Monthly Archives: November 2010
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….
11/18/2010: Snow Storm (goose)
From Texas to New Mexico: Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Snow Geese. Sunset. A storm of wings against the blush of sky. I still have lots of birds from Texas left to share, but I can’t resist this from the first day at Bosque. Not that everyone who ever visited a Snow Goose wintering ground doesn’t have one just like it…but still. (I seem to remember a Steve Creek shot from a few months ago.)
Canon SX20IS. 560mm equivalent @ 1/125 @ ISO 800. Programed auto.
Fill Light in Lightroom. Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset.
11/17/2010: feathers
I wanted to give you a break from digisocped birds this morning (or maybe I wanted one myself) but going back through the images on my SX20IS I am reminded that no one goes to the Rio Grande Valley of Texas for the scenery.
This little still life, perhaps a bit sad unless you can see the larger picture of nature at work, comes from my largely fruitless trip to a Photo ranch on the north edge of the Valley, where I hoped to photograph larger wildlife. There is beauty in this random scatter of feathers, in the fine details and the pattern. I think they might be Pyrrloxia, and are undoubtedly the remains of a Sharp Shinned Hawk meal.
Canon SX20IS at about 290mm equivalent (zoomed in for the detail) @ f5.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 200. Landscape program.
Processed in Lightroom with a bit of Recovery, Fill Light, Blackpoint right, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
11/16/2010: Pauraque!
Common Pauraque, another extreme south Texas bird, is common, but, aside from the hundred or so you flush driving any dirt road in the dark, hard to see. By day they roost on the ground, in leaf litter, and they are so cryptically camouflaged that it is next to impossible to find one…unless it moves…or you have it staked out. 500 or more birders at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival saw this bird, which roosts within 3 feet of one of the main trails at Estero Llano Grande. Still, without knowing it is there, almost everyone walks right by it.
This is digiscoped at my closest focus distance. As you can see, I had only a very small window in the overhanging brush to shoot through. Here is a shot pulled back more and cropped to eliminate the out of focus log that hides the lower half of the bird.
To get this I backed to the far side of the trail with my butt in the brush on the other side.
Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. The wider shot is at ISO 320 and 1/50th sec. The tight shot is at ISO 800 and 1/20th sec. Equivalent focal lengths (fields of view) were around 1500 and 1200mm.
Processed for intensity in Lightroom, with Blackpoint adjustment, Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen narrow edges preset and a auto color temperature.
11/15/2010: Buff-belly
One of the more exotic of the North American hummingbirds…the Buff-bellied, is only found in far south Texas, with very occasional excursions out along the Gulf coast. This was taken on a dark, cloudy Texas day…in full sun it will knock your eye out!
Digiscoped with the Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario Eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL. Equivalent focal length (field of view) of about 3000mm, 1/100 sec. @ ISO 800 (not much light!).
Processed in Lightroom with a combination of Fill Light, Blackpoint right, Clarity, a touch of Vibrance and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
11/14/2010: Golden-fronted Woodpecker!
Yes, well, even the woodpeckers are more colorful in the Valley. This Golden-fronted Woodpecker, drawn to a peanut-butter and corn-meal mix at Salineno TX looks to me like something a child would have colored.
Here, with its head at an interesting angle, you can see the full effect. Golden-fronted, by the way, refers to the yellow on the forehead…as “fronted” does in all bird names (White-fronted Goose for instance has a white forehead.)
Digiscoped with the Canon SD4000IS, the ZEISS 15-56x Vario eyepiece, and the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. Processed in Lightroom.
This is from a set of images of Kiskadees and Green Jays all then the same day and the same place, and, as I was shooting them, the host at the Salineno Valley Land Trust sanctuary and some of the visitors, including me, were discussing what fun God must have had designing Kiskadees, Green Jays, and Golden-fronted Woodpeckers, and debating which one must have been the most fun. I might even have said that when I grow up I want that job. Let me loose with a box of crayons and some bird-like outlines. Please. But, then, maybe it really does take a child’s mind and heart to imagine such creatures. Maybe you have to be willing to color outside the lines and with the wrong crayons. That would certainly resonate with what Jesus said about little children. However it works, I am, apparently, child enough to appreciate the joy that must have gone into such imaginative and, really, such unlikely creatures.
11/13/2010: Green Jay, the other Valley bird
Yesterday’s Kiskadee is certainly one of the 3 birds that most clearly typifies the Rio Grande Valley. The Green Jay is one of the others. It is not that Green Jays, or Kiskadees, are rare…they are among the most common birds of the Valley…you see them everywhere…and for just that reason, along with their splendiferous “knock your eyeballs back” plumage, they stand out in the memories of most Valley visitors, birders and non-birders alike. Sure, as a birder, I treasure the Green Kingfisher more than the Green Jay…but it is the sound and the sight of Green Jays at a feeder that tells me for sure I am back in the Valley. These images are from Salineno TX, about 200 yards from the Rio Grande River.
Digiscoped with the Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56x Vario Eyepiece on the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL spotting scope. Equivalent focal lengths (fields of view) of about 3000 and 1000mm. 1/100 @ ISO 320 and 1/250th at ISO 250. Programmed Auto.
Processed for Blackpoint, Clarity, Vibrance, and Sharpen in Lightroom. Auto color temperature.
11/12/2101: that Great Kiskadee look
There is a certain look a Great Kiskadee does better than most other birds. This is it. Of course what lifts this image out of the bird portrait class (imho) is the bokeh…which is mostly light, diffraction lensed by the leaf cover behind the bird.
As you might suspect, if you are following this blog, these were taken on today’s Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival field trip. Mine was to the Williams’ home Bird Sanctuary in Pharr TX. Birding was slow, but the Kiskadees were there in plenty.
Canon SD4000IS behind the 15-56 Vario eyepiece of the ZEISS DiaScope 65FL, for an equivalent focal length (field of view) of about 1200mm, 1) 1/100th sec. @ ISO 250 and 2) 1/50th @ ISO 400. Programmed auto.
A bit of Recovery for the white and yellow plumage in Lightroom. Fill Light, Blackpoint right, added Clarity, a touch of Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
11/11/2010: Black-bellied Whistling Duck!
Okay…so I traveled all day yesterday. 4 airports, 3 planes, 2 cars, etc. etc. So, clearly though I am now in Harlingen TX in the heart of the birdy Rio Grande Valley, I have not had a chance to take any pics. I am actually, while you read this, out leading a field trip to one of the “Secret Jewels” of the Valley…and hopefully taking lots of pictures.
This Black-bellied Whistling Duck at Edinburg Wetlands World Birding Center was digiscoped with a Sony DSLR and an old Minolta MD 45mm pancake lens behind the old 20x eyepiece on the ZEISS Diascope 85FL two years ago.
Light processing in Lightroom.