Recent Odds and Ends…..

The weather is continuing to be warm, read very warm, and the birds continue to be stressed and they keep to themselves hidden somewhere in the trees and landscape.  However, that doesn’t stop Ann and I from getting out a couple of hours each morning.  Although not getting many images, I have lucked out and got a few nice ones.  Here is a collection, mostly from the past several months that I believe that I may not have ever posted here.  Some may be even older.  My Facebook readers will probably recognize many of them.  If you can, PLEASE view this on a computer.  That way if you click on any image, you can see some very beautiful enlargements.

This Painted Bunting we found at an old mudhole that was on the verge of drying up.  If I were to go there this morning, I am sure it would be dry.  Anyway, I think this is one of my favorite photos of this bird, and I think it is a great start to this blog post.

Painted Bunting

This Greater Roadrunner that I photographed yesterday at San Angelo State Park ranks as one of my best of that species.  I love the way the light enhanced the various colors of the feathers.

Greater Roadrunner

Since I have been spending more time in the house, I have been at the computer going through images from the past few months, that I hadn’t edited or sorted.  This Pyrrhuloxia was photographed in the early morning light of July 21 of this year.

Pyrrhuloxia

We came across this Greater Roadrunner one day at San Angelo State Park.  He was so close to me that I opted to get a portrait of him.  I found it quite interesting.

Greater Roadrunner

I never pass up a chance to photograph these tiny Vermilion Flycatchers

Vermilion Flycatcher

In the birding community, the females don’t usually get their due.  The female Grosbeak, in my opinion is a beautiful bird as you might agree.

Blue Grosbeak – female

One of the cutest birds that I know of, is the Black-crested Titmouse.  But they also are very feisty and you don’t like to be messed with.

Black-crested Titmouse

At the Hummer House down near Christoval, Texas I as enjoying photographing the many, many hummgbirds there.  I thought this image moved the cute meter up a notch.

Black-chinned Hummingbird

Of all of my Great Horned Owl photos, I rank this image as one of my personal favorites.  I try to photograph this species at every opportunity.

Great Horned Owl

This photo would fool you.  As a juvenile Curve-billed Thrasher, it has neither the curved bill nor the orange eye of the adult.

Curve-billed Thrasher – juvenile

Another bird that is difficult photograph is the Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  To happen to catch one with the red crown showing is a bonus.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Another one with the same degree of difficulty is the cute little Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

When I was much younger and not at all interested in birds of any kind, I used to think that all the little ones were sparrows.  The medium size up was all pigeons.  The really big birds. think large and XX large, were all eagles.  Then the ones on water were all ducks.   But now that I am getting more educated in the avian species, boy, am I ever getting surprised.   I have found that there are over fifty different species of sparrows alone. Wow! Holey-moly, Batgirl!!  Who’da thought!  Well, this Grasshopper Sparrow is one of the more unusual ones.

Grasshsopper Sparrow

I think that will be all for this post.  I hope you have enjoyed reading and seeing the photographs.

’til next time,

Happy Birding!!!

White-throated Sparrow – A Lifer

To a birder, a lifer is a bird that has seen for the very first time.  Hence, we saw a White-throated Sparrow on the 29th of February, for our first time.  It was at Spring Creek Park, scratching in the grass.  It was that it was all alone that got our attention to check it out.  It is a rare bird here, but not unusual to see on on ocassion.  Anyway, it brings my life list total to 286.  The photo isn’t really great.  As you can see, it was right at the edge of shade and bright sunshine.  That makes for difficult exposures.  But what a great start to a fun couple of days birding.

White-throated Sparrow

As we drove through the park we spotted two photographers, both with the requisite camo clothes, tripods, and huge lenses.  Like I used to have.  They had out-of-state plates on their car.  Anyway, they had flushed that female Great Horned Owl off of it’s nest and it was resting high in a tree.  I stopped, got my little ‘ole 150-600mm lens out and nailed a great shot as it thankfully headed back to it’s nest.  I hand-held the camera and I was dressed in plain old clothes.

female Great Horned Owl heading to the nest.

I think those two guys were part of a huge bunch that was harassing the owl on Sunday afternoon.  That group was headed up by the Mr. Doe that was instrumental in saying that I harassed wildlife by sharing the info to knowledgeable birders.  Well, ’nuff said about that.

We continued on through Spring Creek Park then headed to the Middle Concho Park that is located just across the water, but since there is no bridge, it is about an eight mile drive around to get to it.

Here are a few more images from around that area.  Click on any image in this post to see some very nice enlargements.

First, is this little Pied-billed Grebe.  They just swim around, occasionally diving under the water for something and usually coming up with nothing.  But what the heck…..they look like they are smiling and happy.

