’s seemingly ongoing rants were about him not getting respect from anybody, including his wife.

Anyway, I am talking about the two species of cowbirds that are found in our area here in the Concho Valley.  They lie, cheat, steal, and do just about anything they can get away with.  They especially lay their young in other species nests, so they will have surrogate mothers.  So with all that, they wonder why they don’t get any respect from us.

However, after having said that, I feel that they, in their own right, are very attractive birds.  I am a birder and a bird photographer.  I present you with these images to see if you might agree with me.  First up is the Brown-headed Cowbird.  He (or she) has the worse reputation.  I usually don’t even try to get good photos of one.  (See, I don’t respect them either.)  But I did relent in a weak moment and got this photo.

Brown-headed Cowbird

Now I must admit, that the other bird of the species, the Bronzed Cowbird might be my favorite of the two.  They are difficult to photograph because of their dark colors, and so I love the challenge.  I might even say that I think they are beautiful.  I love those flashing bright eyes.  I have a weakness for beautiful eyes.  Let’s see what you think after looking at the next two photos.

Bronzed Cowbird

Bronzed Cowbird

I hope you enjoyed these photos.  Let’s show a little respect and give a big hand to these ill-treated birds.  Click on either of them to see some enlargements.

Blue Heron, Egret, and new lifer

This morning was mild but quite windy.  Wanting to get out of the house and do a little birding, Ann and I headed to Middle Concho Park.  With the winds, many of the smaller birds were hunkered down and out of sight.  However, as we entered the park, something caught my eye in the water to my left.  At first I thought it was a Doubled-crested Cormorant, but did a double-take when I noticed  a quite larger bill, and the head didn’t look familiar.  I knew that whatever it was, I knew I had never seen one before.  I told Ann that I was going to chase it down and try to get photos.

It had started swimming away from us, farther down this long inlet that eventually emptied into the river.  It bordered a Disc Golf Course.  Nobody was there, so I drove the car across the course to the water and drove along the shore.  The creature was making good time, occasionally diving under the water then coming up another 100 yards farther down.  I was finally able to catch up and was able to prop my 500mm lens on the window and get some shots.  We were then able to check the image in the camera with our Stokes guide and found that it was a Common Loon.  It is rare to our San Angelo area and it turned out to be lifer number 264 for me.

Common Loon

Driving farther along that same body of water, we then saw this Great Blue Heron doing some hunting.  It was completely oblivious of me as I slowly drove my car up within 25 feet of it.  I again used my 500mm lens with a 1.4. teleconverter and it was almost too much lens.  The photo below is full framed un-cropped except a little from the sides for size.  I love the detail of the feathers.  Give credit to the outstanding Canon L series lenses.

Portrait of a Great Blue Heron.

Later we also saw this graceful Great Egret doing a little searching for prey.

Great Egret

It was a fun morning, getting to photograph two of my favorite birds and also getting another addition to my life list.  Click on any image to see an enlargement.

Long-tailed Duck – another lifer

As I mentioned in a recent blog, I often get calls telling me of new discoveries.  Yesterday I received an e-mail from Suzanne Johnson down in Eldorado, about 45 miles south of San Angelo, informing us that a Long-tailed Duck was making a stop-over.  It is a bird that usually winters on either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, then spends the rest of the year in the far north.  Ann and I hopped into the car and headed that way this morning, as it is a bird that neither of us had ever seen before.  It took a bit of patience and searching but we saw it at the waste water ponds outside of town.

Again, I got lucky.  We searched for about 30 minutes, and as I was about to give up, I saw a bird splash down in the water.  I zipped my big lens around just in time to get it in focus.  It was my bird, i.e., the Long-tailed Duck.  It was windy, the water a bit choppy as the ponds are large, but I managed to get a couple of images of it.  Not great photos, but good enough to prove the Identification..

Long-tailed Duck

Long-tailed Duck accompanied by a couple of Eared Grebes.

We then came home after seeing about 15 other species in the ponds.  Later this afternoon, I got a call from friends in Eola, about 25 miles west, to come over and shoot photos of their cotton harvest.  Since they were half-way finished and cold weather on the way I though I would get over there and get the job done.

Cotton fields surround home on west Texas farm.

If the above photo was an aerial view, you would see that the home is surrounded by a sea of cotton fields.

Modules of compressed cotton harvested on cotton farm.

Pictured are 19 modules of compressed cotton, freshly harvested.  14 are full, 5 are nearly finished.  Each the size of a school bus.  And they are only half finished.  Looks like a good harvest.  (The modules appear shorter because of the long telephoto lens I was using.)

On the way home from that project, we spotted this Merlin atop a warning sign.  I barely had time to get the camera off of my lap and grab a shot, before it took off.

Merlin

The Long-tailed Duck is number 262 on my life list if any of you are interested.  Click on any image to see an enlargement.  By the way, the WARNING sign is for buried cable in the area.

Ladder-backed, Ladder-backed……..

