Daily Archives: August 12, 2015

Hot Wildlife Photography at Santa Clara Ranch

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Santa Clara Ranch owner, Dr. Alberto “Beto” Gutierrez, called me at lunch yesterday to see if I was interested in heading out to the ranch for an afternoon of photography.  At the time, I was comfortably engrossed in a good book and didn’t want to leave the air conditioning.   Besides, the outside temperature was already hovering at 100 degrees.

Of course, I threw the book aside, jumped into my field clothes and headed for Beto’s place.  We arrived at the ranch around 3:00 PM and crawled into the blind to enjoy the 103 degree afternoon.  Birds were everywhere and everybody needed water.  In five minutes, we were “blazing” away at various birds, rabbits, ground squirrels and other critters.  The photography just got better as the day rocked along and things peaked about 6:45 PM when a young bobcat came in for a drink.    By that time, we’d already photographed deer, rabbits, and over a dozen species of birds.

Here are some of the images we captured on that toasty Texas afternoon:  click on the photos to make them larger and sharper.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo landing in granjeno bush, s. Texas
Yellow-billed Cuckoo landing in granjeno bush, s. Texas

These are the best yellow-billed cuckoo shots I’ve made.  These were done with the Canon 7D Mk II, 70-200 mm lens and 1.4X teleconverter, hand held.

Yellow-billed Cuckoo drinking at ranch pond, s. Texas
Yellow-billed Cuckoo drinking at ranch pond, s. Texas
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher flushing from ranch pond, s. Texas.
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher flushing from ranch pond, s. Texas.

Once we photographed the cuckoo and this scissor-tailed flycatcher, we knew for sure it would be a hot afternoon.

Female Bullock's oriole bathing while a young golden-fronted woodpecker waits its turn in the pond.
Female Bullock’s oriole bathing while a young golden-fronted woodpecker waits its turn in the pond.
Molting golden-fronted woodpecker and cardinal sitting in shade on a 102 degree afternoon by the ranch pond.
Molting golden-fronted woodpecker and a young cardinal sitting in shade on a 102 degree afternoon by the ranch pond.
Greater Roadrunner taking dust bath
Greater Roadrunner taking dust bath

Although this roadrunner drank often, it chose a dust bath instead of the wet type.

Groove-billed Ani drinking
Groove-billed Ani drinking

Eight anis were among the last birds to arrive at the pond on this afternoon.  The group of young and molting adults were more fun to watch than to photograph.

Groove-billed Anis grooming, s. Texas
Groove-billed Anis grooming, s. Texas
White-tailed Deer, does drinking at s. Texas photography ranch (Santa Clara).
White-tail does drinking at s. Texas photography ranch (Santa Clara).

These cautious white-tailed deer were all ears as we clicked away while they drank.

Bobcat drinking at pond in summer
Bobcat drinking at pond just before sunset.
Bobcat headed into brushy cover
Bobcat headed into brushy cover

This young cat almost walked into the blind after drinking from the nearby pond.  We were so excited by this cat that we pretty much forgot about photographing birds for the last half hour of the day.

As we left the ranch at sunset, the resident pair of Harris’s hawks showed up at the ranch house raptor blind, assuming Beto would leave a beef kinney supper on their favorite perch.   He did.

Larry