Northern Cardinal and more…….

Birding the past week has been delightful.  Our species daily counts are getting up there, one time reaching 40.  But most importantly, I was able to get some nice photographs.  Most of the photos were taken in the local parks around Lake Nasworthy.  San Angelo State Park has been closed as they are burning off nearly 25% of the park to rid it of unwanted brush and mesquite.  In the long run, that should help the flora and fauna rebound, beneficial to all.

Let’s start with this Northern Cardinal. always a favorite to photograph.

Northern Cardinal

Some Western Bluebirds arrived to add to the beauty of the avian population.

Western Bluebird

The Yellow-rumped Warblers are here in large numbers now.

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Myrtle variety

It seems that I have seen an increase in Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, compared to prior years.  Of course, it may be just me, getting more familiar with each specie as the years go by. 🙂

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

As we were driving along the fence line at Spring Creek park we were surprised to come upon this Blue-gray Gnatcatcher……

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

…….and this cute Ruby-crowned Kinglet.  I love the challenge of photographing these tiny birds.  They are quick, flighty never sitting still for more than a fraction of a second.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

A few rare Pine Warblers are still around.  Maybe they have found a home here for the winter.

Pine Warbler

Eastern Phoebes are always around, entertaining us with it’s quick flights from tree to tree, then resting for a few seconds before moving on.

Eastern Phoebe

Another Yellow-rumped Warbler,this one a beautiful Audubon variety.

Yellow-rumped Warbler – Audubon variety

One of my favorite wading birds is the Great Blue Heron.  They are plentiful here, being seen at most of the lakes and waterways.

Great Blue Heron

Wild Turkeys abound here in the Concho Valley.  I usually ignore them because they are so common.  But as we passed the narrow little inlet several took off to fly to the other side.  This group numbered about 30 and they were taking off about one at a time.  I decided to stop and try to catch a photo of one of them in flight.  I was lucky.  I say that because of all 30 or more, I was able to catch only one good image.  I was rattling off hi-speed shots as each bird blew.  Here is the best of the bunch.

Wild Turkey – hen in flight

So that’s it for today.  I hope to get more for another post before Christmas.  Click any image to see an enlargement.

Happy birding!!

Friday the 13th Birding

Friday the 13th fell on a Friday this month.  Does this scare me.  Of course not.  I am not suspicious of stuff like that.  I ain’t afraid of the dark, either, nor am I afraid of the creatures that lurk under my bed.  However, I keep my feet under the covers just in case.  I also don’t walk under ladders since I once fell off of one once.  Luckily, I was standing on the bottom rung at the time.

So with that in mind, Ann and I decided to throw caution to the wind and go birding.  We thought we would get lucky.  Well it depends on what you could call lucky.  On the unlucky side, there weren’t many birds.  It was a beautiful day and I can’t understand that.  We did see 32 species, but most were flyovers, or on the move in the trees, or too far to consider even trying to photograph.  Most of what I did try to shoot were, save for a few exceptions, very far away, up to 250 yards, and that doesn’t make for good closeups.

On the lucky side, I was able to make lemonade out of the lemons.  Thanks to my 150-600mm Tamron zoom lens, I was able to get some cropable (is that at word?) images.  Here is an example.  This Red-tailed Hawk was of those distant ones.  Here is the original image, and keep in mind, this is through my long lens.  Imagine what it looked like at with the naked eye.

Uncropped image of a Red-tailed Hawk

Cropped imge:

cropped Red-tailed Hawk

We continued driving and saw these at Spring Creek Park.  This female Northern Cardinal gave me problems with the lighting in the shadows.  It was mid-morning and the sun was bright.  I was able to correct it in my post processing.

female Northern Cardinal

A few minutes later we spotted this Great Horned Owl.  Same shadow problems.  But heck, I was happy to get the photos any way I can.

Great Horned Owl

Below the trees a male Northern Cardinal was scratching in the grass and leaves.

Northern Cardinal

Then cruising along the water, looking across about 200 yards away again this Great Blue Heron was standing and just gazing.  Heavily cropped like the hawk photo above.

Great Blue Heron

High above, about another 250 yards away, a Black Vulture was enjoying the light, warm breeze.  Again heavily cropped.

Black Vulture

On the way home we stopped again at the beach at Mary Lee Park to check on the Ring-billed Gulls.

Ring-billed Gull

Well that’s it for tonight.  Going to bed, with my feet under the covers, because you never know………. (cue Friday the 13th music.)

Canon 7D Mk II and Tamron 150-600mm, another comparison

As many of you know I have coupled my Canon 7D Mark II with a Tamron 150-600mm lens.  I have been learning much lately about that new camera, and with that lens I have been excited about the image quality.  This is a photo that I shot a couple days ago.  First I show you the original, straight out of the camera, but converted from the RAW format.  The 150-600mm lens was zoomed out to the 600mm mark.  Notice there is no loss of sharpness at that end, like some zooms have when fully extended.  The second image is my cropped finished version.  I did no sharpening whatsoever.

Original female Northern Cardinal

cropped female Northern Cardinal

Notice the image retained the sharpness after cropping.  One more thing, there is a distinct lack of noise.  I must say that this one of the rare times that I was able to crop and use an image without any other editing.  ISO was 500, exposure 1/1000 sec @ f6.3.  I am finding that this new 7D Mark II is leaps and bounds better than the original 7D.

In other news, I did send my Tamron 150-600mm lens off to the factory.  Not that it needed anything, but since my lens was one of the first built, I found there was an updated firmware available for it to further speed up the auto-focus, so I thought why not take advantage of it.  I will say that I was already was impressed with it’s fast auto-focus, so I am anxious to see how much more it can be improved.  So I will miss it for a few days, but I have my Canon 100-400mm zoom lens as a backup and I will put a 1.4 teleconverter on it.   I will make do.

