The Shot that Started it All.

March 9, 2016 by Bob Zeller

Most of you don’t know it, but I used to be just a flower and landscape photographer. I had absolutely no interest in photographing birds. That changed in October of 2006, just only about ten years ago. We were visiting our dear friends, Deb and Paul, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Deb is an excellent photographer, too. She, at that time, was shooting with a Nikon Camera while I had my Canon. (Deb now uses Canon equipment). We were discussing the attributes of each brand when I saw some birds in a large evergreen tree outside of their living room window. I decided to try and shoot some photos, and Deb generously took the screen off and opened the window for me. I started shooting and this image of a House Finch is the very first photo of any bird that I have ever taken.

House Finch

A few minutes later, I followed up this one of a Red-bellied Woodpecker, the second bird photo that I had ever taken.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Those two photos really got me hooked on bird photography, and birding in general. I had never realized how many beautiful birds there were in the avian world. The experience taught me that if a person opens his or her eyes and really looks, they can discover that there are wonders in nature all around us. Of course, I still love my landscape photography, especially when I get to go to the beautiful Big Bend area of west Texas. But even while there, I am always on the lookout for some great bird photo opportunities.

With the wind and some thunderstorms, the birding has been slow, but here are some images from the past few days. These were taken at San Angelo State Park. I prefer to not use the blind there, although I do go there on occasion. I have much more fun hunting and photographing from my car. I can catch the birds in more natural settings, sans bird feeders, etc.

Canyon Towhee

Savannah Sparrow

Lark Bunting

All in all, I would say that I have come a long way in the past ten years. I hope you agree. Be sure to click on any image to see an enlargement.

Happy Birding!!

Rare Red-bellied Woodpecker

March 29, 2012 by Bob Zeller

I have had a busy day today. I got up early as my wife had an appointment for some medical work before her annual checkup. Then we went to the bird blind this morning to clean up the place a bit in preparation for the visit Saturday from the Abilene, Texas, Audubon Club. We decided to make a quick run to Spring Creek Park to check things out. We figured that with some chores that we had to do tomorrow, this would be our last chance for the week.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

We saw several of the usual birds, including an Osprey that I will tell you about in tomorrow’s post. But I am bursting with the news that today we saw a Red-bellied Woodpecker, (Melanerpes carolinus). For San Angelo, it is a very rare bird, not historically known for making stopovers here. It was not a lifer for me, as I had seen one before in Tennessee and Michigan, but nevertheless it was still a thrill to see and photograph it.

Whenever we go birding, Ann reports our findings to E-Bird at The Cornell Lab of Ornithological Society. They keep tabs on such unusual sightings. The bird posed perfectly for me, too. You can click on the image to see an enlargement.

Exposure info: Canon EOS 7D with 500mm f4 lens and 1.4 tele-converter. 1/1000 sec. @ f7.1, +0.7EV, ISO 640. Hand-held from window of my car.

Ladder-backed Woodpeckers

November 19, 2011 by Bob Zeller

You, my dear readers, are giving me some large shoes to fill. Melissa (her blog) says I am an “awesome dude”. Cindy (her blog) says I have a “magnetic personality”. My friend Ross McSwain (his website) says “Bob, you are the best bird photographer that I have ever come across”. Of course, he is a personal friend of mine and he better danged well say that. 🙂

Anyway, after all those fine words, I find it difficult to keep coming up with subjects to write about. Each day, I stumble through my images and try to find some that I haven’t shown you. Or a story that I haven’t told you. On that subject I could actually think of many stories, but I have to decide which ones are fit for print.

So, today, I came across these photos of the Ladder-backed Woodpecker (Picoides scalaris). They were taken on various occasions during my travels across west Texas and here at San Angelo State Park. At one time, pre-birding days, I thought any woodpecker with a red head was a Red-headed Woodpecker. Not so. The Ladder-backed Woodpecker has a red head, but so has the Red-bellied Woodpecker, Acorn Woodpecker, Red-naped Sapsucker and the Red-breasted Sapsucker. Some others have litle red spots but we won’t count them.

I tossed in the names of the sapsuckers, because they look like woodpeckers. So the mystery deepens even more. How about this? The Red-bellied Woodpecker doesn’t have a red belly. Not that you would notice. I think there is a pink tinge in the lower abdominal area.

Now if you look at the “ladder back”, you can also see the same patterns on the Gila Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Golden-fronted Woodpecker, Nuttall’s Woodpecker, and lest we forget, those sapsuckers. So, IDing the woodpecker species can get a bit tricky. So I guess if I can ID them correctly, that make me an “awesome dude.

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

So there you have it. I am sure that someone will tell me about other distinctive differences that I missed, but this is my story and I am sticking with it. 🙂

Click on any image to see an enlargement. Have a great time enjoying them.