A New Place

(December 20th) I sometimes feel like I've been to every good place near where I live and it's just a matter of keep going to these places. Today after hearing more about a place nearby, I decided to visit Kensington Metropark. It's a 'metropark', so I'd figured it would like most parks, full of people and not much wildlife outside of your tame Mallards and House Sparrows. Boy was I wrong and I'm glad I went. It's about 30 minutes away, but it's huge. It's also quite pristine with lots of great trails throughout the hills, streams, and lakes that cover the land. There also is a nice little nature center that has a bunch of very active bird feeders. I didn't have much time since I had to be in to work early in the morning, but it was good to explore and shoot for a little bit in the snow. I just can't believe I didn't bother to visit this gem earlier. Here's a Tufted Titmouse that I saw. I can't wait to come back.

Further Refinement Needed

(December 19th) Once again I was out in the cold snow lugging around a feeder, bird seed, and a heavy camera on a tripod. This time I wanted to position the feeder somewhere else in order to improve backgrounds and light. I learned an important lesson though. Just because there is food, does not mean the birds will come. I picked a great place to shoot from, but unlike last time almost no birds found the feeder even though it was only a couple of minutes walk from my last spot. Next time I'll have to use a place that is both good for the birds as well as good for photos - trickier than it sounds. This Black-capped Chickadee was one of the few chickadees that did come. After all the setup care, somehow it seemed to find the one spot where the background was terrible :)

Proof of Concept

(December 12th) Today my intention was not so much to photograph, but to test out an idea I had from my south Texas trip. When the rain and cold hit hard there, I knew I wouldn't find many animals out on the trails. So I had to find a way to have them come to me. I spent a bit of time in front of the feeders and blinds there and had some great results. So I wanted to see if I could use this technique in other situations. Armed with a freshly bought bird feeder and some bird seed, I headed out to Barton Pond and setup half a mile in. After about half an hour a bunch of birds had found the feeder and were starting to use it. This Tufted Titmouse was one of the visitors. I need to refine this approach some to get better backgrounds and light, but it has a lot of promise.

Just a Touch of Sun

(December 5th) I haven't mentioned it on the blog, but last time I was in Texas, I was dying to see a Bobcat. I never did though. This time as well, it was one of the species I was targetting. It seemed like everyone else was seeing them. Yesterday I set out in the last couple of hours before dusk to try and find one that some people reported seeing at Estero Llano State Park. Several miles of wet trails later, nothing. I was quite surprised to see one in my first few minutes of Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge. It was before the sun had come up, and it was strolling down the road between two lakes. It noticed my car and walked away before disappearing into some cover even though I remained at big distance. I may not have gotten the nice close shot I was hoping for, but I was excited to see the animal and I kind of like the mood of the only photograph I took of it as it walked away in the dim light. The picture breaks many of the "rules" I usually go for - animal small in the frame, animal looking away, human-built objects in the shot - but somehow it still works for me.

Brazoria NWR like many refuges that have been established to protect waterfowl is a big complex of marshes and ponds. One of the reason I came here was to see the large flocks of Snow Geese which winter here. I found out since Hurricane Ike pushed saltwater into the normally freshwater system miles inalnd, the wetlands haven't recovered yet. So the Snow Geese winter somewhere slightly off the refuge these days. So instead I saw them flying overhead at a distance. The marshes are quite pretty though and I suspect they will be back to full form in a few more years.

Today started out quite cold with a thick frost over everything, but for the first time in many days the sun broke through in a mostly sunny day. The light was gorgeous too. Pied-billed Grebes are in most of the freshwater ecosystems you go, but these little birds always have great poses. That fact combined with the wonderful light is an automatic picture in my book.

Today I achieved a photograph I have been trying to get for quite some time. Meadowlarks are beautiful birds, often perching up on fence posts to sing. I've seen them quite a few times, but they have always flown off their perches anytime I am around. I was fortunate enough to find a cooperative bird in Brazoria. Standing behind my car and using it as a blind, I was able to wait until one landed close and gave me some good poses. I'm still waiting for that perfect shot when it sings with its melodious voice, but for now I'm quite happy to have some good shots of an Eastern Meadowlark.