Pied-billed Grebe

This Roadrunner was along the road, (where else?), looking for tidbits for lunch.  Since the little ground squirrels are coming out of hibernation, he should be able to start eating better very soon. 🙂

Greater Roadrunner

Can you take another owl?  This is the male that is supposed to guarding the nest where the previous female resides, sitting on the eggs.  He looks bored.  Wonder if he will make it another month or so.

Great Horned Owl – male

A lot of these Meadowlarks hanging around now.  There are usually a few European Starlings tagging along.

Eastern Meadowlark

There are also a lot of these Yellow-rumped Warblers here, too.  They will be leaving in mid-May, to return in October to spend the winter.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

The Sapsuckers can confuse a lot of people.  They look like the average woodpecker.  They used to confuse me, too, until I started to look for that white ‘stripe’ down the side of their feathers.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Let’s finish up with one of favorites.  I love photographing herons.  This is the same juvenile Black-crowned Night Heron from my previous post.  He has found a home across the water from Spring Creek Park. Always about 200 yards away. I imagine that his adult parent is watching from another hidden spot. This time he was more in the open, aiding me in getting a better image.

Black-crowned Night Heron – juvenile

Well, that is about it for this post.  I had fun writing it and I hope you had fun reading it.

‘Til then, Happy Birding!!

 

Bobwhite, Roadrunners, and other stuff.

It is still pretty warm around here.  Mid 90s and higher.  We may just skip fall and go directly to winter without passing go and collecting our $200. 🙂

We did spot some duck types way off in the middle of O.C. Fisher Lake.  I guess they can keep cooler out there.  We are not seeing them closer to shore yet.  As a matter of fact there are few winter birds having arrived yet.

But there are still of our usual residents around and we have no trouble spotting a few at San Angelo State Park.

Here are a few images from our forays there in the past few days.  Enjoy.

This is probably one of the best photos of a Northern Bobwhite that I have taken to date.

Northern Bobwhite

These American White Pelicans did a brief flyover while were visiting San Angelo State Park.

American White Pelicans

Belted Kingfishers always lead me a merry chase.  This one finally stopped for a few minutes near Lake Nasworthy.

Belted Kingfisher

Notice the remnants of a grasshopper in this photo of the Northern Mockingbird.

Northern Mockingbird

A Greater Roadrunner at San Angelo State Park.  They seem to be in great numbers there.

Greater Roadrunner

The Loggerhead Shrike speaks for itself.  It is doing it’s thing, waiting for a snack to impale on one of those thorns.

Loggerhead Shrike

The white eye-ring is prominent on this Vesper Sparrow.

Vesper Sparrow

The next two photos are of the same Greater Roadrunner at San Angelo State Park.  I liked both poses so I decided to post both.

Greater Roadrunner

Greater Roadrunner

This Nine-banded Armadillo is a young one.  It was feeding along the road in the state park and did not mind me getting this close-up.

Nine-banded Armadillo

I hope you enjoyed these images.  Check back in a few days for a few more.

Happy Birding!!

Labor Day weekend odds and ends……

As many of you know I am recuperating from a hospital stay with a nasty bout with a urinary infection.  I have been home for a few days and have been itching to get back in to the field.  So, feeling up to it, I and Ann sneaked out to San Angelo State Park for an hour or two.  It was hot and we really didn’t expect much, but I wanted to get out of the house.

We first drove down near the only operating boat ramp on the struggling O.C. Fisher lake.  The heat and evaporating are taking their toll.  I think the level has dropped nearly two feet in just the past three weeks.  Anyway, I spotted this Green Heron about 125 yards away in the reeds.  Since the pickin’s were slow I tried to come away with some kind of shot.  It was tiny in the viewfinder and I did’nt think I had a prayer of getting anything useful, mainly because of the focus problems with all of the reeds. I hand held the camera because I didn’t feel like lugging the tripod down there.  Anyway, I got lucky and here is the final result after doing some major cropping.

Green Heron

Venturing around to the Isabel Harte multi-use area, I came across this Great Roadrunner cooling under a shady Live Oak.  He presented a slight exposure problem with the shade and bright background.  But the good news, he was only about 25 feet away.  I was careful to ease my car into position for a shot from my window.  He posed long enough that I got several exposures.

Greater Roadrunner

Getting away from birding for a bit, I had nice comment to my About Me page.  It was from Kathryn Ingrid at Art-colored Glasses.  She lives in Denton, Texas and her husband, Richard, is a conductor and the interim head of the choral program at University of North Texas.  UNT has a fantastic jazz program, and I am acquainted with their One-o-Clock Lab band.  It brought memories of my own playing in the big bands of an earlier era.  Although I didn’t play in the ‘big name’ bands I loved any opportunity to play in a band with five saxes, five trumpets and four ‘bones, plus assorted percussion.  I love the jazz creations of Stan Kenton, the driving sound of County Basie, or the sweet saxophones of Ralph Flanagan.

