Posts in Category: Texas
Texas Spotted Whiptail!
I was on my way back to the car and the last day of the vendor hours at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, leaving the butterfly gardens at the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas, when I heard a scuttling in the gravel that could only be a lizard. And there it was, a Texas Spotted Whiptail (as I afterwards confirmed). My second lizard of the trip. (The first was a Texas Blue Spiny Lizard seen from the tour boat on the Rio Grande River. And that, folks, is a lizard!). I like lizards, and the whiptails are so perky and, well, cute, there is a lot to like 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. Just over 1000mm equivalent field of view (I had to back off on the zoom to get the full tail in). f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And, since he was kind enough to scuttle around for a second view…from the other side. I am assuming the “spotted” comes from the legs!
Eye of Paraque: Estero Llano Grande TX
This is the faithful Common Paraque that roosts right beside a busy foot-trail at Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center in Weslaco TX, and is seen by hundreds of birders a year. it would be thousands of birders a year if the Paraque were easier to see. I know many birders (including me) who have gone to the spot where it roosts only to be defeated by the bird’s amazing camouflage. Even this year, according to the testimony of birders who were there only moments after I was, there were two birds there, and I only managed to see one.
This is a telephoto macro, taken from about 6 feet at the equivalent of 2400mm. I used the Canon SX50HS’ Digital Tel-converter to boost the 1200mm equivalent zoom by 2x. This is exactly the kind of image were the DTC works really well. Canon has managed to build a processing engine into the camera that preserves detail well beyond what one would expect of 2x digital zoom. In a scene without much detail…a distant bird on water for instance, with a lot of open water…the artifacts are much easier to see…but here all you see is the amazing detail of the intricate feather patterns.
It is also shot at ISO 800. Not something I would have attempted only a few years ago. The quality that Canon nurses out of the tiny sensor in the SX50HS is just short of unbelievable. And finally, of course, the image was captured hand-held. A 2400mm! That is Image Stabilization.
But, in the end, it is about the image, not the equipment or the technology. And the image speaks for itself. Eye of Paraque!
f6.5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Great Kiskadee: Estero Llano Grande
Another bird from stop at Grebe Marsh at Estero Llano Grande State Park World Birding Center in Weslaco TX on the final day of my Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival trip. The Great Kiskadee is a striking bird at any time, but much easier to expose on a cloudy day. With any sun at all, the mask goes jet black and you lose the eye, and the white above and below burns out. This level of illumination is just right 🙂
I really like the alert pose.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Odd Couple: Estero Llano Grande
On my last day in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, despite slightly dodgy weather, I drove out to Estero Llano Grande State Park World Birding Center for one last bit of birding and photography, Texas style. I sat on a bench at Grebe Marsh and watched this pair feed around each other for 30 minutes. The White Ibis and the Tricolored Heron conscientiously ignored each other. They shared one small corner of the pond, and were actually feeding in each other’s wake (looking for what was stirred up as the other bird passed), but neither was admitting the other’s existence. It looked odd, but it is, of course, common behavior when mixed species feed together.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 465mm equivalent field of view. f5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Giant Swallowtail: National Butterfly Center
The National Butterfly Center has one of the best Butterfly Gardens in the nation, but I am coming, the more often I visit, to appreciate the much less managed trails through native vegetation that extend out from the garden proper. On this last trip I managed to capture several bugs there, with one very rare, that had not seen in the gardens. This is a Giant Swallowtail, not an uncommon butterfly in Texas or else ware, but a real treat wherever it is seen. I found it in native vines along the dyke-top trail east of the gardens.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Emperor Butterfly: National Butterfly Center
There are several Emperor Butterflies in the Rio Grande Valley. I believe this is the Tawny Emperor. It was taken at the National Butterfly Center gardens in Mission Texas. I like the way the light is catching in the wings and the revealing half open pose…not to mention those bright yellow tips on the antennae. Tawny Emperors in particular are attracted to rotting fruit, and there are several “feeders” at the National Butterfly Center…hanging baskets full of garbage…and generally covered with butterflies. A study in contrast.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/500th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Sitting Pretty: Red-shouldered Hawk
One of the highlights of my visit to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival was my first tour on the Pontoon Boat trip on the Rio Grande River itself. I was assigned as a guide, otherwise I would have missed the adventure, since I would never have thought of a boat trip as an ideal photographic opportunity.
