Fun April Birding

Migration is underway and we are still waiting for many spring birds.  Scissor-tailed Flycatchers have been sighted.  We saw three ourselves, but too far away for photos.  However, Ash-throated Flycatchers are beginning to appear in large numbers.  I got my first nice photo of one a couple of days ago.

Ash-throated Flycatcher

We had to make our regular stop at Spring Creek Park to check on our family of Great Horned Owls.  We caught the female off the nest, taking a break from caring for junior.

Great Horned Owl – female

Meanwhile, back at the nest it is ‘home alone’ all over again.  The kid seems to be gaining weight.  I would estimate him to be about three weeks old.

Great Horned Owlet

Later, back on the nest, the mother seems to be daring me to step over that twig.

Great Horned Owl – mother on nest

I would like to mention that for these photos, I was around fifty yards away.  With my long lens, there is no need for me to get closer and agitate the birds.

Nearby, I captured this Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in some bushes.

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

We headed to San Angelo State Park where I managed to capture a few more resident birds.

Driving along the base of the O. C. Fisher Reservoir dam, Ann spotted a Rock Wren flitting around the rocks.  I had never been able to get a nice close-up of one before.  Up on those rocks, they are hard to see, and difficult to get one in the viewfinder of my camera.  But my perseverance paid off, and I was able to get this one, again with my long 150-600mm Tamron lens.  The image is still quite cropped to get this close-up.

Rock Wren

Elsewhere in the park, I got these photographs.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

Lincoln’s Sparrow

American Robin

We finished the day by catching this hard to spell and hard to pronounce,  Pyrrhuloxia.

Pyrrhuloxia

So that’s all for today.  Tomorrow we are off to the South Llano River State Park.  Reports are coming in of several migratory birds there.  Plus, there’s alway great food at Lum’s Bar-B-Que before coming home.  I’ll report on the journey in a few days.

“It was a dark and dreary night…….”

Okay, I am trying to write a new post here.  But words are failing me.  Actually it is really a dark and drizzly day here.  Woke up to a light rain and so far at 11:00AM we have received over an inch.  Not a really good day for bird photography.  Water and camera lenses do not mix well.

So I think I will just show you a few more recent photos that I haven’t posted yet.  If you are on Facebook you may have seen them already, as I like to post there occasionally.  By the way, if you can view this post on your computer, please remember to click on the images.  You can see some great enlargements that way.

I had posted another image of this Bobcat earlier.  I originally ignored this one as I didn’t like my first impression of it.  But now, after looking at it again, it has grown on me and I really like it.

Bobcat

But that’s the way I am.  I find that sometimes I can go back through my archives and spot another picture that I didn’t like at first, then after processing it I sometimes get a nice surprise.

So here’s another from our recent trip to Fort Davis.  I usually like to really get close up to my birds, but in this image I found that I like the composition.

Female Ladder-backed Woodpecker dangling from branch of a century plant.

Another Acorn Woodpecker.  I love these guys.

Acorn Woodpecker

How about a couple more of that magnificent Snowy Egret that we saw at Balmorhea State Park.

Snowy Egret

Snowy Egret

Hey, who is this masked man. 🙂

Loggerhead Shrike

Well, I think that will be all for today.  I don’t want to use up all of my good stuff or I won’t have anything for my next post.  I hope you enjoy this one.

It’s all about the light…..

I have a love/hate relationship with the sun sometimes.  I love to be out in the bright sunshine, just enjoying the day.  Then I pick up the camera, and ugh, there are those nasty, harsh shadows.  You have a subject in the viewfinder, one side in shadow, the other in the bright light.  What to do.  The only thing to do is to work with it in the darkroom (digital), and hope to correct it a little.

But then, there are days like today.  It was bright, but there was a very high, thin cloudiness that diffused the sun.  Harsh shadows were at a minimum, and the light was spread more even.

Ann and I overslept this morning for some reason or other.  Perhaps we are getting old, and enjoying our sleep more.  Whatever the reason or cause, we hurried to breakfast at Stango’s Coffee Shop, finished a Scrabble game while we ate, then decided it would be a great day for the camera.

We headed towards Middle Concho and Spring Creek Parks in anticipation of seeing a few birds, (of course) and getting some nice photos.  As I have been doing lately, I attached only my Tamron 150-600mm zoom to my Canon EOS 70D.  The waters of the rivers and creeks have dropped by a vertical distance of about 30 inches in the past few weeks.  Lack of rain will do that.  We have received only .08 (that’s eight one-hundredths of an inch, or less than a tenth) to date this year.