Brazoria had a lot of raptors. Texas as a whole seems to have a lot of raptors. Many of the ones I saw today were flying overhead or perched far from a road or trail. I saw an adult Red-tailed Hawk try to get a Turkey Vulture drop whatever it was holding - strange to see a hawk doing the mobbing rather than the one being mobbed. The best raptor photographs I got were of this perched American Kestrel. This bird barely gave me a glance and most of the time was scouring the land looking for prey. I was joined by a friend who is living in Texas for my last few hours in Brazoria. I hope I didn't bore him too much circling through the refuge, but it was great to see him. With the bizarre weather, my Texas trip was far from the great possibilities that I know south Texas usually has, but I still had a great time and saw some fascinating wildlife. I look forward to returning sometime, hopefully with better weather!

The Lesser Pain

(December 4th) For a wildlife photographer I think there are two kinds of pain. The first is when you see a great subject but you know you can't make a picture because of light/position/lens/etc. The second of pain is when the light is perfect but for the life of you, you can't find a subject. The second is definitely the worse kind. With the first, at least you can enjoy the subject even if there is no image to record it. Today was filled with this kind of pain. I went to Estero Llano Grande State Park, a place I had never been before. The weather called for temperatures in the 30s and constant rain. So I spent all day freezing with virtually no light. It feels like that's kind of been the story of this whole trip. This park is a series of trails around ponds. The ponds were full of ducks, grebes, and other water birds. I wanted the greater reach of shooting DX, so shot most of the day with the D300 instead of the D700. Big mistake. One thing I learned from reviewing the folders later is that the D700 dealt much better with the terrible light than the D300. I guess it was a good day to learn that lesson. Perhaps there's nothing worse than bad light on water - it makes the water look so ugly. It was hard to find any shot that I'd not mind sharing from today, but this Neotropic Cormorant is an example of a shot that would have had potential in decent light.

Estero Llano really was a great place. If I get the chance again, I definitely want to go back there. Also in retrospect I have a few ideas about how to make photographing in such conditions a lot better. In any case it was fun and I saw some great animals. The place even has some Nutria. I'll leave you with one more photo from my visit, that of a Mottled Duck. They may not be the most colorful of ducks, but still a fine bird.

Cold has Come

(December 3rd) The cold that came yesterday settled in for good. It also brought overcast skies with it. My spirits were a bit dampered by the weather, but I still went out to shoot. Often when I am photographing it is just me and the animals, but today I spent a good deal of time talking with other people. I met some nice folks - both birds and photographers. One of the photographers has a blog as well. The light levels were so slow that shutter speeds were obscenely low - 1/60th of a second shooting wide open. I could just tell it was one of those days and looking at the photos afterward confirmed just how few keepers there were. The best subjects of the day were the javelinas. A few of the young were out and even javelina babies are cute!

I saw some nice birds even with the cold, but photographically it wasn't that good. The best shots to be had were concentrated around the feeders that the park operates. Some of the pictures of the Great Kiskadees were among the best of the day. These flycatchers have the loud voice to match their striking colors.

Beautiful Butterflies

(December 2nd) When selecting a place to go after Thanksgiving, one of the major factors that made me choose south Texas was the butterflies. I've never seen a better place for it, and I was looking forward to spending each afternoon working macro shots with the butterflies. Unfortunately this was the first opportunity I had due to the weather. So I grabbed my macro gear and headed over to the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) International Butterfly Park. This place is amazing and can be full with tons of different of butterfly species. One of the first I shot is a personal favorite of mine, the Gulf Fritillary.

Butterflies have a number of different defenses. Some of them use poisonous chemicals, some mimic eyes of a large creature, and some mimic plants. This Tropical Leafwing is one of the latter. From looking at it like this, you'd never guess that the inner wings are a gorgeous deep red.

One of the common butterflies that can be found on most continents is the Painted Lady. This butterfly is known to migrate, although it does not congegrate in the winter like the well-known Monarch. It is certainly a comely butterfly.

