![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/weiw.lightshedder.com\/Landscape-Wildlife\/Rio-Grande-Valley-2012\/i-p2FbDwq\/0\/L\/IMG_1081-L.jpg?resize=700%2C525\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I have photographed Black Saddlebags in both Texas and Maine, and I have one really bad photo of a Carolina Saddlebags from my Kennebunk dragon pond this summer, but my ambition for this trip to south Texas and New Mexico was to find and photograph a Red Saddlebags. They don\u2019t get as far north as Maine and a friend who posted a pic from NM said the last record for the upper Rio Grande Valley is sometime in September, so my only real hope was Texas.<\/p>\n
My first day in Harlingen I got out to Estero Llano Grande World Birding Center\u2026which is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places for birding, bugging, and photography\u2026and, sure enough, there were a smattering of Red Saddlebags among the abundant Blacks. I had, however, about given up on getting one to sit still for a photo when I found a little reed tip out by Grebe Marsh where one was returning with fair frequency. I watched it for fifteen minutes, missing it every time\u2026it was in touch-and-go mode\u2026but I made note of the location to check on my way back to the visitor center.<\/p>\n
And there it was, on my way back, on the same reed tip\u2026and this time it sat while I got a few shots, and then returned twice to the same perch for more shots at different angles. I was so blessed!<\/p>\n
The perch was high, above eye-level, so the angle is not great\u2026but still\u2026a Red Saddlebags!<\/p>\n
It, like the Blacks it was flying with, was a well worn bug\u2026likely a migrant from further north mating one last time on its final journey south. (Some of the Blacks were tattered enough for me to believe I might have photographed the same bug a few months ago in Maine.)<\/p>\n
Canon SX50HS. Program with auto iContrast and Shadow Fill. 1800mm equivalent field of view.\u00a0 f6.5 @ 1\/1000th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.<\/p>\n