Fortunately, the birds have faith, and are still hanging around.  We saw 37 species.  One was this beautiful juvenile Red-tailed Hawk soaring over out heads.

Red-tailed Hawk

We saw a few other species, such as  Spotted Towhee, but it was too elusive to get a good photo.  I will be back for another try.  I know where it lives.  As were were to enter Spring Creek Park, we spotted this beautiful Osprey atop a utility pole.  I pulled over onto the grass a hundred yards away, and walked back through the trees to get a good vantage point for a photo.  I got a nice image of it.

Osprey

After entering that park, we first searched for the Great Horned Owl that we have seen in the past.  It was nowhere to be found, but we saw this Great Blue Heron across the river.  I still have trouble resisting photographing them, and this time was no different.

Great Blue Heron

Farther along was this Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker – female

Then along the shore of the water, a Killdeer.

Killdeer

I hope you enjoy the highlights of this enjoyable day.  Please click on the images to see some beautiful enlargements.

2014 Big Year total update:

#118  Orange-crowned Warbler

#119  Grasshopper Sparrow

#120  Snowy Egret

#121  Ash-throated Flycatcher

‘Twas the day after Christmas……

And my true love said to me……  “Hey, lets go birding.”  Actually, we went birding Christmas Day, too, but didn’t spend much time.  The nice thing that we discovered was, hey, the winter birds are showing up.  Finally.  We had begun to think that they had by-passed San Angelo and the Concho Valley.

Today, we only spent two hours and twenty minutes.  But in that short period we saw 42 species.  It started immediately when we left the house, spotting a Blue Jay in a tree in our own yard, then see a Wilson’s Snipe in a wet area just a block from home.

We kept on going, heading for Middle Concho Park, then after that heading over to Spring Creek Park.  It seemed that there were birds everywhere.  That 42 total could have been higher, because there were a few that we saw yesterday that we didn’t see today.  Our personal record for birds seen in one day is 44, so we came close to breaking it.

Here are photographic highlights.

Bewick’s Wren

The above photo of the Bewick’s wren was captured yesterday.

Eastern Phoebe

I think this is the best photo of an Eastern Phoebe that I have ever gotten.  I was able to get pretty close.

Great Horned Owl

This Great Horned Owl never did open his eyes, during the fifteen minutes trying to get his photo.  I can’t blame him, it was a gorgeous day, sunny and no wind.

Red-tailed Hawk

The Red-tailed Hawk was about 250 yards away across the river.  Almost out of range but I was able to get this image.  I had to crop it extensively to get this much.

Redhead – female

We spotted this female Redhead duck, but didn’t see the male anywhere.  Nice looking duck, but not as pretty as the male.  But that is the case of most ducks.

Here is a complete list of the birds we saw this December 26, 2013.

1. Wilson’s Snipe
2. Northern Mockingbird
3. White-winged Dove
4. Blue Jay
5. Inca Dove
6. American Coot
7. Pyrrhuloxia
8. Great Blue Heron
9. House Finch
10. Golden-fronted Woodpecker
11. Northern Shoveler
12. Eared Grebe
13. Double-crested Cormorant
14. Western Meadowlark
15. European Starling
16. Black Vulture
17. Great Egret
18. Eastern Phoebe
19. Mallard
20. Pied-billed Grebe
21. Bufflehead
22. Eastern Bluebird
23. Vermilion Flycatcher
24. Spotted Sandpiper
25. Great-tailed Grackle
26. Yellow-rumped Warbler
27. Northen Harrier
28. Red-tailed Haek
29. Ring-billed Gull
30. Gadwall
31. Killdeer
32. Belted Kingfisher
33. Osprey
34. Northern Cardinal
35. Great Horned Owl
36. Ladder-backed Woodpecker
37. Green-winged Teal
38. White-crowned Sparrow
39. Black-crested Titmouse
40. House Sparrow
41. Mute Swan
42. Redhead

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-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.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker Video 2

First and foremost, I need to give credit to my dear friend, Shannon.  She generously took up some of her valuable time to tutor me, and walk me through the process of uploading and embedding videos.  I would say she done a fine job.

After publishing that “test” run in my last post, I thought I would go out and try for some more.  My target was to get a video of a Great Blue Heron grazing along the water.  Alas, none were to be seen.  But lo and behold, I came across the same Ladder-backed Woodpecker, pecking the same hole in the same tree as my previous post.  I took the opportunity to try to improve on that.

