Last post before Big Bend

January 4, 2016 by Bob Zeller

Today, along with trying to write this post, I am also getting my various equipment cleaned, sorted, stashed and packed. We are leaving for the Big Bend area on Wednesday morning. We are meeting our Tennessee friends in Terlingua, staying at The Chisos Mining Company at Easter Egg Valley. That is a motel, named after a now defunct mercury mine and the pastel painted cabins that dot the desert.

We will be spending five days and nights, prowling the mountains, canyons and desert of Big Bend National Park and the adjacent Big Bend Ranch State Park. That area of the state of Texas is a well kept secret I have come to discover. I say that because I have had people ask me, Texans mind you, where Big Bend is. It is in far west Texas, down where the Rio Grande makes it’s big turn from flowing southeast to turning to flow northeast.

As most of my regular readers know, I love going to that area, not only to photograph birds, but also the four-legged wildlife and the magnificent landscapes. Of course, if I can add to my bird lists, so much the better. On that note, I will tell you that in the past three days, I have put 53 species on my 2016 Big Year list. Soooo….. with my goal of 210 for the year, I should get there in the next 12 days. Right????

Okay, let’s get to the images that I have captured these past three days. In no particular order. Click on any image to see an enlargement.

Let’s start with a rare visitor to this part of Texas, the Green-tailed Towhee. It’s range is usually in far west Texas, but occasionally one will show up that can’t read a range map and won’t ask for directions. This one wound up at the blind at San Angelo State Park.

Green-tailed Towhee

Also at the blind, this Curve-billed Thrasher.

Curve-billed Thrasher

This pretty Pyrrhuloxia showed up, too. I just love trying to spell his name.

Pyrrhuloxia

Driving into Spring Creek Park we saw this female Golden-fronted Woodpecker working without a net.

Golden-fronted Woodpecker – female

On another tree branch, just sitting and looking pretty, was this Western Bluebird.

Western Bluebird

I have a hard time passing up a photo of a Great Blue Heron. One of my favorite subjects.

Great Blue Heron

Looking far across the water, Ann spotted what looked like a bird in the brush. At a distance of about 250 yards, we had to look through our binoculars to see what it was. It was a challenge to my Canon 7D Mark II, but it and the Tamron 150-600mm lens got the job done. It was hard to make the ID from that distance, but I see a rounded tip of the tail, and perhaps some black on the top of the head. I will call it a Cooper’s versus a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Cooper’s Hawk

I love the challenge of capturing the tiny birds in the brush. Here is a neat photo of a juvenile White-crowned Sparrow.

White-crowned Sparrow – juvenile

Speaking of juveniles, let’s finish up with this young Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – juvenile

That’s it for this post. Now back to packing up for our trip. My next post will be around the 13th of January. I hope to have some fun stuff to show you.

‘Til then, Happy Birding!!

Wood Duck – Filling my bucket list.

November 16, 2015 by Bob Zeller

I think every bird photographer has a certain hard-to-get bird on his or her ‘bucket list’. A bird that has escaped every effort made to get a photograph of it, or even see. Mine was the elusive Wood Duck. In all of my eight years of birding, I had only seen one, and it was a lone female on a very rainy day and the bird wasn’t that attractive. I wanted an adult male in it’s bright colors. Well, I finally got the chance.

We were out at Middle Concho Park driving through. Off to my left, far across the disc golf course, I saw the head of a goose pop up along the near shoreline. At about 150 yards, I couldn’t make out any details. So what to do. I drive across the golf course, of course. Upon arriving, I can see that the goose was a some domestic breed and I started to drive away. At that moment, some Mallards moved out from the shore, and lo and behold, lagging a bit behind them was this beautiful male Wood Duck.

I immediately pulled along parallel to the shoreline so I could snap photos. I snapped a couple of long distance shots of the Wood Duck. It started to move a bit closer but still moving the same direction. It fell in among the Mallards, but within seconds it took flight. I was quick with my shutter and got off several photos. Here are three of them.

Wood Duck

Wood Duck and female Mallard

Wood Duck lifting off.

What great fun that was! But there were more birds to see and photograph. We were surprised to see much activity, as the weather was cool and windy with a threat of showers. We continued on and we saw a huge flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks. They were milling around, also near that disc golf course. Here is a likely pair.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks.

An Eastern Bluebird didn’t mind the dreary weather.

female Eastern Bluebird

All of that happened yesterday, Sunday November 15. Today, the 16th we decided to press our luck again. The winds were much higher, but the temperature was mild. Very overcast. Again, not much activity, but enough to keep us interested.

This Great Egret was content to just sit in the tree and stay away from the water.

Great Egret

This Great Blue Heron wasn’t in the mood to fish, and just decided to just stand and look beautiful. The cloudy overcast brought out his nice blue and gray colors.

Great Blue Heron

Finally, we decided to call it a day, but not before we spotted this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, a first of the year for us.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

That gives us 181 sightings for our 2015 Big Year list. Far below our goal of 210, but we still have over a month to go. 🙂

Yellow-breasted Sapsucker

November 29, 2013 by Bob Zeller

Another of the woodpecker species, is the Yellow-breasted Sapsucker. Often mistaken for a woodpecker, it and the Red-naped Sapsucker are not too frequent visitors here. Our local bird guides list them as “uncommon, not present every year”.

It is always nice to be able to photograph one close up, as I did this morning at Spring Creek Park. We saw it moving among the trees, so I drove my car among the trees. I was only about ten feet away to photograph this one. It has a red crown, and a bit of red on the neck below the beak. Forget the yellow belly. This specimen was a bit ratty looking, it’s plumage dirty, and the reds not very vivid. It probably hadn’t cleaned up yet from the recent rains.

Yelllow-bellied Sapsucker

In contrast, here is an older picture of a Red-naped Sapsucker. Notice the red nape and the red crown.

Red-naped Sapsucker

While were out we encountered this Double-crested Cormorant trying to swallow his Happy Meal™.

Double-crested Cormorant with fish.

Why not end the day with another photo of one of my favorites, the Great Blue Heron.

Great Blue Heron

Enjoy the pictures and click on either of them to see an enlargement.

Today’s Monthly Bird Adventure

March 20, 2010 by Bob Zeller

This morning was our monthly birding adventure at San Angelo State Park. I fully expected no one to show up, and was prepared to head back home and get warm. The temp was mid-thirties with 25-30 mph winds so the wind-chill factor was down to about 10 degrees. But surprisingly four people showed up.

We headed to the bird-blind first, mainly just to get out of the wind. Inside we sat and shivered but kept the windows closed. I did manage to get there earlier and put out a little feed for our avian friends, so there were several of them in attendance. We watched for awhile, found that there wasn’t anything unusul that was going to appear.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

We then done a driving tour in our mini-van, keeping it cozy with a little warmth from the heater. Linda White, the ever-popular Sue Oliver, a lady named Sally from Rhode Island and my wife Ann were with me. It was very enjoyable and the highlight for me, anyway, was the sighting of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius). See picture on left. I shot it from the van window with my 500mm lens on my Canon 7 camera. It was another lifer for me, bring my total to 195 if anybody is counting. Heck, maybe I’ll hit 200 by the end of the year.

Also yesterday I managed to get this photo of a Golden-fronted Woodpecker (Melanerpes varius). I think this bird is one of most photogenic of the woodpecker family. See picture to the right.