For the last three years, my wife and I have gone to the Davis Mountains of west Texas for a week-long summer retreat.  While the temperatures hovered close to 100-degrees in south Texas, the mountain air was refreshingly cool throughout the July trip.  Of course, I had my camera gear along and used it every day to capture hummingbirds, foxes, mountains scenes and wildlife.

Here are several images I hope you will enjoy.  Don’t forget to click on an image to make it enlarge and sharpen for better viewing.

While eating breakfast one morning and watching for wildlife on the hills out the back window, I spotted a herd of approximately 13 aoudad sheep ewes and lambs grazing on the mountainside.

By adding a 1.4 X tele-extender behind my 500 mm IS lens, the magnification was improved significantly for the sheep photos.

Although there were only about 8 hummingbirds around the house, most were males and I had a lot of fun working them at the multi-flash setup.  All the birds were black-chinned hummingbirds.

Century plants (agaves) were in full bloom at mid-July.

Just after sunrise, I captured this scene with clouds and century plants (agaves) along the roadside near McDonald Observatory.

I used HDR toning while processing the photo above.

This Scott’s Oriole fed among the agave blooms for several days at our residence near Fort Davis.

Alerted by this bird’s distinctive call (the windows were always open so we could enjoy the cool breeze), I simply sneaked out of the house and photographed him from under the edge of the porch roof.

A long-time resident pair of gray foxes came by the house each afternoon at sunset, looking for a handout (usually weenies).

The 70-200 Canon lens with 1.4 tele-extender on the Canon 1D Mark IV body, hand held.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the chance to do this again next year.

Larry