Valentine’s Day Weekend birding

While trying to get my new computer up and running, I just had to take a few breaks to get out for some birding and photography.  I needed to relieve the stress. But I certainly have a feeling of accomplishment.  I had a few glitches and problems, but along with encouragement and help from my dear friend, Deb, up in Tennessee, and my wife, Ann, the job got done.

Because of time limitations, we just hit the local parks for a few hours.  I managed to come away with a few usable photos.  Also I believe we added about three more birds to our 2016 list.  We are at 103 now for the year.  The weather was really gorgeous.  Hard to believe it is only mid-February.

First a Pied-billed Grebe in Lake Nasworthy at Spring Creek Park.  These little guys are cuties.

Pied-billed Grebe

A Great Blue Heron at same location.  He sat on this buoy for quite awhile.

Great Blue Heron

A Northern Flicker pecking away at something on the ground.

Northern Flicker

One of several Black-crested Titmouses along the brushy fence line.  They re cute, but very feisty.

Black-crested Titmouse

The first spring American Robin for us, at Middle Concho Park.

American Robin

I hope you enjoy these photos.  Click on any of them to see enlargements.

‘Till next time, Happy Birding!

Photos and a DVD update.

Still pretty warm (hot) here and we are not getting out much.  The birds are laying pretty low, so I am getting caught up, going through old images, and resurrecting some.  Here is one that I came across that I captured in February and never before published to this blog.  Probably one of my favorites of a Northern Bobwhite.

Northern Bobwhite

Another February photo of a Black-crested Titmouse.

Black-crested Titmouse

From April, an Osprey.

Osprey

Recently, driving in the heat through Mary Lee Park here in San Angelo, I discovered that the Prairie Dogs are expanding there range away from the nature center there.  This little guy was eyeing me carefully as I drove by.

Black-tailed Prairie Dog

Click any image to see some great enlargements.

DVD UPDATE:

My new “World of Bob Zeller – Outdoor Photographer” DVDs are here. Outstanding collection with great sound track. 100 of my best images. Better than my book. Produced by DSTappan Productions of Knoxville, Tennessee. Price is 25.00 that includes Texas tax and shipping. Local San Angelo residents only 20.00 if I can deliver it to you. I do business the old-fashioned way, just a handshake. You mail me a check to: Bob Zeller, 4401 White Ash Ln., San Angelo, TX 76904-4528, and I will get one shipped to you. Also, my phone is 325-944-1839 and my e-mail is bobzeller@pobox.com.  I have many references as to my honesty if you are interested.

That’s all for now.  Happy Birding!!

 

Birding before the rains……

The forecast for yesterday was cloudy with an 80% chance of rain.  Well, for me that meant there was a 20% chance that it wouldn’t rain.  Ann and I ate breakfast and it hadn’t started to rain yet, so we were thinking that maybe we were home free.  We decided to head out.  On the way, we saw some ducks in a pond behind a nearby Firestone store.  We saw Green-winged Teals and Northern Pintails there.

Northern Pintail with Green-winged Teal in the background.

We had not been to San Angelo State Park in several days so we decided to go to the the bird blind there.  We were hoping to see a Spotted Towhee that had been reported there.  It would be an addition to our 2015 Big Year list.  We were not disappointed as it did make an appearance, and the other bird species were quite active, considering the oncoming cold front.  We were able to see  many other species.  We were not so lucky in seeing a Verdin, that also had been reported earlier.  With the skies being heavily clouded the light was somewhat low.  However I was able to come away with these images.

Curve-billed Thrasher

female Northern Cardinal eyeballing that upside-down peace sign created by that hanging branch of a Cholla plant.

