It looks like photographers are ready to head into the wilds again.  The Whooping Crane and the Big Bend Photo tours are full now, although we could handle one or two more at Big Bend.  The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge trip has room for one or two more.  If you read this and remember you have indicated an interest in that trip, let me know right away.  Some photographers have said they intend to go, but they didn’t sign up.  The time is close enough that I need to get a solid count of everyone who intends to go.

Although we have seen few signs of bird migration here in McAllen, I have been lucky enough to capture a few hummingbird images.    Last Monday was a good day at South Padre Island (SPI) where Steve Sinclair and I caught the tail end of a good migration weekend.  Here are some images from the hummer and SPI shoots.

Click on a photo in the upper right zone and it will enlarge and sharpen for you.  From there, you can advance through the photos.

I was focused on the Turk’s cap (above) when a buff-bellied hummingbird flew between me and the flower and I tripped the shutter.  The result was this silhouette of a bird in the shadows between me and the Turk’s cap.

The shot above is a male ruby-throated hummingbird with durante bush bloom super-imposed with it.  The hummers feed at this plant, so I decided to see how well this technique works.  One needs to be more careful than I was in blending subjects.  The size ratios, focus and lighting need to be compatible.

The American bittern (above) was working through the marsh at South Padre Island last Monday afternoon.  For me, this was the best sighting of the day.

The last photo of the day at South Padre Island was shot through cattails as a group of brown pelicans headed into the sunset to roost on the Laguna Madre.

Let me know if you want to shoot cranes, geese, ducks, hawks and more at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge on December 2-4.

Larry

Yesterday, Allen Dale and I headed out to South Padre Island with telephotos in hand with the hope of finding some migrant birds.  For new birds, the morning was a total bomb, but the trip was not a loss.  I had grabbed my backpack with landscape equipment (almost as an afterthought) when I left home.  What a stroke of good fortune that was.

Just as we arrived at the island, a light rain began falling, then the sun popped through the clouds.  As the mist moved out over the Laguna Madre, a fantastic double-rainbow appeared.  I raced (at tortoise speed) to the car, grabbed my Canon 5D Mark II and 24-105 lens with polarizing filter.  The rainbow lasted almost 30 minutes, which was enough time to capture the Convention Center and then the Laguna Madre marsh in the best light.

If you have ever photographed rainbows with a polarizing filter on the lens, you know it can make the color pop.  The landscapes below were done while hand-holding the camera at ISO 200.

When the morning weather event ended, we wound up on the boardwalk with the bird photo equipment and captured some young least bitterns moving about the cattails.

* For best viewing, click in the upper right portion of a photo.  It will enlarge and sharpen the shot.

I’m hoping to get a few ruby-throated hummingbird photos on our back porch today, but the migration is pretty slow…so far.

Larry

August is the month for migrating hummingbirds in west Texas’ Davis Mountains.  The trouble is, one needs to photograph there for the entire month to pick up all the species possibilities.   So, we probably missed some rare visitor or two from the west, but  during the 4 workshop days calliope, black-chinned and rufous visited the set .  Photographing in a private garden near Davis Mountains State Park, we had access to good bird numbers.  Even a shy, gray fox made one or two appearances.

The weather was great, with highs in the mid-80s and lows in the upper 50s and occasional afternoon thundershowers.  I believe it was the rain that brought in fresh birds almost everyday.  The beautiful mountains, colorful garden and a fair number of birds made the week delightful.

The photographers used a 5 flash setup to capture wing-stopping images part of the time.  Then everyone enjoyed trying to photograph hummers, without flash, at feeders, perches and flowers.  Both methods had their rewards and challenges.  Check out the images below and decide for yourself which you prefer.

Don’t forget to click in the upper right portion of a photo to make it larger and sharper, and to move on to the next photograph.

Shots like these (above and below) stop the action in 1/12,000 second.

The shot above was made in the garden at ISO 1600, 1/640 second, f 4 with natural, early morning light using a Canon 1D Mark IV and 500 mm IS lens.

These photos were taken from the front yard hummingbird/butterfly garden at our workshop location near Fort Davis.

While black-chinned hummingbirds were abundant during our workshop, only one full adult male rufous appeared during the 4 day event, however, several nice juvenile and female birds almost made up for the shortage of males.

I hope you enjoyed this little visit to the world of west Texas hummingbirds.

Larry

Last week, I was in Sinton, Texas at the Welder Wildlife Foundation to help judge the Coastal Bend Wildlife Photography Contest.  The three judges and an alternate, Mike Sloat, Kathy Adams Clark, Jay Goodrich and me got an hour of free time at sunrise each morning to make a few images of our own.  To make the most of that hour, we parked Mike’s big Dodge Pickup at a windmill pond and waited for the wildlife (mostly white-tailed deer) to come to us.

Here are some of my images, including shots of the largest, free-ranging, naturally fed whitetail buck of my life:

* Remember, you can click on a photo to make it larger and sharper for viewing.  Then click in the upper right hand area of a photo to advance.

*** Go online to www.nanpa.org and see how to sign up for their regional photography event in Laredo, Texas on October 10-13.  Kathy Adams Clark, Sean Fitzgerald and I will lead photography groups to several Laredo area ranches with photo blinds.  You won’t believe how cheap it is, especially if you sign up before September 1 and you don’t have to be a member of NANPA to participate.

It has been awhile since I got to photograph wildlife without aid of a blind and it was invigorating to watch so many deer at the Welder Wildlife Foundation ranch.  Since the Welder is dedicated to wildlife and range research, you and I normally can’t photograph there.  My thanks to the station managers for inviting the Coastal Bend Photo Contest folks to use their facilities for judging.  We judges felt blessed to have the opportunity to make these little forays along their back roads.

Larry

On the 23rd of August, I will be doing a hummingbird workshop in the Davis Mountains, Texas.  That is the peak of the fall hummingbird migration and I expect they will be colorful and hungry.  We will be photographing with a multi-flash setup in a private hummingbird garden.  That’s right, we’ll have it all to ourselves (no more than 3 photographers/day).  Many other birds will be, too, so we are expecting great success.  Just drop me an email if you are interested; there are still some slots available.

Otherwise, I’ve spent a couple of recent afternoons in south Texas photo blinds.  The best surprise was getting good shots of a yell0w-billed cuckoo.  They don’t leave the deep vegetation and shade very often, but when it’s hot, they come to water during the day.

Remember, you can click in the upper right portion of a photo to get a larger, sharper view.  then you can advance from there to the next photo.

I will have backgrounds, flashes, flowers and chairs ready when the photographers arrive for the Davis Mountains Hummingbird Workshop.  Everybody will get several species and many different hummingbird wing positions in good lighting.

Yellow-billed Cuckoos are pretty wary, but after the first few shutter clicks, they settle in for a drink.  This guy waded into the pool, but didn’t bathe.  It just set down in the water to cool off.

For some reason, we’ve only been seeing juvenile blue grosbeaks at the photo ranch ponds.  I know there are beautiful blue males around, but I haven’t been lucky enough to photograph one this summer.

It has been too dry for a good butterfly hatch this summer, but I have seen several Emperors and Sulphurs on the ranches.  October will be the best time for butterflies in our area.

I hope all of you are getting nice photo opportunities, especially those of you who are lucky enough head north to Canada or to other cool locations.

Larry

As I passed through the village of McCook west of Edinburg, Texas on Saturday at 4:00 PM, the Durango’s thermometer (which is accurate) read 110 degrees.  A few miles west of there at the Santa Clara Ranch, the temperature was a moderate 108 degrees.  These hot June days always bring lots of birds and other critters to the photo blind waterholes.  Within an hour, I was in the blind #3 with ranch owner, Dr. Alberto (Beto) Gutierrez, and our friend, Hector Astorga.  The bird activity was fast and furious until sundown, but the whirring cameras didn’t bother those thirsty birds one bit.

The best bird of the afternoon was a yellow-billed cuckoo which visited the pond three or four times.  We also enjoyed photographing roadrunner, Bullock’s oriole, blue grosbeak, painted bunting, ground dove, pyrrhuloxia, olive sparrow, black-throated sparrow, Couch’s kingbird, bronzed cowbird, thrashers and lots of mockingbirds.  A very pregnant white-tailed doe visited the pond as did some thirsty ground squirrels.

I sat there with a damp Endura Sports Towel (from Lowes) over my head and never broke a sweat despite the scorching heat.  Beto was skeptical until I loaned him my Academy sports towel.  With it around his neck, he remained relatively cool, as well.  I’m not doing commercial ads for sports towels, but they are so-o-o effective I just have to tell you.  Larry and Sharron Jay from the Block Creek Natural Area put me onto the cooling towels about a month ago.

Other recent photo outings took me to the Falcon State Park butterfly garden on Falcon Lake and to Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge for nesting Altamira orioles.  So, the following photos include shots from all three shoots.  I hope you enjoy them.

The landing shot was done at 1/4000 second.

As most of you know by now, I made these images with the Canon 1D Mark IV, 500 mm Canon lens and Wimberley head on a Feisol carbon fiber tripod.  The take off shot was done at 1/1200 second.

The following images were made with a Canon 7D and 300 mm canon lens mounted with an Arca Swiss Monoball on the Feisol carbon fiber tripod.

Note how the katydid mimics the form of it supporting plant.

I hope it’s cool enough for you to get outside with the camera.  For the next two months, I’ll be at the computer and judging the Coastal Bend Photography Contest in Corpus Christi.

Larry

Some of the following shots are files I lifted from past folders.  I think you saw the mud dauber photographs about two years ago.  You didn’t see some of the images that showed other wasps, hornets and such buzzing around the mud daubers’ heads.

Some of the following photos were done at the Laguna Seca Ranch last week.  It was extremely hot for photography, but  most of the birds visited the pond in late afternoon.  We got painted buntings, Bullock’s orioles, great kiskadees, groove-billed anis, and several other species.  All of the south Texas photo ranches are productive when the weather turns warm (above 90).

Don’t forget to click in the upper right portion of a photo to make it larger and sharper for viewing.  You can click through the photos by going to the upper right area of each and clicking on “next”.

