A brief post this Christmas Eve 2017. I am going to interupt your festivities to wish you and all of my readers all over the world in 170 countries, a very Merry Christmas from the great state of Texas.
But I must post a photograph for you. Here is one that I captured a couple of days ago. One of my best of this species. I hope you like it.
Eastern Bluebird
To me the Bluebird signifies happiness, and I hope it reaches all of you.
Until the next time…….. Happy Birding!!
We couldn’t resist. Today we decided we had to bird for a couple of hours at the parks at Lake Nasworthy. The heck with cleaning up the house. We are pretty much ready anyway, for our upcoming trip to Fort Davis, leaving Thursday morning.
So away we went. I think I will give you the good news first. We saw a Lesser Black-backed Gull. A very rare bird for this area, possibly the first reported sighting. It was hanging with about 100 Ring-billed Gulls, so I spotted it also immediately, although I didn’t know what it was. I snapped a couple of photos and sent them to Eric Carpenter, my go-to guy at Texas Ornithological Society. He e-mailed back to me a definite confirmation.
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Now the bad news. Although it is a lifer for me, number 277, it was not my 200th on my 2014 Big Year List. A friend of mine noticed that I had listed Eastern Wood Pewee twice on the list, so I am back to 199.
But possibly more good news. We have been informed that there is a Lewis’s Woodpecker hanging around the north entry to San Angelo State Park. So I have a feeling that we will be checking it out Wednesday morning. That would be number 200 if we can spot it.
While I am writing this, I might as well include some nice photos from today.
Black-crowned Night Heron – juvenile
Dark-eyed Junco – slate colored
White-crowned Sparrow
Then one more that I forgot to post yesterday.
Eastern Bluebird – female
So now I think that will be my last post before we leave for Fort Davis. But, I think that is what I said yesterday…… 🙂
This post might be a bit brief from the narrative side. I couldn’t think of anything to write about more deeply. We did make a few excursions this past week to do a bit of birding, and get a few photographs along the way. We did see our first Bullock’s Oriole and Scissor-tailed Flycatchers of the year. Also the first Black-necked Stilts that we have seen in over two years. With the level of Lake Nasworthy having dropped three feet, the shoreline is wider and making great habitat for the wading shorebirds. Here are a few photos for you to see. I would strongly ask that you read this post by clicking on the link. Then you can click the images and see some great enlargements.
Osprey
I watched the Osprey for twenty minutes, hoping he would turn to face me a me a little bit, but it never happened.
Eastern Bluebird
The Eastern Bluebird was in the shade a little bit, almost making the face too dark, but I love photographing them.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher was a harbinger of many more to come. Summer is almost upon us.
Eastern Phoebe
Solitary Sandpiper
Black-necked Stilt
I love the elegant, gracefulness of these Black-necked Stilts. Their slender legs are about the size of straws.
Bullock’s Oriole
The Bullock’s Oriole is the predominant oriole in this area. The one above was the first I saw this spring. It was nearly too far away for a decent photo.
Great Horned Owlets
The owlets were over two hundred yards away, across the lake, high in a tree. My friend, Julie Stewart, told me about them. She attempted to photograph them with her 300mm lens, but were almost out of reach. She thought that with my 150-600mm lens I might have a better chance. I got the above shot, putting my setup on a tripod at the water’s edge. Even then, I had to do some extreme cropping, and a little sharpening. Those tiny twigs in front of the birds made focusing from that distance very difficult. But thank you, Julie, for giving me the chance.
So, that’s about it for this time. I love reading your comments, so if you feel like saying a few words, give it a go below.
By the way, the Solitary Sandpiper is number 140 on my Texas Big Year list.
This past week was spent doing a few odd things around the house, and a few hours birding. Nothing spectacular captured, but after getting home and looking at my results a second time, I realized that there might be some keepers here. Here are some highlights.
American Kestrel
This American Kestrel was sitting on a utility cable near the entrance to Middle Concho Park. I love these feisty little raptors. A ferocity belies their cute appearance.
American White Pelican
Yes, we do have a few Pelicans this far from the coast. Nearly every year a few make San Angelo their winter home. I was especially proud of this image that I captured of one just placidly gliding along.