A feisty Spotted Towhee

Pyrrhuloxia

Pyrrhuloxia

Black-crested Titmouse

Shortly after that final photo was captured, it started to rain.  We skedaddled out of there.  We were happy to head home, as I felt we had come away with some nice images and we added two more to our 2015 Big Year list; Spotted Towhee and Northern Pintail.  We are now at 86, with “only” 124 to go to make our goal of 210 by December 31.  Should be a piece of cake.  Right?  Yeah, right.  Stay tuned…… 🙂

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. 🙂

Good day for birding on Friday

I had gotten an e-mail from a friend, saying that he had seen some Mississippi Kites along the Concho River downtown.  So after eating an early breakfast at Stango’s in town, we decided to prowl along the river to see if we could see one of the kites.  We got more than we expected.

First of all, we spotted a Coopers’s Hawk across the river.  I almost missed him as he was partly hidden from branches, but enough of him showed up in the early morning light.  Although a long way across, I tried to get him in my viewfinder and snapped of a few shots.  Fortuntely I was using my new Tamron 150-600mm lens.  I was at the extreme end at 600mm, and this is the result I got.

Cooper’s Hawk

We saw a Green Heron fly by us and settle down by the water, so we followed it and stopped along the road.  I got out of the car and walked closer to the shore.  It was across the water about 100 yards away.  Again, the Tamron lens came through for me.

Green Heron

We saw a couple of Great Blue Herons, but I didn’t like the images.  They were too contrasty in the light.  Oh yes, we did see a couple of Mississippi Kites, but they were too far away, even for my long lens.

We then decided to head to Spring Creek Park, where we had previously seen the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers.  They had decided to fly elsewhere, but we saw another Eastern Phoebe.

Eastern Phoebe

Then we came across another bird, that we thought was another phoebe.  I took several photos of it, and only after we got home and I was able to enlarge the image for a closer look, did I discover it was an Eastern Wood Pewee.  You can see the similarities.

Eastern Wood Pewee

After that we drove down near where the river gets wider.  Ann saw this larger heron type bird fly across us and land near the the opposite shore.  At first, I thought it was another Great Blue Heron, when it flew over the car.  An illusion of course, as it turned out to be a smaller juvenile Yellow-crowned Night Heron.  Unfortunately, it was right next to a piece of trash, and it wasn’t going to walk around it.  Neither could I figure out how to remove such a large portion of the photo, so I just decided to leave it as.

1st year Yellow-crowned Night Heron

Leaving that park, we headed over to Middle Concho Park, actually just on the other side of the river.  There wasn’t much going on there, except this little Black-crested Titmouse in a small tree.

Black-crested Titmouse

We will be going out this weekend for more fun and birding so stay tuned for whatever we may come across.  Click on any image to see enlargements.

Quiz Results – Black-crested Titmouse

Yes, folks it was a Black-crested Titmouse in that previous quiz.  Click here to see original post.

Results of the voting:

Black-crested Titmouse   99

Tufted Titmouse     45

All of the above      4

In a sense, everybody was right.  The Black-crested and the Tufted are hybrids of each other.  The Tufted Titmouse is found in most of the eastern United States.  The Black-crested Titmouse is found in central and west Texas.  The dividing line is somewhere down the center of Texas.  There are areas there that one may be able to see both.

We had 148 participants in this contest.  We get a few more with each quiz.  I am working on another and I will publish it in a few days.  Thanks to everyone that voted.

They’re Titmouses, not Titmice

Catchy title to get your attention.  I was sitting here trying to decide what to post about.  I have been idle, just goofing off for the past week or so.  Time to write, but what to write about.  Time for the old “throw the dart trick”.  I threw the dart, it bounced off the wall and fell to the floor.  So much for that deal. So I flipped a coin, and it came up Titmouse.  Don’t ask…..

I haven’t written about Titmouses, not Titmice, in quite some time, maybe never.  I don’t recollect.  Anyway here in the west we have the Black-crested Titmouse, and in the east they have the Tufted Titmouse.  Same bird except the difference in the tufted little crown.  It’s grey in the east, by the way.  The dividing line is somewhere around the center of Texas, and you’ll see each of them around there.  To be truthful, they don’t go any farther west.  Hmmm..