I again used my new Canon EOS 70D with a 100-400mm lens.  I was in my vehicle, parked about 15 feet away.  The bird was oblivious to me, since I was hidden in the car.  The camera worked perfectly as advertised, the auto-focus stayed on track, and the exposure seemed to be right on the money.

Here is the result:

This video is best viewed from my blog, rather than from this e-mail.

A Hawk, a Woodpecker and an Owl

Friday we decided to make the rounds of some our favorite local spots again.   We saw around 30 species so the birding is getting back to normal, despite not having many duck species yet.  I did get some nice photos that I will post here for your enjoyment.

The Red-tailed Hawk was very co-0perative, probably had just eaten so he posed readily for me about 30 feet off the ground.

Red-tailed Hawk

This Ladder-backed Woodpecker, actually was hanging beneathe limb, but I decided to rotate it for better viewing.  It still looks very natural.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

This photo below is a young Great Horned Owl.  I was surprised that he was so wide awake and alert.  He was definitely staring me down.  Love those eyes.

Great Horned Owl

On another note, we heard that there was a Sora, a water bird, in a pond at San Angelo State Park.  We had been told that if we couldn’t see it in the reeds, we should clap our hands and it would answer.  So we decided to give it a shot and drove out there.  We didn’t see the bird, but decided to try the clapping thing.  Sure enough on about the third attempt, this loud clapping came from the reeds.  It was very unmistakable.  Here is a photo of a Sora that I took a couple of years ago at Big Bend National Park.

Sora

Click on any photo to see an enlargement.

Fun birding with Bob and Ann – Chapter 2

If you haven’t read chapter one, click here.  Of course, it isn’t titled chapter one, because when I wrote it I didn’t know that someday there would be a chapter two.  Frankly, I don’t know where this post will lead until I start typing, AKA writing.  It may be a bunch of nonsense.  I do that on occasion, you know.

Anyway, we went out today to do a bit of birding, planning on hitting all of our usual haunts where we ususally find something to write about.  We stopped first at Twin Buttes reservoir, and would you know there were a few birds, but no water.  Yes, I will repeat, no water.  No wonder there were few birds.  We are in an extreme drought, so we are waiting patiently for some heavy rains.

Next we drove by the parks at Lake Nasworthy, namely Middle Concho Park, and Spring Creek Park.  Still plenty of water there, but the levels are dropping a little.  That is because Lake Nasworthy gets it water from the Twin Buttes Reservoir.  We did see several small birds, the usual ones that hang around, and four Red-tailed Hawks.

Red-tailed Hawk

When we go birding, (and photographing birds), Ann keeps a journal of what we see, like the one of little Angie’s that was pictured in my previous post.  Normally this time of year we can see about 30-35 species at a time.  Today I think we managed only about 25 today.   Something about the migration being off schedule, or they are passing by here and looking for more favorable places to spend the winter.  Today we saw, besides the four Red-tailed Hawks, some Eastern Bluebirds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Ladder-backed and Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and several species of sparrows, etc.

As we passed the gun club, we saw some Claybirds flying, but I imagine they were spooked by the gunfire there.  I told Ann we shouldn’t put them on the list.  They are hard to photograph in flight, too.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, we saw the first Ring-billed Gulls of the winter season.  Soon the little beach at Mary Lee Park will be overrun with them.  But we can also hope that sometimes there will be a Tern of some type, mixed in with them.

Well tomorow it is supposed to get really cold, a high of 47 is forcast, (but what do they know) so we’ll probably hang out at home.  Freeze for tomorrow night, too.  The change may bring in some of the winter ducks and other water fowl that we are used to.

Well, I am going to get out my winter jammies.  Stay warm, you guys.

More from Houston trip

My last post described the great wildlife in and around Shannon’s back yard near Houston, Texas.  Here are a few more photos I took during that great week, including this sequence of a Great Egret making a landing in their creek.

Great Egret making a landing.

Great Egret landing.

Great Egret splashing down.

In the nearby trees a spider was working in the early morning light.

Early morning spider web.

White Ibises were all around us it seemed.  Beautiful, long-billed wading birds found around the gulf coast.  Their favorite food are the river snails found in the creek.

White Ibis

White Ibises

Back in the yard, Shannon’s children are finding some large grubs in her compost bed.  I think they named this one Moe.

Texas-sized grub.

Shannon and grub.

Shannon goofing off with grub.

The woodland birds were waking up and we spotted this nearby Ladder-backed Woodpecker.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

A Snowy Egret made a late appearance.

Snowy Egret

So our four fun days ended there and we returned home to San Angelo with great memories.  Can’t wait to go back.  Click on any image to see an enlargement.