Aransas-ANWR Birds

Whoopers!










Year end trip was a success! We watched Whooping Cranes! Lots more too.

Another of this close pair.

Columbian Birds

I wasn't able to get any pictures, but in my peregrinations around Bogota (mostly heading out to lunch!), I saw about 3 different birds.

The first was a brown-gray bird about the size of a cardinal or waxwing. It looked like it may have had a black crest that was lowered. It had a quite complex song with a couple of different phrases. I am unable to find an example after a quick foray online, so I'm not sure what it might have been.

I also saw some doves. From the "Birds of Columbia" site, I found some pictures which suggest it might have been a ruddy ground dove.

The last bird was a large-ish black bird with a yellow beak and legs. It looked like some type of Myna. However, I looked up mynas and they are defined as an "Asian bird". Another possibility from "Birds of Columbia" is the Great Thrush. But I'm not 100% sure on this one.

It was really disappointing that I was unable to get any pictures.

Sunday Birding

Yes, I know it's Tuesday -- I'm a little late getting these shots up!

We went out Sunday afternoon -- it was a beautiful, clear day. We were hoping to see the Crested Caracara again, so we re-traced Saturday's route. At one place where the road we were on dead-ended into a cross-road, we found this hawk. The small tree in the distance just to the right of the hawk is probably the tree where the hawk and caracara were on Saturday. So this might be that same hawk.


What was so awesome about this hawk was that I was able to walk up within 10-15 feet of the bird and he just sat there!


Here is one of the last shots I took. I even had to back off a little on the zoom lens! I finally made some clucking noises and spooked him. The flying shot didn't come out as well as I had hoped -- you're always taken a little by surprise.

I've noticed that some of my favorite bird photographers talk about shooting from the blinds, and I assume with tripods to support the heavy photo gear (necessary for getting closeups!), but I'm usually out in the open and holding my camera (the new one with the zoom lens is much heavier!).



I'm fairly certain the hawk above is a red shouldered hawk. He's actually facing the camera (or only slightly turned). Notice the red-ish breast and the barring. This hawk was very patient and let me take several shots. Unfortunately, it probably wasn't real worried because all those tree branches were in the way!


Now, here's an interesting scene. I had stopped to get a few shots of the hawk on the right (below here). The hawk sat perfectly still -- not bothered at all by my being there. In fact, I have about 15 shots of the same bird -- it's hardly moved!

In the middle of all those shots, I happened to look over to the left. And here's this feisty mockingbird (I can say that, because they all are feisty -- and they love to pester hawks!).



I finally realized that the poor hawk was as concerned about that troublesome "little bird" as it was about that troublesome person clicking away with a camera. Both needed watching!











Finally, I took some shots of what I usually refer to as "LBB's" (little bitty birds). This first one is an Eastern Phoebe. The water behind is a flooded field (probably a rice field). We have a lot of those in our area...


This bird, I thought was a sparrow, until I unloaded the picture from the camera and looked a little more closely (yes, it's seriously cropped!). It appears to be a yellow rumped warbler -- but it doesn't quiet match the drawings in the bird book. So I guess we'll have to give this one a maybe!

Meadowlarks

I often see meadow larks as I drive down country roads. They might occasionally be sitting on a fence wire, but more often, they are down in the grass -- as they are "ground birds".

Our birds are "Eastern Meadowlarks"

In the last couple of weeks, I have been determined to get some pictures of meadowlarks. However the pictures last week only showed a gray-brown bird against a gray-brown background. Photographing these birds is quite a challenge!



This fellow was quite willing to have his picture taken -- in fact, I have several shots with him singing gaily! But, alas, his beak blends in with the dry grass, so it wasn't all that obvious. The only problem I had with this fellow was that he wouldn't turn around and show off his distinctive chest marks.

So I had to find another "volunteer". The picture below was taken of another bird at another location. However, this fellow was willing to give me a frontal shot, so you can see his markings! While the lighting no doubt had an effect on the colors, I think the bird above had already "changed into" his breeding colors, while the bird below has not quite made the transition. According to my bird book (Sibley) their breeding period is Feb-Aug.

Yard Birds

Today was one of the first clear days in a week. I had been waiting all week to get back out and take more pictures . The day wasn't as clear as I had hoped, in fact it was pretty overcast -- but at least it wasn't raining.


I started close to home -- right outside the front door in fact. I don't use a tripod. I suppose I should. These pictures were taken with my new Pentax K100D with a 300mm zoom -- still hand-held, but I braced myself on my truck.


Isn't this guy handsome? I think he was posing for me!



Here's my favorite shot of the three! We got a special deal with my camera of a photo-printer, so we printed this one. It really came out nicely.






Another great shot from the yard. This is only one of dozens (maybe more) American Goldfinches that visit our feeders in the winter. It's really fun to have these visitors, but they are sooooo messy! They not only feast on the thistle seeds we have for them, but also get on the feeders. The bad thing about this is, they throw out all the seeds they don't like -- so we're going through almost a full bag of seeds in a week or less.

New Camera!

I finally became so frustrated with my old camera, that I decided to step up to a DSLR. I read and studied and narrowed it down to the Nikon D40 or the Pentax K100D. I was leaning toward the Pentax, but decided at the last minute that I liked the Nikon better. So we headed off to the camera store, where I asked to see the D40. I loved the "feel" of the D40 and had just about decided to buy it until I found out that the zoom lens I wanted cost almost as much as the Camera!!

SO... I am now the proud owner of a Pentax K100D camera!

I had two complaints about my previous camera -- A lot of my pictures were blurry (OK, I know that's most likely ME), but worse, the camera took so long to take a picture, that I missed a lot of shots.

The Pentax K100D is MUCH faster at taking shots. Some are still blurry, but the camera has shake reduction so that should help. It's also a lot heavier with the 300mm zoom lens! I'm still shooting on AutoFocus -- but that will change soon. I need to do a bit more reading to set things up properly.

So here's a few samples:



This was taken on the day I came home with the camera -- with the standard lens. It was very late in the afternoon -- getting on toward dusk. I had to stand on my tip-toes and shoot down on this leaf to get the focus right.

Here are some shots from today of my more common subjects:


OK, I don't usually take pictures of vultures -- but you have to admit they are pretty awesome gliders. This one was flying over the house.


There is a yaupon right at the side of our porch where a lot of the birds like to perch before checking out the feeders, or perhaps they also look for bugs there (as Robins aren't feeder birds).



The picture above, is the way I usually take pictures of hawks. This one's still a little blurry, but it's much better than most I've gotten (I'll credit the fast shutter for that!). This one is a Red Tail.


And this one is not... I haven't looked it up -- but I'm guessing it's a Red Shouldered Hawk -- see the buff color of the tummy?



And of course, it's Goldfinch time! I didn't notice until I was reviewing this shot, that this little guy is injured. Ouch! That has to hurt. Goldfinches, like humming birds, are pretty aggressive. I didn't think they had the "weaponry" to do that kind of damage, but those beaks do look pretty sharp!