I dug through the old archives;  actually old files, but I like to call them archives.  It sounds more impressive, don’t ya think?  You would think from that, they are carefully stored for generations to come.  Not.  I actually just file them away in my image file, where they may or may not get lost, depending on how careful I am with tagging them.

In those archives, I found these images that you might enjoy.

Black-crested Titmouse

Black-crested Titmouse

Black-crested Titmouse being hassled by a Black-chinned Hummingbird.

Black-crested Titmouse

Black-crested Titmouse

Black-crested Titmouse

Black-crested Titmouse

And there you have it.  My best collection of Titmouses.  I need to get out more.  I need to sharpen that dart, too.

Click on any image to see an enlargement.

More Pre-Easter Photos

I might as well continue where I left off, writing the previous post about Ann’s and my little trip to Middle Concho Park.  Let’s see where was I?  Oh, yes, I wrote about seeing our first Black-crowned Night Heron of the season.  That was pretty neat.  However, after that we continued on the little drive along the river and through the park.  We saw the following species.  I more or less will let the images themselves do most of the talking.  All photographs were taken with my two Canon EOS 7Ds.  Click on the photos to see enlargements.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck

We were surprised to see two Black-bellied Whistling Ducks, strolling through the park, paying no attention to us.  They really do whistle, by the way.  The light wasn’t very good but  I shot from the car using my Canon 100-400mm lens.  1/1250 sec. @f5.6, -0.3EV, ISO 160.

Great Blue Heron

Then, we spotted a Great Blue Heron, and of course, it was on the opposite side of the river.  I unloaded the tripod and got the shot with my Canon 500mm lens and 1.4 tele-converter.  1/1250 sec. @ f6.3 -0.3EV, ISO 100.

Black-crested Titmouse

We spotted this Black-crested Titmouse in a tree, preening his feathers.  He was a little cutie.  It looks like he could use a little grooming job done on him.  Again, I got this shot from the car window using my Canon 100-400mm zoom lens.  1/640 sec. @f6.3, ISO 200.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

We came upon a Ladder-backed Woodpecker scurrying around in a tree.  It was moving pretty fast, so I stopped the car and got out and moved around a bit, trying not to attract the bird’s attention.  I finally found a spot to shoot it through some branches.  I used my trusty Canon 100-400mm zoom lens again.  1/500 sec. @ f8, -0.3EV, ISO 500.

Great Egret

Along the way, we again spotted a Great Egret doing some stalking for prey.  Where else, but across the river again.  What is it about the other side of the river?  Seriously, in all honesty, the best shot was when they are on the other side of the river, even though the distance is about 150 yards.  If they were on this (my) side of the river, it would have been difficult to find a good shooting position.  So I needed to get my tripod out again for the long shot.  Canon 500mm lens with a 1.4 tele-converter.  I love this shot, the way the egret stands out from the background.  1/1250 sec. @f5.6, -0.3EV, ISO 100.

Here was an easy one.  I passed a tree and the Northern Mockingbird was only about 10 feet away on a tree branch.  Easy shot.  Handled easily with my Canon 100-400mm zoom lens.  1/400 sec. @ f22, -0.3EV, ISO 3200.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

On the way out of the park, I spotted another Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and I couldn’t resist getting that final shot.  So we then headed for the house so I could get busy planning for this post.  Canon 100-400mm zoom lens.  1/500 sec. @ f8, -0.3EV, ISO 160.

I hope you enjoyed these photos.  Happy Easter everyone. 🙂

The Great Blue Heron – plus……Lifer 241

We took a run out to Middle Concho Park today.  One of the highlights was catching a photo op of the Great Blue Heron, (Ardea herodias).  The Great Blue is I believe my favorite of all of the herons to photograph.  This one flew up from the river and lit high in the top of a tree on the other side.  I love the way the light breeze was blowing his plumage.  He was about 125 yards away.

