Posts in Category: Estero Llano Grande WBC
Sora Rail, Texas
Helder spotted this Sora working the edge of the second big pond at Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center when we visited on the last day of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. It was popping in and out of the reeds, only really coming into full view for seconds at a time. Very Sora like 🙂 Patience paid off at least this well. Sony Rx10iv at 1200mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Vermillion Flycatcher
Like the Green Kingfisher, the Vermillion Flycatcher is a bird that I do not like to leave South Texas without seeing, and, hopefully, photographing. Estero Llano Grande is always a good spot and they tend to hang out at the west end of the two big ponds…one or the other…on most visits. Sometimes they are close, and sometimes, like this year, they are at the limits of what my camera can manage. This shot is at 1200mm equivalent using Clear Image Zoom past the optical limit, and fairly heavily cropped at that. Still, the Vermillion Flycatcher is certainly one of the more spectacular examples of the species. This one was very busy hunting bugs over the water of the pond, and came back to sit in the same tree on an island about 50 yards from the boardwalk. Sony Rx10iv. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos. And here is a slightly heavier crop.
Green Kingfisher
I always feel any trip to south Texas in not complete until I have had a chance to photograph a Green Kingfisher, and I do come home some years without one. This one was distant…way across a pond at Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center in Weslaco Texas…but it caught some kind of eelly thing and ate it…and with Clear Image Zoom out to 1200mm equivalent, I could just barely do it justice with a heavy crop. 🙂 Sony Rx10iv. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.
Cue the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks
One of the last “lessons” in my Advanced Field Techniques class for Point and Shoot Nature Photographers is “birds in flight” and yesterday, at Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center in Weslaco Texas, we came back to the deck at the Visitor Center overlooking the pond to see if anything would give us a chance to practice. Cue the Black-bellied Whistling Ducks! We had two groups circling the pond in the space of 30 minutes, giving us plenty of opportunity to practice our skills. Most P&S superzoom cameras (or “bridge” cameras as they are sometimes called) have an effective “sports” mode that works well for birds in flight, so it is not as hard as it sounds. And, of course, my Sony Rx10iv has wonderful tracking auto focus and shots at up to 24 frames per second, with makes it as good as any camera made of bif. The light was less than ideal…one of those grey cold front south Texas days…but still, needs must. And we could not have had better targets. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds-in-flight modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.