outdoor photography

Chuck-will's Widow This morning I went to Mead Gardens again with the great people with the Orange Audubon Society. We had a wonderful morning.  Easily the best highlight of the morning was seeing a Nightjar, in particular, a Chuck-will's Widow.  We saw one our way to the board walk.  On the board walk, we were happy to find an Indigo Bunting and a beautiful Prairie Warbler.  When we circled back to where we saw the Chuck-will's Willow, we saw it again, and when it flew away, another came and perched on another branch. Chuck-will's Widow I don't know if this is the same as the first I saw Indigo Bunting Prairie Warbler We saw some nice Red-bellied Woodpeckers and Great Egrets, and on a few occasions, I saw Northern Cardinal fledglings.  While I saw only one at at time in the same general area, I'm pretty sure there were more than one there.  It was also great to see a Cooper's Hawk. Cooper's Hawk Cooper's Hawk Cardinal ...

Sandhill Crane Every couple weeks I visit Red Bug Lake Park to see the Sandhill Crane family that is there.  Every time I go, the chicks have more than doubled in size.  Now they're long past the "cute" stage, and it looks to me like some flight feathers are finally starting to come in.  I wonder if the next time I visit them will be the last before they're fledged.  The "little" ones are still taking food from their parents, but they also are foraging for themselves. Sandhill Crane Sandhill Crane Sandhill Crane Sandhill Crane that found what looks like a Crayfish

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Audubon's) The afternoon after I arrived in Dallas, I went to White Rock East Park.  I showed some photos of a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and Great-tailed Grackle from there (both new to me) in earlier posts, and I've finally worked through my photos enough to share with you some other birds I found at this beautiful park.  Probably the most significant highlight from the park was an Adubon's subspecies of the Yellow-rumped Warbler.  We have many Yellow-rumped Warblers in Florida (though they're pretty much all gone now), and it was nice to encounter them again in breeding plumage.  But one of these warblers had a yellow throat with no white "eyebrow."  This was my first encounter with the "Audubon's" subspecies of this bird.  Apparently it's unusual in the Dallas area too, so the above photo is now published on the North Central Texas birding website . Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) I also found an Eastern Kin...

Great-tailed Grackle When I came to Dallas yesterday, I was hopeful I would find a bird or two that I've never seen before. I found my first as soon as I left the parking lot where I got my rental car.  I suspect that many people here find Great-tailed Grackles annoying.  They're everywhere here, and they make a lot of noise.  But I like them; I especially like their obnoxiously large tails.  So here are some photos of a great bird. Great-tailed Grackle Great-tailed Grackle

Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Today I'm on a business trip to Dallas, TX, and I had a little time this afternoon, so I went to a nearby lake--White Rock Lake.  There's a beautiful park on the east side of the lake, and almost immediately upon entering the park, I found a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.  This has been somewhat of a nemesis bird for me, but today I saw my first.  I saw my first Great-tailed Grackle today too, but that wasn't nearly as fun as this. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Scissor-tailed Flycatcher Scissor-tailed Flycatcher

Northern Cardinal I like vibrant Reds! If you've read enough of my posts, you've probably read that I have red-green colorblindness.  My colorblindness is probably the single greatest obstacle I face in both birding and photography.I suspect I'm not the only color-blind wildlife photographer in the world, so I thought it would be helpful to describe how it affects me and how I cope with it.  In some ways, my coping mechanisms, if followed consistently, would actually be good birding and photography practices anyway. Black and White Warbler one of the few birds I see just like you For those of you who aren't colorblind, it's an interesting problem because it has to do with a deficiency in perception, so it's really impossible for me to describe how I see things compared to how a "normal" person sees things; I've never seen anything the way a "normal" person sees it.  There is a site  that attempts to duplicate how a colorblind ...

Loggerhead Shrike Yesterday afternoon I took my daughter and dog to a dog park near my home.  Since warblers are known to frequent there I decided to bring my camera "just in case," but I wasn't expecting to take any photos. It was a dark, cloudy day, and I was there to be with my daughter.  As I was there, my daughter ran up to me and said, "I saw a black and white bird!"  And she wanted to show it to me.  So without guilt or hesitation I walked to the tree where she saw the bird.  I thought I was going to find a Black and White Warbler, but instead, I saw several Loggerhead Shrike fledglings sitting in a tree.  Wow!  Dogs and people walked directly under this tree all day long, and there they are, unaffected by the activity all around them--they were resting, preening, playing, etc.  So I shot a few photos and then left them alone. Loggerhead Shrike Since it was so dark and cloudy, I shot these at ISO1600, which is about as much as my...