I was in the car, but I was facing the wrong way to get a shot from the drivers side.  I got out and hand-held my Canon 70D with 500mm lens and 1.4 tele-converter, resting against the hood of the car.  Exposure was 1/1250 sec. @ f8 with a ISO of 125.  Center-weighted metering and aperture priority.  Click on the image to see a beautiful enlargement.

Great Blue Heron

As I said above, that was one of the highlights.  There were others and one was the spotting of not one, but two Brown Creepers, (Certhia americana).  The Brown Creeper is another rarity for the San Angelo area, so I was very pleased to see these two.  And, by the way, since I had never saw one before this was lifer number 241 for me, if anyone is keeping count.  I did get photos for confirmation, but they are not publishable quality by my standards.  They are good enough for identification purposes.

It was a good birding day.  In all we saw these 35 species:

1. American Coots   35+
2. Northern Shoveler   50+
3. Gadwall   12
4. Northern Mockingbird   4
5. House Finch   12
6. Great Blue Heron   9
7. Pied-billed Grebe   6
8. Cinnamon Teal   11
9. Great-tailed Grackle   4
10. Belted Kingfisher   2
11. Ladder-backed Woodpecker   2
12. Common Grackles   6
13. Red-winged Blackbird   2
14. Golden-fronted Woodpecker   6
15. Great Egret   2
16. Green-winged Teal   8
17. Brown Creeper   2  (lifer)
18. Meadowlark   6
19. Yellow-rumped Warbler   2
20. Eastern Bluebird   2
21. Cooper’s Hawk   1
22. European Starlings   8
23. Black-crested Titmouse   3
24. Dark-eyed Juncos – slate   12
25. Mallard   2
26. Northern Cardinal   2
27. Blue Jay   1
28. Savannah Sparrow   1
29. American Robins   2
30. Forster’s Terns   2
31. Ring-billed Gulls   50+
32. Northern Pintail   2
33. Hooded Merganzer   1
34. Ring-necked Ducks   50+
35. White-winged Dove   1

Shooting in Overcast Light

I am sure most of you have heard how great it is to photograph on overcast days.  The reasons are that the light is diffused, and there are virtually no shadows.  Plus the colors tend to be more saturated, especially if there has been rain showers.  In this case we are not talking about saturated with wetness, but more vibrancy in the colors.

Black-crested Titmouse

Such were the conditions Tuesday morning.  There was no rain falling in the area but it was heavily clouded.  I waited until late morning, around 11:00, to go out to the bird blind at San Angelo State Park.  During bright sunny days, this blind is not the greatest for photography at this time of day.  Mainly because of the direction in which the blind faces.  But this day, it wouldn’t have mattered which way it faced.  It was perfect lighting from any direction.

Pyrrhuloxia peeking through branches

I couldn’t believe my good fortune when arriving there.  As you can see from the photos, the light is perfect.  There was no feed in the feeders, but I took care of that and put out enough to satisfy the birds that were still hanging around.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

I set up my Bogen-Manfrotto tripod with the Wimberley gimball head.  On that I mounted my Canon EOS 7D and Canon f4 500mm lens.  I had no need for the 1.4 converter at the blind.  I also had my 100-400mm lens with me, but found no need to use it during this shooting session.

I was quite comfortable sitting and shooting from an open window.  I had a few munchies and a bottle of Gatorade with me so I was content to just sit and watch for a few photo ops for over an hour.

Anyway, in conclusion, unless you are specifically looking for blue skies and puffy white clouds, get out there with your camera on those dreary days.  You will surprise yourself with your results.

Photo data, all aperture priority and center-weighted metering:

Black-crested Titmouse:  1/640 sec @ f7.1, -0.3EV, ISO 160.

Pyrrhuloxia:  1/800 sec @f7.1, -0.3EV,  ISO 400.

Yellow-rumped Warbler:  1/640 sec @ f7.1, -0.3EV, ISO 400.