Northern Flicker
This Northern Flicker is the yellow-shafted variety as you can see by the the yellow feathers beneath the tail.
Eastern Bluebird
A female Eastern Bluebird perched on a tree.
Bewick’s Wren
This Bewick’s Wren (pronounced buick’s). He thought that I couldn’t see him, but my 150-600mm lens sought him out.
Greater Yellowlegs
The Greater Yellowlegs loves to wade in the waters of the Spring Creek Park. I wonder where he got the name.
Osprey
The Osprey, one of my favorite raptors. Hope you like this image. I feel that he is just sitting and pondering the future. As a matter of fact, the more I look at this photo, the more I like it myself. Heck, I just may have a bit of artistic talent myself. Notice in the title of this post that I opted for ‘skinny guy’ over ‘old geezer’. Hey, I still have my ego to contend with.
Click on any enlargement to see some great enlargements.
I went out this morning to do a bit of birding and of course, some bird photography. The bird action is picking up with the fall migration beginning. But nothing to do with the migration, was when I spotted this Easter Bluebird perched in a tree. It turned out to be a good test for my new Canon EOS 70D. I took several exposures in the somewhat difficult light. The bird was backlit from the right and was in heavy shade for the most part. I was shooting with a Canon 100-400mm lens. Here are before and after images. The first was the original, untouched image straight from the camera. The second is cropped with minor light, color, and sharpening adjustments. With the large 20MP file, I found that I could crop tight and lose very little quality.
Original
Cropped and retouched
I would say that I am going to be very happy with my new investment. Click on either image to see an enlargement.
There are plenty of Eastern Bluebirds around west Texas. However, there is another bluebird that is not seen very often here, and that is the Western Bluebird, (Sialia mexicana). Yesterday I was lucky enough to see about a half dozen of them in a small local park area. Besides that, I was also fortunate to be able to get my vehicle close enough for these pictures.
Western Bluebird
Western Bluebird
Now compare these with the image below of an Eastern Bluebird, (Sialia sialis). The blue covers the entire head and chin of the Western, whereas on the Eastern the blue stops just below the beak. The Western belly is more grayish, in contrast to the bright white belly of the Eastern.
Eastern Bluebird
The Eastern is found pretty much in the entire United States west of the Rockies. You can see the Western usually in very far West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and the Pacific coast. Here in San Angelo, we are about 300 miles east of their usual range. Enjoy the images and click in any of them to see an enlargement.
Here are some random images that I took the past few mornings at Middle Concho Park and Spring Creek Park. Perfect fall weather, mild temps, zero wind, the water smooth as glass. The trees are changing color and the birds are happy. Ann and I are just cruising along enjoying all of the above. First up, a couple of images of a Pyrrhuloxia. Okay, I know how some of you have trouble with pronouncing that name. Here again: pie-rul-oxia. Close enough, Ron?
Pyrrhuloxia – female
Pyrrhuloxia – female
A Belted Kingfisher intent on watching the water for a meal.
Belted Kingfisher
A Golden-fronted Woodpecker digging in.
Golden-fronted Woodpecker – female
A pretty Eastern Bluebird just relaxing.
Eastern Bluebird
A Great Blue Heron peruses the action.
Great Blue Heron
This may be my last post for a few days. My bride, Ann and I are leaving for the Big Bend area on Wednesday morning. We hope to have more stories and new photographs for you on our return next week. I hope you enjoy these photos here. Click on any of them to see some enlargements.
You have heard me tell you several times how much Ann and I enjoy going to Middle Concho Park, and it’s sister park, Spring Creek Park across the river. It seems that there is always a chance to see something different. Of course, that is because of the changing seasons, different birds are there at different times of the year. There are over 380 species of birds that can be seen in the Concho valley, and I dare say that most of them can be seen at these parks, at one time or another, depending when you happen to visit. You may get lucky and spot one of the Horned Owls like the one pictured below.
Great Horned Owl
We spotted this owl high in a tree in Spring Creek Park. There was a lady nearby, walking a small dog, unaware of what was perched above her head. She laughed when we told her why I was pointing my camera up there.
Belted Kingfisher
This Belted Kingfisher was cavorting along the river and finally lit on a power line that crosses the water. Nervously, I hurriedly set my Canon 7D with 500mm lens with a 1.4 tele-converter on my drivers side window sill and got the shot before it flew off looking for another place to fish.
