Posts in Category: Texas
11/16/2011: world’s most attractive junk bird: Green Jay
When a bird is common enough and obtrousive enough (and often obnoxious enough) birders call it a junk bird. House Sparrow is a junk bird almost where ever it occures. Juncos in most places in winter are (no pun intended) junk birds. They are everywhere and after a while it takes real effort to look at then anymore. I should say right here that I am philosophically opposed to the whole concept of the junk bird, but I certainly understand what birders mean by the term. So when the guy at Sana Anna National Wildlife Refuge said that the Green Jay was the world’s most attractive junk bird, I knew what he meant. In the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas the Green Jay is among the most common of birds. It is everywhere and since it frequents feeders it is very visible…not to mention noisy, messy, and agessive. A junk bird. Of course, if you live anywhere but the Valley, the Green Jay is an exotic tropical eruption of color and motion that has to delight. I visit the Valley at least once a year and look forward every year to seeing the Green Jays. And that is, of course where the most attractive part comes in.
Canon SX40HS at 1260mm equivalent field of view (840 optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter). f5.8 @ 1/125th @ ISO 800. Program with iContrast. -1/3EV exposure compensation. The only way to photograph the hyperactive Green Jay in the light it frequents is to take a lot of exposures and hope for the best.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
11/14/2011: Disheveled Green Wing Teal, TX
Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center is one of my favorite birding and bird photography destinations in the Rio Grande Valley. I have watched it develop over the past 5 years into a truly world class birding center. This Green Winged Teal, caught while preening and showing off it nominal feature in the green wing patch, is just of the main observation deck at the visitor’s center. It does not get much better than this, if you enjoy ducks and waders, and the back sections of the park are great for almost any of the South Texas boarder specialties, and the occasional truly rare tropical species that has drifted north.
Canon SX40HS at 840mm optical zoom plus 1.5x digital tel-converter for something equivalent to 1260mm field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 320. Program with iContrast.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
11/13/2011: Bluebirds (of happiness?)
I am not sure how the bluebird became associated with happiness, but, according to the wiki on the subject, it is a tradition that is both widespread and ancient. And of course, in its origins it almost certainly referenced some other blue bird than the North American thrushes that have acquired (or appropriated) the name. Eastern Bluebird (shown here in this shot from yesterday from Sana Anna National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo Texas) and the western Bluebird which share the two tone blue and rufous coloration, and the Mountain Bluebird which is almost entirely blue. Still, I have to admit that I do find our North American Bluebirds conducive to cheerfulness. They are such perky little guys, going about, at least in migration, in flocks of up to 40 birds, decorating the trees and bushes with their splash of unlikely blue.
I mean, look at these attitudes here. Don’t they make you smile (at least just a little)? No? How about this one?
All taken with the Canon SX40HS at 1680mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 2x digital tel-converter). f5.8 @ with shutter speeds between 1/320th and 1/500th and ISOs between 100 and 200. Program with iContrast and –1/3 EV exposure compensation.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought: We humans are prone to externalizing our most precious internal states. Happiness is a bluebird…the Bluebird of Happiness. Maybe the feature more apt about Bluebirds and happiness that is caught in these images is sense of arrested motion. Bluebirds are seldom still for more than a second, and, without warning or apparent provocation, the whole flock will shoot at high speed from their current perches in a tree to decorate tall grasses in the meadow. Maybe it is that fleeting nature of happiness that we celebrate in the bluebird. On the other hand, Bluebirds generally don’t move far at a hop. They settle within easy sight of their original perch and work an area well before abandoning it. During nesting season they are very sedentary, if still highly active. They reside on territory about their nests and are easy to see over a matter of months. They are the model of domestic bliss. So I your take on what aspect of happiness the Bluebird represents might depend on the season and the place where you see them. Still, of course, we are externalizing…projecting our human feelings and needs onto the Bluebird. I do find them cheering to watch…and testimony to both the creator’s joy and sense of humor. Such unlikely little creatures! And I have to admit that the world is a happier place, for me, for having Bluebirds in it!
11/12/2011: Great Kiskadee, Sabal Palms, TX
One of the most common birds in the Rio Grande Valley, the Great Kiskadee is certainly a stunning bird. It’s song is pretty far from musical, but what it lacks in vocal talent it makes up for in volume. It is active, gregarious, and very visible much of the time. This bird clung to this reed for at least 5 minutes as I shot at different focal lengths and captured a number of poses. I like the intent look here.
Canon SX40HS at 1400mm equivalent field of view (700 optical plus 2x digital tel-converter). f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 200. Program with iContrast.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
11/11/2011: Unknown Dragonfly/Damselfly from TX
This bug is holding its wings like a Damselfly (and it was consistent in this wherever it landed), but its body parts look like a Dragon. It is quite small compared to the Variegated Meadowhawks it was hanging out and sparring with at what used to be called Hugh Ramsey Park in Harlingen Texas (now the Arroyo Colorado World Birding Center). If anyone knows what it actually is, please let me know via email or in the comments. Thanks.
This is another 1680mm equivalent field of view, hand-held macro, using the full optical zoom (840mm) on the Canon SX40HS and the 2x digital converter. I continue to be amazed a the quality possible. Images look good up to large viewing and medium print sizes. They fall apart at 1 to 1 resolution, but I don’t plan to view them or print them at that kind of resolution. The digital wizards at Canon have certainly produced a workable long lens solution in a very small package! And it is particularly effective at close range for these kinds of macro…since you get the image scale of 1680mm lens and the depth of field of a 150mm lens. Best of both worlds.
Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation (which is becoming my standard setting on the Canon).
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.
11/10/2011: Not great images of a great bird!
My first day in the Rio Grande Valley was uncharacteristically completely overcast with intermittent rain. Not great weather for photographing birds…and especially limiting for using a Point and Shoot with a spotting scope. High ISO performance has improved on the P&S in the past year, but the light levels at Estero Llano Grande State Park were so low that IS0 800 was just barely getting the job done.
Despite that, I was delighted to find a cooperative Green Kingfisher working one of the deep ditches along the trails at Estero Llano Grande. The Green Kingfisher is my co-favorite bird, along with the American Kestrel. There is something about the tiny Green Kingfisher that just tickles my fancy. So small. So unlikely from an aerodynamic standpoint (how does it propel that massive beak through the air in level flight?). So green. Especially the male, with its contrasting rufous breast band. And it is so active. It perches about 3-4 feet over the water and waits…but its attention span is as small as it is. If nothing shows in the water, it is off to another perch within moments. It flies low, direct, and very fast…like a winged dart with that long sharp beak. Generally you can not get very close either. It seems particularly sensitive to human presence.
Shooting with the Canon SD100HS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on a ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope at equivalent fields of view of between 1600mm and 3500mm, even pushing the ISO to 800 was only giving me exposures in the 1/40th second range…far too slow for critically sharp images at those magnifications. I did not have high hopes for the results, but I got a few keepers…especially considering the bird. And, who knows, this may be my only Green Kingfisher for this trip to the Valley, so I have to celebrate it.
Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness. And I had to do some work with the selective saturation tool to eliminate blue shadow lines where the white of the neck meets the green on either side.
12/21/2010: Great Tailed Grackle
A close relation of the Common Grackle and even closer to the Boat-tailed Grackle of the Southeast, this Great-tailed Grackle is abundant in the Southwest…here in the Rio Grande Valley, right along the Mexican boarder. They gather in night flocks in the trees by the hotels in Harlingen Texas and their jungle noise is, after the blast of wind and humidity, the first thing that tells me I am back in the Valley. They are voracious around feeders. This one is after the orange undoubtedly put out for the Orioles.
Digiscoped with a Canon SD4000IS behind the new Vario Eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. About the field of view of an 1100mm lens on a full frame DSLR. 1/80th @ ISO 200. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity and clarity in Lightroom.
11/23/2010: Mr. Vermillion
I chased this Vermillion Flycatcher around the Edinburg City Park next door to the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands World Birding Center for about an hour. Actually I was also chasing the Ringed Kingfisher who was hunting up and own the arroyo at the edge of the park, but the Vermillion was always tantalizingly tucked back far in the branches or way over on the other side of the water. He seemed intent on staying out of the sun, and when I finally caught him close, he was resting in the shade of a post on the fence.
The second shot, by the way, is out at about the maximum reach of my Canon SD4000IS/ZEISS DiaScope digiscoping rig: shot at the equivalent of about 6000mm from at least 150 yards. I do not generally even attempt such shots, but this actually came out pretty well.
Digiscoped as above. Shot number one at about about 50 feet.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and sharpened.
11/20/2010: Golden-fronted Acrobat
Not so great light this early morning at Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center in Weslaco Texas, but who could resist trying for this acrobatic Golden-fronted Woodpecker. Part of the WBC is an old trailer park, which was purchased because its tropical trees and plantings, including a smattering of citrus, attracts species not regular on the more arid sections of the State Park. I am not sure what this woodpecker was doing with the grapefruit but it makes for an interesting image.
Digiscoped with the Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope for an equivalent focal length (field of view) of a 1300mm lens, f4.5 @ 1/50th @ ISO 200. Programmed auto.
Processed for intensity in Lightroom (Fill Light, Blackpoint, Clarity, and Sharpen).
11/19/2010: Roadrunner, roadrunner
I may have mentioned that the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands World Birding Center in Edinburg Texas is among my top 5 digiscoping (and birding, and butterflying) destinations. Every year I discover at least one contender, somewhere in my travels, that threatens to disrupt the top 5…but Edinburg WBC remains at the top. Shots like these, or rather opportunities like this, are the main reason why.
I was just walking back to the Visitor Center, or actually around the side of the VC to check the dragonfly pond for Kingfishers. I had my phone out and was about to return a call from my boss. As I lifted the phone to press the call button, it came in line with this fellow, practically at my feet, totally intent on harvesting insects along the side of the pathway. He was doing a lot of that thing in the second shot…peering up under the overhanging vegetation, looking, I assume, for some particular shade loving bug.
He was embarrassingly close…so close that even with both the camera and scope zoom cranked all the way down, I could not get the whole bird in the frame…not to mention that he was moving pretty fast. Of course, he was paying absolutely no attention to me so I did have time to get the tripod down, pocket the phone (first things first), turn on the camera, and get the zooms cranked back while he went about his business. I shot about 30 exposures of him before he decided to move up the trail past me and look for buggier trails beyond. When I gave up on him, I turned to find two other photographers behind me blasting away. Quite a show. And typical, in my experience, of Edinburg Scenic Wetlands World Birding Center!
And, yes, as soon as the roadrunner was out of range, I did call my boss.
Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-45x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL for the field of view of about a 1000mm lens, f4.0 @ 1/1000 sec. @ ISO 125. Programmed auto. (The three shots above are from a single 4fps burst…though not presented in order.)
Processed in Lightroom for intensity and sharpness.
I even managed to take some video which is included in my South Texas Snippets video.
And one final image to go on with….