Sounds like the beginning of a 60s rock’n’roll song.  Anyway, I found a few more images of the Ladder-backed Woodpecker when I was perusing my archives.  These are all male of the species.  I don’t know if you have seen them previously.  I do know that a couple of them had never been published before.  Click on any image to see an enlargement.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker in the branches.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Yellow-breasted Sapsucker

Another of the woodpecker species, is the Yellow-breasted Sapsucker.  Often mistaken for a woodpecker, it and the Red-naped Sapsucker are not too frequent visitors here.  Our local bird guides list them as “uncommon, not present every year”.

It is always nice to be able to photograph one close up, as I did this morning at Spring Creek Park.  We saw it moving among the trees, so I drove my car among the trees.  I was only about ten feet away to photograph this one.  It has a red crown, and a bit of red on the neck below the beak.  Forget the yellow belly.  This specimen was a bit ratty looking, it’s plumage dirty, and the reds not very vivid.  It probably hadn’t cleaned up yet from the recent rains.

Yelllow-bellied Sapsucker

In contrast, here is an older picture of a Red-naped Sapsucker.  Notice the red nape and the red crown.

Red-naped Sapsucker

While were out we encountered this Double-crested Cormorant trying to swallow his Happy Meal™.

Double-crested Cormorant with fish.

Why not end the day with another photo of one of my favorites, the Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron

Enjoy the pictures and click on either of them to see an enlargement.

Caution- Birding can be addictive……

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post on the hazards of getting addicted to birding.  You will enjoy this post more if you click here to read it first.  I think you will enjoy both.

Since then, I still have not kicked the habit.  In fact, it may have gotten worse.  I bore my friends with information when I spot a new bird.  I carry three bird guides in the car and Ann keeps her daily journal there, too.  My cameras are always at the ready, carefully stowed in the back seat, because I am also a fanatic about photographing every bird I can.

Lewis’ Woodpecker
Very rare here. Got a phone call, hurried to find the bird. Found it in local park.  It was gone the next day.

We drive through local parks, down isolated highways, crawl through weeds, with my camera on my back, always looking at trees, power lines, and utility poles.  We spot a stray leaf on a dead tree, and exclaim, “There’s a bird!”, then take a closer look with our binoculars, only to be disappointed.

Acorn Woodpecker
320 miles away for this shot.

I think my phone number must be on some peoples’ speed dial, because I get calls informing me that there is an unusual bird somewhere.  We jump in the car and head off, with our hearts pounding, wondering what will we get to see.  Will it be a rare bird, or just an ordinary sparrow.  The fun is in the hunt.

Ruddy Ground Dove
Very rare here, drove only 20 miles after getting a phone call about it.

For the shot of the Ruddy Ground Dove, I got a call from a friend of mine.  It had been seen at nearby Dove Creek.  For some reason, it had joined a bunch of Inca Doves and running with them.

Hermit Thrush
This is the first one I ever saw at Eldorado, Texas.

We were invited to my dear friend Shannon’s place near Houston.  It was a bonanza of birds there.  I saw my first Pileated Woodpecker and White-tailed Hawk there.  Also photographed some birds that I could never see around here in San Angelo, Texas, such as the White Ibis.

White Ibises – 400 miles away near Houston, Texas.  Nearly fell in the creek there.

Our friends, the Johnsons, called us a couple of years ago about a Brown Pelican at the water treatment ponds down at Eldorado, Texas, about 40 miles south of here..  It is normally indigenous to the Texas gulf coast, but got off course and ended up there.  We were on the way to eat dinner, if I remember correctly, but we turned the car around and headed south.

Brown Pelican
rare to local area.

As I said, birding can be hazardous to your health.  I am looking for a bumper sticker that says, “I Brake for Birds”.   I also stop in the middle of highways, make U-turns, and drive across open pastures.

For all of that, my life list is climbing.  Not very fast, as I have only been addicted for four years, but it is up to 261, if you are interested.

As for a cure for my addiction?  My doctor said to “take two pictures and call me in the morning”.

Yellow-rumped Warbler and more….

Today it was very cloudy, but warm and windy at about 77 degrees.  But it is more or less the calm before the storm.   Tomorrow it is supposed to be only 42°, then on Saturday even lower at 32°.  Those are predicted highs.

But enough about the weather.  I went out this Thursday morning to see if there were any birds around.  Not very many, we found out.  We did see a few at Spring Creek Park;  Western Bluebirds, House Finches, American Goldfinch to name a few.  Also the Ladder-backed Woodpecker of video stardom in my previous blog was still there.  I wonder if he is planning a nest at that location.

Here a couple of shots of a Yellow-rumped Warbler that I obtained.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

An Eastern Phoebe made an appearance, too.  Something familiar about that tree branch.

Eastern Phoebe

Meanwhile this squirrel watched all of the proceedings from above.

Squirrel

I hope you enjoyed this post and my photographs.  More to come in a few days, I hope.  Maybe that cold front will finally bring in some more of the birds that we have been missing.  Click on any image to see an enlargement.

By the way, my book would make excellent Christmas gifts for that birder in your family.  Click on “Birds, Beasts and Buttes” on the right side of this page to get preview and order if you like.  For autographed copies, contact me at bobzeller@pobox.com.