Great Egret
On another day we saw several Great Egrets. This one was across the river and I was able to get the shot. Another wading bird that you can see almost every day of the year, is the Great Blue Heron like the one pictured below.
Great Blue Heron
The Osprey is another bird that thrives on fish, and the catfish in these waters are one of his favorites. Here one sits on a tree branch enjoying his dinner.
Osprey enjoying catfish dinner.
Another raptor that frequents these parks is the Red-tailed Hawk. One morning Ann and I witnessed three of them. Two were flying through the trees close together in Middle Concho Park, while the third was across the river perched high in a tree. Watch out for low flying birds.
Red-tailed Hawk
Of course we can’t ignore the smaller birds, can we. These parks teem with species like, Eastern Bluebirds, Robins, Warblers, etc. Below is a Yellow-rumped Warbler.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
The best way to appreciate the birding here is to just drive very, very slow through the area. Watch the treetops, watch for un-natural movement in the branches of the live oaks, use your binoculars, and listen. Sometimes we come to a complete stop, and discover there are tiny birds all around us. At least we can hear them or see the branches move. We then put our binoculars to work to locate the source.
Eastern Bluebird
These two parks are maintained very well. The grass is mowed on a regular basis and early in the week the park employees are always on the job picking up trash left over from the careless individuals that use the place on weekends. They seem to not see the trash cans that are placed about forty feet apart all through the park.
Northern Cardinal
We find that the best time to do any birding is on the weekdays. On any given day you literally may have the park all to yourself. Have fun. Click on any of these photos to see some nice enlargements.
First an announcement starting Monday my quizzes will be run from Monday until Friday. In other words I will publish a new one on Monday, then the results on Friday. This will make it so you don’t have to wait so long for results, and also give me more time in between to create the new ones.
So, Happy Friday to you and let’s get right to it. I know that you have been waiting in anticipation for the results of my fourth “What Bird is This” quiz. Here is the original photograph.
Western Scrub Jay 37 votes
As you can see, the correct name is Western Scrub Jay, with 37 votes. Here are the alternate photos and the votes they garnered.
Blue Grosbeak – 22 votes
Mexican Jay – 5 votes
Blue Jay – 4 votes
Eastern Bluebird 3 votes
Congrats to the people that decided that it was indeed a Western Scrub Jay. Better luck to the rest of you in Quiz #5 that will be published Monday morning, as soon as I get my devious mind to work on it. 🙂
In other news, I went back to “K-Mart Creek” to see if the Yellow-crowned Night Heron was still there, and it turned out to be that there were three of them. Anyway, I got a couple more photos to share here.
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Yellow-crowned Night Heron with food
Enjoy the photos and click on any of them to see an enlargement.
The weather Wednesday was still windy and cool. However we, Ann and I, did get out for a little bit. We took a little drive through Middle Concho Park again. This time I got images of another Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias), and an Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). The heron was on the other side of the river. I maneuvered the car down near the bank so I could shoot it from my drivers’ side window. I rested my Canon 7D with 1.4 tele-converter on the Puffin’ Pad on the sill. Even with the wind, it was still a stable platform. Exposed at 1/1250 sec. @ f7.1, ISO 250.
Great Blue Heron in tree
Also, along the river we spotted an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), flying overhead. I grabbed my other Canon EOS 76 with a Canon 100-400mm lens attached, hopped from the car to see if I could get an inflight shot. This is the result. The bird was pretty high up and back-lit so I had to crop it extensively to produce this photo. Not the best image, but I wanted to show it to you anyway. Exposure 1/2000 sec @ f5.6, ISO 100.
Osprey in flight
Later, as we were driving through some of the roads in the park we saw this Eastern Bluebird in a tree off to the left. It was in the shade, making exposure a little difficult. I used the same set-up as I did with the heron. Exposed at 1/640 sec. @f5.6 +0.3EV, ISO 200.
So all in all, the trip wasn’t wasted. The weather is starting to heat up again over the weekend so hopefully it will be a more comfortable time to get out to get some more photographs. For these, click on any of them to see an enlargement.
Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller 