hooded merganser | Texas Tweeties by Bob Zeller

Ann and I are thankful that, at our age, we can still get out and enjoy the outdoors and wildlife. That said, we have no encumberments, no close relatives, so we are free to do as we please regardless of what the calendar says. Besides, I wanted to play some more with my new Canon EOS 7D Mark II. So, a few days this week, including Thanksgiving morning, we got out and did what we love to do best. Here are a few highlights from those outings earlier this week. Enjoy.

Osprey on Monday

Golden-fronted Woodpecker

Great Egret

Mr. and Mrs. Hooded Merganser

Black-crowned Night Heron

Osprey on Thanksgiving Day. He loves this spot to do his hunting.

We saw many bird species, averaging about 30-35 each day. However, most photos were not display materiel. Just grab shots for ID, etc.

We added one more to our 2014 Big Year list. A Forster’s Tern a Lake Nasworthy. We are now at 198 in our goal to get to 200 by December 31. However, we are heading to the Davis Mountains area in two weeks so hopefully can get those two that we need out there.

After having a great time birding at South Llano State Park, we decided to stay home in San Angelo and see if we could have another sucessful day. We did, counting 41 species and getting some nice photographs. It was another gorgeous day weather-wise, windy early but beautiful later on. Here are some highlights of that excursion.

Hooded Merganser – female

Hooded Merganser – male

These Hooded Mergansers were gliding along nearly side by side. I was lucky to be able to get these close-ups, thanks to my Tamron 150-600mm lens. All of the images in this post were taken with that particular lens, attached to my Canon EOS 70D.

Dark-eyed Jumco – slate-colored

The Junco was the first we had seen here in the past two years. They are not present all the time.

White-crowned Sparrow

I cute little sparrow with the distinctive white bars on the crown.

Wilson’s Snipe

The Wilson’s Snipe was all alone, just doing his thing, looking for food along the opposite bank of the river.

Carolina Wren

Another bird that I have been missing seeing is the Carolina Wren. They pretty much stay hidden, like this one that is trying to stay out of sight.

American White Pelicans

I was able to practice getting birds in flight with this image of the two American White Pelicans.

After another sucessful day we headed home where I started to post-process all these, and more, images. We added two more birds to our Big Year List. The Dark-eyed Junco and the Carolina Wren. Total is now 111.

Click on any image to see an enlargement.