As it turned out, happily, the Pontoon Boat is great for photography. It is relatively slow at its fastest, and very stable, and the captain is super cooperative with photographers, jockeying and steadying the boat, and getting in close to the banks, to provide photographers with excellent views.
And you can get close. Wildlife on the bank does not see people on a boat in the river as a threat, so they tend to sit while the boat drifts well inside their normal comfort zone. This handsome Red-shouldered Hawk for instance, never did lift off as we drifted by right below it.
I especially like the blue sky with a light gauze of clouds background 🙂
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view (1200 optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter). f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 125. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Blue-eyed Sailor, National Butterfly Center
You have already seen a few shots from the National Butterfly Center in McAllen Texas. The site was formerly known as the North American Butterfly Association Gardens, and the main attraction is still the well developed plantings and paths just this side of the Rio Grande River, which attract a wide variety of butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies…both species common to the US side of the river, and quite a few more tropical species that are only found in the US right at the boarder in South Texas. This is the place for Green Malecite, Mexican Blue, Guatemalan Cracker, and any number of exotic skippers.
I happened to be there the same morning as a group of really serious lepidopterist (who had come for the Guatemalan Cracker) and there is nothing like a large group really knowledgeable eyes to pull the butterflies out of the bush. I would have missed many of the best bugs there, if it had not been for the delighted cries of the real butterflyers.
For instance, this is the Blue-eyed Sailor, a common butterfly from Columbia north through Central America and Mexico. It is found in South Texas as a stray from across the river and there are a few records of it as a resident. It is still very rare in the US. Quite a find really. What you see here, depending on the resolution of your monitor or laptop, is likely over life sized. I am certainly thankful for more experienced eyes.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/250 @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
It was interesting to see the advantage the long zoom on the Canon SX50HS gave me. I could shoot over the shoulders of photographers attempting to creep close enough for a shot with their macro lenses and get the same image scale, without any risk of scaring the Blue-eyed Sailor off.
Well hello there! Orange Crowned Warbler
On my visit to the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas, I was standing watching Green Jays and House Sparrows (now there is a contrast) at the feeders set up in one corner of the Butterfly Garden, when this little yellow bird landed on a branch 20 feet from my head. I swung around and grabbed a record shot at whatever the camera was set at…which turned out to be about 200mm equivalent…then, when the bird just sat there and looked at me, zoomed in to the the full 1200mm equivalent for a few more intimate shots. I could not quite figure out what kind of bird it was…and I was too busy shooting to worry about it right then. The light was dim enough so the camera was having difficulty fining focus…and I could see the motion blur in many of the shots as the bird fidgeted on its branch…but I was persistent…and got off a dozen or more shots that might include a few keepers.
I got three keepers in fact…three frame filling portraits of what turned out to be a Yellow-crowned Warbler.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. – 1/3 EV Exposure Compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/60th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness. This is a exceptional image in many ways. 1/60th of a second is nearly impossible for an active bird, hand-held at 1200mm equivalent…and a testimony to the effectiveness of the Canon’s Image Stabilization. And, at ISO 800, the image quality is really quite good for a small sensor camera. Way to go Canon!
Black-bellied Whistling Duck Strikes a Pose
On my last day in Texas, after wrapping up the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival, it rained all morning, and spent it in my hotel catching up on emails and business, before venturing out to the local UPS store to ship my booth and samples to New Mexico for the Festival of the Cranes. By then the weather was breaking and there was enough light in the sky to encourage me to one more visit to the Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center, a half hour away in Weslaco. The light was still subdued when I got there, but lots of cooperative birds and bugs make it all worthwhile.
A flock of Black-bellied Whistling Ducks inhabits the pond right below the deck at the visitors’ center and make great subjects. They are a striking bird a the worst of times, and they are prone to posing. Who could resist this handsome fellow, especially as he arranged himself on the dead tree snag in such an artistic way. I love the big pink feet and the matching pink bill.
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. – 1/3 EV Exposure Compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/800th @ ISO 800. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.