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. 🙂

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. 🙂

New Page – New Photos

First, I would like to mention that I have a new, additional page that you can see at the top of this post.  It is “Yakkety-Sax Man”.  It is the story of my music career.  Some of you already know about it, but I decided to post it a manner where you can select the six parts individually.  Just click on the ‘button’, or this shortcut.

Ann and I got out for a couple of hours on Tuesday morning.  This is the proverbial dog days of summer.  Hot, not too many birds moving.  But a birder can find opportunities if he or she perserveres.  I lucked out and saw a Bronzed Cowbird.  They are somewhat solitary, not usually in large groups.  This one was all alone in the grass at Spring Creek Park, here in San Angelo.  I love the bluish iridenscent color of the wings, and of course, that flashing red eye.

Bronzed Cowbird

Further along the way, I saw this pretty Northern Cardinal.  I must admit that I already have many, many photographs of a cardinal, and I usually just ignore them, looking for that photo that may be better than the others.   But with so few birds in our count, and needing some photos for my post, I gave it a shot.  Once I saw it in my digital darkroom, AKA my computer, I realized that it was one of my better ones, so I am glad I didn’t ignore it this time.  I hope you like it.

Northern Cardinal

Click on either image to see an enlargement.  To see more of my photographs, click on the Galleries button at the top of the page, then click on my SmugMug gallery.

Some Labor Day images

Labor Day.  You certainly won’t catch me doing much laboring.  Even though I was aware that there may be too many people doing their outdoor things, Ann and I decided to go to San Angelo State Park to visit the bird blind, AKA the Wildlife Viewing Center.  After stopping there, we did a little drive-around through the park.  There still aren’t too many birds, but we managed to see a few or the regulars.  Here are three nice photographs that I stumbled into getting.  First up was this little juvenile Northern Cardinal that I captured at the blind.

Northern Cardinal
juvenile

When we took the little drive around the park I managed to get these images.

Bobwhite in tree

I love those Bobwhites.  Along the way, we saw another covey of them, about twelve, but they scurried into the underbrush before I could even get my camera ready.

We witnessed several nighthawks in the air when we previously entered the park.  Driving around, we saw two perched on mesquite tree branches.  Here is the best of the two.

Common Nighthawk

Migration is only a few weeks away, so soon I might have some more photographs for you.  We are planning another birding trip to the Big Bend later this month, and my new Canon 70D is supposed to arrive today.  So exciting things are looking up.

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…………….

Where’s the spring??

Wow, I am wondering about all of this crazy weather.  Yesterday we almost set a record high at 96 degrees.  But…..by 10:00PM the temp had dropped into the 40s.  Today’s high will be in the 50s.  So, I am wondering if and when we will actually get some permanent springtime temps.  But I must say that the 96 yesterday looked like we were going to skip spring altogether, go directly to summer without passing Go and getting our 200.00.   Such is the weather in west Texas.

We took a short visit to the Hummer House in Christoval a couple of days ago.  We were a bit early for most of the birds that frequent there.  We did see several Black-chinned Hummingbirds, some Northern Cardinals, Black-crested Titmouses, and some sparrows.  We decided to head back to San Angelo and went to the blind at San Angelo State Park.

Here are a couple of photos from the day.

Black-crested Titmouse at the Hummer House in Christoval, Texas.

Northern Cardinal at San Angelo State Park

After getting home later, my neighbor called to say that there was a large hawk flying around the neighborhood.  I grabbed my Canon EOS 7D and 100-400mm zoom lens and ran outside.  With my binoculars I spotted him high in the sky.  I took the shot below, but because of the extreme distance, it was difficult to get much of a picture.  However, this heavily cropped image does clearly show the marking of a Swainson’s Hawk.

Swainson’s Hawk in flight.

Click on any image to see an enlargement.

Cardinals (The Redbirds)

Well, it’s time to get serious again.  Well, maybe not too serious, but it’s time to write a post about birds, but first let me tell you this little story that I heard this morning.  It is too funny not to pass on.   Credit my friend Monty Jones, AKA the former Biscuits O’Bryan.

It seems that this eccentric guy liked to collect thrones.  Yes, that is right, you read it correct.  Thrones – like the ones that kings sit on to twiddle away the day.  He would travel all over the world to collect thrones from palaces and castles where the current kings, and queens, decided to re-decorate and get new furniture or thrones.

On top of all of that, he lived in a glass house.  (do you see where this is going?)  He stored all these thrones in that glass house.  After a time the weight of all the thrones, gradually was too much, and the glass house collapsed from all the weight.

Soooooo, a person that lives in a glass house should never stow thrones.

Okay, now that I have your attention, my subject today is the Northern Cardinal, (Cardinalis cardinalis).  I have found that if going out day after day in this heat doesn’t produce the right results, a.e. finding birds to photograph, you must go for the sure thing.  The bird blind.  There is always some kind of activity there.

San Angelo State Park has a nice little blind, with comfy seats, and  big windows with a view of feeders and a little pond.  I would much rather drive around in my air-conditioned car, over the hills and through the woods, in search of my photographs.  But the blind is my go-to place when the pickin’s  are lean and I need quick images or just want to pad my birding list. 🙂

Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal – female

Actually, the Northern Cardinal is one of my favorite birds.  Always vibrantly red (the male), and fun to watch.  It’s like they have a personality all of their own.  Here in west Texas they sometimes are referred to as simply the Redbirds.  So this is where I ended up going a few days ago.  I hope you enjoy the images.  Click on either one to see an image.

By the way, my book is going great, and I now have my 2013 Bird Calendars.  To preview both the calendar and the book, click on the links on the right side of this.