Big Bend the Beautiful

I have been busy the past three days processing photos from our trip last week to the Big Bend Country.  All I can say is that I have never seen this area look so beautiful in all of the many years that Ann and I have been visiting there.  Right from the git-go, driving down from Marathon and entering Big Bend National Park this is what greeted us; and it lasted for nearly all of the 35 miles or so to the park headquarters at Panther Junction.

Texas Bluebonnets along the highway into Big Bend National Park.

What a way to start our little vacation!  I am not going to go into a great narrative in this post.  Mostly, I will let the photos do the talking.  Here is some more of the beauty.  By the way, if you are reading this on your computer, by all means please click on each photo and you will see beautiful enlargements.

Ocotillo shrubs – a sea of red.

Ocotillo and the Chisos Mountains. You can see Mt. Casa Grande in the distance.

On a couple of mornings we went to the ghost town in Terlingua for breakfast.  A small place that we liked, served good hot coffee and a vast assortment of burritos.  It got us off to a good start for the day.  I took this photo from there one morning, before we left.

Sunrise from the ghost town at Terlingua, Texas.

Now, speaking of eating, and before I get into the rest of this post, if any of you make this trip and you like pizza, don’t pass up this little place.  Don’t judge it by the appearance, like we did for so many years.  Inside is the best pizza around, made from scratch and the beer is cold.  I few miles south of the ghost town of Terlingua.  Opens at 5:00PM Wednesday through Sunday.  And no, Nancy, the owner is not paying me for this.

Long Draw Pizza

So, we did get into some birding.  After all, that was the main reason for coming.

Bell’s Vireo at Cottonwood Campground

Summer Tanager at Rio Grande Village.

Ocotillo and canyon in ackground.

Ocotillo and Mule Ears Peak.

If you think I like ocotillo plants, you are right.  We have two that reach a height of about 20 feet, in our yard back home in San Angelo.  Okay, back to some birds.

Cattle Egret in early morning sun at the ghost town of Terlingua.

Cattle egrets are named for the fact that they are usually found among milling cattle.  We have often found them in the desert of Big Bend National Park before, but I don’t think they stay long and are just on the way to nearby ranches.

Cactus Wren with an insect lunch.

Pyrrhuloxia trying to hide in the bushes.

Scaaled Quail – also locally know as a blue quail.

Gambel’s Quail. Found along Highway 170 in Big Bend Ranch State Park near Redford, Texas.

Sunrise over the Chisos Mountains, Big Bend National Park.

I hope you enjoyed this brief trip through the Big Bend Country of far West Texas.  For us, we had a blast.  A gorgeous part of the state that Ann and I visit again and again.  For those who are following our birding exploits, we added sixteen new species for the year.  Our list is currently now at 140.  As you know, our goal is 210.  We are gaining on it.

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. 🙂

More Recent Random Images

Sorry to say that nothing exciting has happened the past few days, but we are getting settled in after our Big Bend trip.  I have been busy editing some of those pictures and trying to keep up with other blogs that I follow.

One of my many favorite blogs is Jo Woolf’s Journal.  She lives in Scotland with her husband, Colin, and they have been showing the great landscapes from Skye.  The mountains and cliffs along the ocean remind me of the landscape of the Big Bend here in west Texas.  The only difference is that the cliffs at Skye are along the ocean, whereas as here they are surrounded by desert.  Also, Colin is a fantastic water-color artist.  Click here to see his stunning wildlife art.

Mountains in the Mist – Big Bend National Park

While editing some of my Big Bend trip photos I came across a couple more images hopefully for your enjoyment.  How about another shot of the Scaled Quail.

Scaled Quail – hiding in plain sight.

These Curve-billed Thrashers are always fun to photograph, too.  I love their fierce expressions.

Curve-billed Thrasher on wire fence.

I have been keeping up with the Great Blue Heron nest downtown along our Concho River.  The kids are growing up.  If you remember, a couple of weeks ago I published a photo of the nest, and you could only see the head of one of the chicks above the nest.  Here what they looked like yesterday.

Great Blue Heron with chicks

We took a short drive to Middle Concho Park and came away with this shot of a Bullock’s Oriole.  They are quite plentiful around here now, but very elusive when trying to photograph them.

Bullock’s Oriole on mesquite limb.