Two weeks ago, I purchased a new computer monitor to replace the dead Dell UltraBrite which had been in service about 7 years.  After much study, I selected the ASUS 23″ high definition model and I love it.  Wow, are prices going down…the old monitor cost something in the $600 range and this one was $216.

Last week, I was on the Roel Ramirez Ranch north of Roma (about 7 miles from the Rio Grande) conducting a workshop and photographing the bird life.  Roel has been getting things organized at the ranch and he is constructing new blinds.  There is a lot to do and it should be looking great by this coming fall.

About 4 inches rain soaked the area over the last 10 days, so the butterflies are hatching, too.  The headquarters butterfly garden was coming alive with butterflies and blooms when we left.  I may have some of the group’s photos to share with you in coming newsletters, but the following images should give you a good sense of what we captured.

Click 0n an image to enlarge and sharpen it.  Then click in the upper right portion of the photo to advance.

During the first two days of our workshop, the rain had left everything soaked and water was standing everywhere.  The birds just weren’t coming to the blinds.  By day 3, the area was dry again so, we saw many species including painted bunting.

On day three of the workshop, we saw many yellow birds (Wilson’s warbler, male and female yellow warblers, male and female hooded orioles).  Most were photographed with the Canon 7D camera, 500 mm lens and 1.4X teleconverter on a Wimberley head and Feisol carbon fiber tripod.

Bird photography will be good all the way through June, so you still have time to grab a couple bottles of water and get down to south Texas where these birds congregate.  Every ranch offers excellent photography… Dos Venadas Ranch, Tacubaya Ranch, Santa Clara Ranch, Laguna Seca Ranch, Martin Refuge and Isaac Garza’s Tepeyac Ranch.  I hope to see you soon.

Larry

Seven of us photographed in late April near Fredericksburg, Texas in the hill country at Block Creek Natural Area with hosts Sharron and Larry Jay.  The Jays had installed two new blinds earlier in the year and both had good numbers of birds.  For four days, we worked the blinds, photographed hawks and owls presented by “Last Chance Forever” raptor recovery group, and worked the area’s many hummingbirds with my flash setup.  We had good luck at all these locations, but the breeding birds had not arrived in huge numbers as they usually do by mid-April.  As the week came to a close, two photographers joined me for an afternoon while we refined our Photoshop skills.

The food and lodging at Block Creek Natural area were superb, as always.  That and entertaining conversation around the dinner table kept things lively and fun.

Check the photos that follow to see a variety of what I photographed.  This is just a small sample of what the group captured during the photo tour.

Remember, just click on a photo to open it in a larger, sharper format.  Then move your cursor to the upper right portion of a photo to advance.

These scissortails landed on a fence near Larry Jay and me on the last afternoon of the photo tour.  The capture was with a Canon 1D mark IV, 500 mm lens. 1.4 teleconverter, Feisol tripod and Wimberley head, ISO 500, 1/3200 second @ f5.6.

My time at the hummingbird setup was limited to a few minutes to get the flashes adjusted.  After that, the other photographers occupied every minute at the set and captured hundreds of amazing shots.  I’ll get there a day early next year.  There were many opportunities to photograph hummingbirds around the headquarters flower gardens, so that is where I went after being ousted from the setup area.

During our first evening at Block Creek NA, some of us captured the rising moon and a flock of purple martins headed to roost.

I cloned the jesses off the legs of this captive hawk.

The buckeye trees along Block Creek were blooming in late April and afforded beautiful perches.  Most Texans probably don’t know the buckeye is native here, although the hill country trees are a different species from those in the eastern U.S.

You can see that we had a great variety of birds in the Texas hill country this year.  Many more arrived after a spring cold front blew through central Texas three days after we departed.   Timing is everything, but we had plenty of good shooting.

Larry

Yesterday, (Dr.) Beto Gutierrez and I got up with the dawn and headed to South Padre Island for what we were sure would be a big day of photographing songbirds in migration.  We weren’t disappointed even though a 30 mph wind was blowing out of the north.  Many species went un-photographed but following this paragraph are a few samples of what we captured.  Some of these shots are on a log perch furnished by photographer Stephen Sinclair and some are on natural perches.  As always, the color splash was fantastic as we got birds with red, yellow, blue, orange, black, white, green, etc.  and that was just the warblers and tanagers.  Very few grosbeaks and orioles were in the area after last week’s big fallout.

View these photos by clicking in the upper right portion of the shot to make it larger and sharper.  You will see the advance button, just click it to bring up the next photo.

All of these photos were captured with a Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 500 mm lens, 1.4 X tele-extender, extension tube (25 mm), Canon 580 flash, Feisol tripod and Wimberley head.  I always have aching shoulders at the end of a photo day, but it takes all this equipment to get these kinds of photos.  Most of these birds were photographed at 1/800 to 1/1250 second in the shade.  You will recognize the daylight shots.

Thanks to all the volunteers who feed the birds as they rest in the small habitat on the island and special thanks to Will and Jill Carter who started planting these trees almost two decades ago.

I hope you enjoyed the spring migration.

Larry