As I said, I never played with likes of those, but I did play with many of the great musicians at after-hours late night (early morning) jam sessions while I was stationed in Reno, Nevada.

I thank Kathryn for bringing back those memories.  Maybe it will lead to another post about those experiences.

Greater Roadrunner, Orioles and others

Here are a few images that I have gotten since we got back from our Big Bend adventure.  We have been watching for new summer residents of the avian variety.  While doing such searching I was able to get a few other images for your enjoyment.  We found this Greater Roadrunner at San Angelo State Park.

Greater Roadrunner

The Bullock’s Orioles are starting to arrive.  I had seen a female a few weeks earlier, but now there are many of the bright colored males.  They are still hard to photograph among the trees but nevertheless, I managed a couple.

Bullock’s Oriole

Bullock’s Oriole

I love the Golden-fronted Woodpeckers.  They seem to be everywhere all the time and they are so photogenic.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Same bird, different pose.  He was trying to show me his better side.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

A Lincoln’s Sparrow.

Lincoln’s Sparrow

A couple of Lark Sparrows.

Lark Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

The Scissor-tailed Flycatchers are arriving in large numbers and they will be seen soon all over the country-side.  I got a couple of images today.

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Last, but not least, a Killdeer playing in the water at a mudhole near Twin Buttes Reservoir.

Killdeer

Enjoy the photos and I will be back soon with a few more.

Happy Birthday to Me…….

Almost to the end of another month.  And the end of another year in my life.  I will turn 80 on Thursday, which is October 2.  So to celebrate we, Ann and I will be doing our usual thing.  This time however, we will be birding at Uvalde, Texas.  A friend has invited us to use his bird blind down there, with promises of brand new birds for our life list.

We are leaving Wednesday morning Oct. 1, and will return Friday, October 3.  So I am looking forward to posting a blog over the weekend, hopefully with a bunch of new images of some new birds.

This will probably be my last post until the weekend, so here are a few recent photos that I have gotten locally.

Northern Cardinal

This Northern Cardinal was at the bird blind at San Angelo State Park.  I thought he was too pretty to ignore.

Great Roadrunner on the hood of our car.

We happened to look out the door of the blind, and we spotted a Greater Roadrunner on our Ford Escape.  Fortunately, besides the camera that was mounted on the tripod, I also had a second Canon 70D with my 100-400mm lens handy.  I grabbed it and got these shots before the roadrunner hopped off and ran towards the brush.

Greater Roadrunner on our car.

Not seeing as many birds that we had hoped, we took a drive around the park for a few minutes.  Not too many birds in the building.  A year or so ago, they, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, took upon themselves to spray the thick mesquite that is in abundance in the park.  The thought was that that the brushy trees were sapping too much of the valuable water of the area.  That was probably true, but in killling the trees, they also destroyed valuable habitat.  I believe that is why the populace of birds, hawks, and wildlife in general has declined.

But having said that, we was this Loggerhead Shrike on a thorny, dead branch.

Loggerhed Shrike

So I apologize for the short post, but I hope to make for it in my next post.  But no promises, as I will then be an old man of 80, so we can get absent-minded.  But I would hate to have to start visiting the senior center downtown, because that is where all of the old people hang out. 🙂

Holiday photos – gotta get out more.

I am still ailing just a little bit, getting used to some new meds, but don’t fret, I should be 100% in a few days.  I really feeling like getting out more, and I did so for a few hours during the recent Fourth of July holiday.  Here are a few results, mostly from our local San Angelo State Park.

Greater Roadrunner resting in a tree.

Greater Roadrunner enjoying the chase.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker – female taking a pose for me.

House Finch ruffling it’s feathers.

Click on any image to see some enlargements and enjoy.  A couple of these will probably end up in my gallery at http:www.bobzellerphotography.smugmug.com.  Have a look when you can.

Recent photos and another first……

Click on the post title to see it in it’s entirety and all of the photos.  Also click on the images to see enlargements.

I have been shooting more than I have been thinking about something to write about.  So I will just write about the pictures I have taken the past week.

First I need to mention, that it is said that there never has been a nesting pair of American Coots in this area.  Well, that has changed.  At a pond at San Angelo State Park there are a pair of adults and at least five young ones.  Here is a photo that I captured of one of the babies.

American Coot – a very young one.

On another day at the bird blind in the park I captured this amazingly beautiful European Starling.  I don’t often compliment starlings on their looks, but you have to admit there is a certain beauty about him.