I hope you enjoyed my photography again.  Click on any of the images to see an enlargement.

The cute Scaled (Blue) Quail

In going through some more images from the past, I remembered these that are from early summer of 2007.  The Scaled Quail (Callipepla squamata), also known as Blue Quail.  A medium-sized, short-tailed quail with a tufted crest.  Feathers have a scaled appearance.  In my opinion, the numbers of them in west Texas are diminishing, as I haven’t seen them as often as I used to.

I have been fortunate to sell one of my photographs to an advertising agency.  Here I have three more images that you may enjoy.  They were taken about four years ago, when I was still using an old Canon EOS 20D, but still had my Canon 100-400mm lens.  I used Partial metering, at Aperture priority on all these images.

Scaled Quail

1/250 sec. @ f8 – ISO 400

Scaled Quail

1/400 sec. @ f5.6 – ISO 200

Scaled Quail

1/640 sec. @ f5.6 – ISO 200

I hope you enjoyed these images.  Click on any of them to see enlarged photos.

Birding Big Bend Again March 2011 – Part I

Back from our favorite haunts again.  Our stay at the Lajitas House was just great.  Large, spacious, quiet and comfortable.  We sat and watched birds and quail come up on our patio.  At night the stars were so bright it was almost blinding.

Scaled Quail on the patio

The first day, Tuesday, we went into Big Bend NP to check out some birding places.  We stopped at the ruins of Sam Neal’s house that stood over 100 years ago.  The vegetation and trees are all grown up, but there is a little shaded area that is frequented by birds of all types.  Thrashers, thrushers, sparrows, towhees. 

Common Black-hawk

While there we visited with another birder/photographer, Cindy McIntyre,  (http://cindymcintyre.blogspot.com) from Maine.  She is a Big Bend NP ranger.  She had been to Rio Grande Village, an RV camping area on the on eastern side of the park.  She told us about two rare Common Black-hawks that were nesting there.  She said the site was easy to see, as the park service had the area marked with signage, to protect the birds.

Vermilion Flycatcher

So as you would guess, on Wednesday we headed over there.  Sure enough.  We spotted one hawk almost immediately.  It was sitting on a branch in plain sight.  A great photo opportunity, and I took advantage of it.  It was also another lifer for me, number 222.  Previously, I thought I had already reached 222 but found that I had erroneously added a Purple Finch to my list, when I have actually never seen that bird.

In a nearby area, we saw several Vermilion Flycatchers moving around.  They are tiny, flighty, creatures that can’t sit one spot more than a couple of seconds, and also dificult to get close to.  However, I was able to get my 500mm with a tele-converter, mounted on a tripod, about 35 yards away.

Click on any photo so see an enlargement.

Coming soon, Part II.  I will tell you some more about the trip and our experiences.

Snowy Plovers at San Angelo State Park

Yesterday, Friday, afternoon Melanie at the south gate to the park called and told me that another professional photographer had spotted a Snowy Plover in the Red Arroyo boat ramp parking lot.

I immediately high-tailed it out there to try and get my own photographs.  I had gotten an image of one at Twin Buttes several years ago, but never had been impressed with the photo, as that one had been quite a bit further away, and therefore not a real great image.  When we arrived it, the plover, was already walking away towards the weeds.  I sat my camera up some distance away and waited, but after an hour decided to wait ’til this morning.

Snow Plover watching over eggs.

So this morning, I and and Ann went back.  The bird wasn’t near the nest but with our binoculars we could see that there were two eggs instead of the single one that we had seen yesterday.  I set up my equipment near some bushes some distance away.  With my 500mm lens and a 2x tele-converter I wasn’t worried about not getting a good image. 

Snowy Plover

After about a thirty-minute wait, here comes not one Snowy Plover, but two Snowy Plovers.  They skittered around the parking lot, then eventually ended up near the “nest”.  Actually, the two eggs are on the tar and gravel parking lot surface.  One of the birds got on the eggs, and the other disappeared into the nearby brush and weeds.

I am inserting a couple of my photographs here for your enjoyment.  Click on either one for an enlargement.

As a foot-note, while were waiting, a Scaled Quail landed near us for a very brief two minute visit.  I decided against trying to get an image of it because I had my big lens sighted in on the plover eggs and didn’t want to risk of missing a shot.

Enjoy the photos, and Happy Birding!!