Shooting macro shots is pretty tough. As I mentioned in earlier posts, it is all done with manually focusing and everything is moving a ton, so getting sharp focus and proper depth of field is hard. I was also using some extra fill flash today to even out the light. I had a great time doing it and was mainly trying to use today as an experimental day to perfect my shots on a future day. However within being out there for maybe one and a half hours, a cold front moved in and almost instantly the butterflies vanished, going into their secret hiding places. This cold front would last the rest of my trip, bringing snow to Houston and eliminating any other chance of butterfly photography. I never would have guessed that in a week long trip to south Texas, I'd only have 1.5 hours of butterfly shooting due to rain and cold. The moral of the story is you have to make the best of every chance you get behind the camera - you never know if you'll get the chance again. This skipper was one of my last subects before the cold arrived.

The Skies Break!

(December 2nd) Today the heavy rain was finally over. The day began a little bit cool, but the clouds broke early letting in some nice sunshine. I headed out to Bentsen-Rio Grande State Park. Almost as soon as I got out of the car I found a cooperative Northern Mockingbird just as the sun broke the horizon. This is one of my favorite birds from my childhood and one that I miss in Michigan.

Right by the mockingbird, I heard some drumming that could only mean a woodpecker. A female Ladder-backed Woodpecker had found an ant's nest in a tree and was busy excavating it and gobbling up all the ants that poured out. It barely gave a glance to me as it was busy with more important matters - food.

As I walked the paths in the park, I came across a small flock of Plain Chachalacas. These birds have to be one of the loudest birds I've ever encountered. When they start making noise, the whole forest hears them. To me they seem like turkeys - perhaps due to their size and shape. I saw some great behaviors from them. One of the most interesting things was that two pairs that I saw were busy nipping the feathers of each other's necks. Maybe bird romance isn't that different from human romance...

The morning started out great - lots of other great birds. One of the things about Rio-Bentsen in the early morning hours is that you are almost guaranteed to see some javelinas. These animals look a lot like pigs, but they are actually a different type of animals. Pigs evolved in Africa and Eurasia and were not native in the New World until settlers brought them. Javelinas on the other hand are native to the New World. After a great start to the morning and the change in weather, I was finally able to start what was my intended daily plan for Texas: shoot birds in the morning, do macro work on butterflies during the midday, then shoot whatever seems best in the evening.

Doves and Jays

(December 1st) As expected, today was another day of heavy rain and most trails were flooded. I had a different plan of attack today - instead of searching for each bird individually on a day when they wouldn't be very active or visible, I would let them come to me. I worked the day out of a photo blind that was set up in Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge. While I didn't see as many species as I would by hiking all the trails, I was able to control the circumstances more and get better interactions with the birds I did see. One of the first I did see was this White-tipped Dove.

Perhaps the worst thing about the heavy rain was the amount of cloud cover it brought with it. Clouds themselves are fine, but it cut the light levels low, extremely low. With the blind being in a relatively shaded spot and the reduced light, I was shooting with the lens wide open, fill flash, and ISO up to a nearly unheard of 800. Even still, I was only getting shutter speeds of around 1/45th or 1/60th of a second. I needed to rely on my best long lens technique to get sharp images at that speed. Fortunately my technique has improved and I was able to get some images of one of the most colorful Texas birds, the Green Jay.

I had of the Whte-tipped Doves come in to visit throughout the day. On cloudy days like this, the birds will be more active in the middle of the day when normally wildlife shuts down. The doves usually came in small groups of 3-5. This dove can only be found in the US in southern Texas, so it was great to see so many individuals.

Jays are really fun birds to watch. They are loud, noisy, sometimes aggressive and comical. They're never still, but are always up to something. Green Jays also tend to travel in flocks so most of the time you several at once. I always have great fun watching these birds. While it wasn't the best of days, the change in tactics let me make a few images today.

And the Rains Came

(November 30th) South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley region is a very dry place, the scrub bordering on desert. But I seemed to have arrived in time for a major rain storm. If the forecast is to be believed, the rain will keep up for two days straight. Rain is not really a problem for wildlife photography - a little bit of it is often great for soft light and the animals don't mind. But this deluge was hard, forcing most things to hunker down and the light was virtually non-existant. But I'm here, so I tried to take photographs at Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, a great spot right on the Rio Grande. This White-tipped Dove was one of the better images created.

I could tell the images were bad as I took them, and when I looked at the files my worries were confirmed. But still it was good to be out in nature and I did some some great birds. The ducks seemed unphased by the weather, and this male Gadwall was a fine example. Perhaps most importantly, I had an idea that I wanted to try out for tomorrow which was sure to be another downpour.