European Starling

Then I got lucky with a cute pose of the Northern Cardinal.

Northern Cardinal

This Golden-fronted Woodpecker always is a feast of color to look at.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

After leaving the blind, we drove through the park a bit and caught this Greater Roadrunner with a grasshopper.  I have a hard time resisting photographing these popular birds.

Great Roadrunner

Upon leaving the park, Ann spotted this Common Nighthawk on a branch.  Our first sighting of one this year.  That brings our 2014 Big Year total to 167.

Common Nighthawk

All photos were taken with my Canon EOS 70D and Tamron 150-600mm lens.  Hope you enjoy.

 

Let’s do the Bokeh

If my photos make you feel like dancing, forget it, bokeh isn’t a dance.  It is the aesthetic quality of the blur in the background of some photographs.  In talking about a picture, one might say that it has good bokeh.  I love to produce that effect myself.  I get it mostly when I am photographing, for example, a bird with my long lenses.  By using wide apertures such as f2.8  thru f6.3, I end up with a shallow depth-of-field.  DOP as it is called briefly, is the small area in front, and in back of the subject, that is in focus.  Everything in front of and in back that is blurred, is the bokeh.  An example is this photograph that I captured of an Eastern Phoebe.  Notice how the bird is in great focus, and the background is a nice, soft blur.

Eastern Phoebe

My Tamron zoom telephoto was set at the max range of 600mm and my aperture was set at f6.3.  I was about 30 feet from phoebe. The background was several yards back.  Distance can make a difference in the effect.  This Osprey in the photo below, (which I published about a week ago in another post) was about eighty yards away on another tree branch.  The background was made up of tree limbs and brush and you can see that the bokeh took on a different, but very pleasing look.

Osprey

Still another pleasing effect was in this photo of a Painted Bunting.

Painted Bunting

In the photo below, of the Greater Roadrunner, because of the angle of my camera, and the location of the bird, the background was more in focus, but not enough distract the viewer.  The aperture was the same f6.3.  Same lens.

Greater Roadrunner

In the photo below, I used the water itself as the background.  I love these Greater Roadrunners.

Greater Roadrunner

While I am on the subject, I will mention that different type lenses might have a different look on the bokeh.  Some will produce round dots of blurred light, for example.  Also, there may be a difference in the different brands of lenses.  Some may produce better bokeh that others.  Personally, I a very satisfied with the results I am getting with mine.  They make me feel like dancing. 🙂

Incidentally, I never mention this much, because I am not the greatest of salesman.  My photographs are for sale.  Just contact me and we can talk about sizes, prices, etc.  I have satisfied customers all over the country, and I wouldn’t mind helping you to give additions to your walls, too.

Also, my book is still doing well, and you can check that out by clicking on the Flickr logo on the right side of this page, or the gallery link at the top of the page.

Just a few birds………..

Monday morning was getting warm but there was a thin layer of high cloudiness.  With the diffused sunlight, I thought I would venture out to the San Angelo State Park to see what I might find to photograph.  Ann was doing the laundry and housecleaning and preferred that I was somewhere else anyway.

Arriving at the park, I decided on going to the bird blind first.  If a person is going to sit in there very long, it is best to do it early as it warms very fast these days.  However, when I got there I was very disappointed.  The grass and weeds were more than two feet deep.  The pond was covered in algae.  There was no trace of anything in the feeders.  I scrounged in the bin, and found only a handful of seed that I could scrape off the bottom.  I put that meager amount out in hopes of attracting a few birds.  It is obvious to me that the park personnel have no desire to maintain the place anymore.  The “Friends of San Angelo State Park”, seem to be directing their efforts elsewhere.  I don’t understand this, as birding is one of the largest growing hobbies in the state now.

Enough of my rant.  I sat there long enough to get a photos of a Northern Cardinal and a House Sparrow.  In it it’s own way, the sparrow is a very pretty bird.  Of course, I can’t say enough about the cardinal.

House Sparrow

Northern Cardinal

I also saw, while sitting there, numerous White-winged Doves, a couple of Black-crested Titmouses, and a Curve-billed Thrasher.  There were a couple of Bobwhites calling in the distance, too.

I decided to take a drive thru the park then, only to find that the birding was a bit sparse there, too.  Probably a combination of the heat and scarcity of water.  However, I did spot a Greater Roadrunner that I was able to photograph.

Greater Roadrunner

Early fall migration is right around the corner.  Beginning in late August, we might start to see some birds coming back from their journeys elsewhere.  Enjoy the photos, and click on any of them to see enlargements.

Don’t forget, Part IV of my music journey, will be published this coming weekend.  The plot thickens…………….