Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge

Back in July, I photographed these black-bellied whistling duck families.  Wednesday afternoon, I saw a family with older ducklings that I suspect is one of the families from July.

Here is the family portrait in August. I didn't have a great angle - fearing that if I got out of the car to get a clearer shot, the ducks would fly.

It was fun to see how much they had grown.

Brazos Bend State Park

I visited Brazos Bend State Park for the first time about a month ago - mid afternoon on a hot summer day.  I went over to the deck at Elm Lake and thoroughly enjoyed watching the purple gallinules, common gallinules, whistling ducks, and all the other birds in the marsh.  I knew I needed to come back and bring my big lens over and sit a spell there.  

I had ordered this  Beach Rolly so that it would be easy to transport my heavy Sigma 300-800 and its sturdy tripod.  This was its first test and it passed handsomely!  It even carried my folding chair!

I got set up just after sunrise.  There were common gallinules in the distance.  But it wasn't long before the bird that I was hoping to photograph came into view - the purple gallinule!  I love this bird with its beautiful irridescent feathers and that beautiful light blue forehead.  I got several chances.  I loved hearing it call. 

There was a juvenile working its way around the lily pads as well.



On one of the snags was a yellow crowned night heron.

There were several little blue herons that posed for me.

I loved seeing this little blue heron with his freshly caught frog.  He worked in around in his mouth and swallowed it whole!

There were several juvenile little blues - notice the green legs and gray beak!

 

A green heron stopped by for a visit as well.

 

 

I don't want to forget the black bellied whistling ducks that kept coming in and perching on the trees around me.  

My bird list at Brazos Bend State Park for August 8, 2012:

Black-bellied whistling duck

Anhinga

Little Blue Heron

Cattle Egret

Green heron

Yellow-crowned night heron

White ibis

White-faced ibis

Turkey vulture

Purple gallinule

Common Gallinule

Red-bellied woodpecker

American crow

Red-winged blackbird

I need to come back in cooler weather and hike the trails. I know there are more birds to see!  

P.S.  Although I have yet to see alligators at Brazos Bend State Park - there are supposed to be 300 of them here. 

Checklist for a Photography Trip

I've learned that I'd better check what equipment I'm packing and then check it twice before I leave on a trip. I've had too many trips where I got off in a hurry, grabbed my stuff, and then got on location and didn't have something I like to use.  I always get by with the equipment I have, but sometimes I miss something that got left behind.

I also have a house check list as well . . . so here goes:

Photography & Wildlife Watching equipment

All lenses with their circular polarizing filters, ND grad filters, etc
Everything in the big camera bag that belongs there
          (Sensor cleaning equipment, bulb blower, extra lens caps,  etc)
Hot shoe levels
Shutter release cable
All purpose tripod
Plenty of camera cards - preferably formatted and ready to go
Camera Batteries
Camera Card Reader
Portable hard drives - 2 so that I can have immediate backups before formatting cards
Cables for hard drives
Computer with charging cable
Big lens
Big lens tripod
New tote to roll big lens and tripod when on location and the distance to haul heavy stuff
       is too far for comfortable hauling

Extra quick release plates (all cameras, bigger lenses, and scope should have their own

      release plate in my opinion.)

Small window mount for photographing lightning from the safety of the car

Lens cleaning cloths

Miscellaneous items to pack

Cell phone with alarm for early morning wakeup calls
Binoculars for spotting birds and wildlife
Scope for close views of birds and wildlife
Bird books, wildflower books, etc

Portable chair

Sunscreen

Mosquito repellant

Hand sanitizer

Kleenez

Water bottles

Ice Chest

Leaving home

Air conditioner set at reasonable level
Dishes washed
Doors locked
Alarms set
Plants watered - watering arrangements made
Horse fed - and feeding arrangements made
House watching and house sitting arranged

Now that these are all taken care of . . . we're off on a short trip - birdwatching first - science fiction convention and probably more birding for me.

I'm hoping to photograph purple gallinules tomorrow!

Purple Martins at Highland Mall, Austin, Texas 2012

I became fascinated with the purple martin roost at Highland Mall in Austin this summer.  The tremendous number of birds coming in each evening - with the incredible speed and intricate flight patterns.  The sounds as they chattered to one another and as their wings brushed the twigs around them, sounding like water flowing over gravel.  

I shot this with my new Canon 5D MKIII.  The ease to get to the video mode made it easy to film.  This is my first YouTube video.  I can see things I can do better next year when I try once again to capture the amazing flight of 600,000 martins coming in for the night.

Nature's Tragedies

My husband called me out of my office to check something outside. He led me out by the fig trees to a small carefully excavated hole.  "What is this?" he wanted to know.

There were white fragments. At first glance I wondered if they were crawdad pincers.

 

Upon closer examination they were small, brittle eggshells. Henry wanted to know what the was the story here.  We wondered if this was evidence of turtles hatching out or what. He had his phone on him so I asked him to take pictures.





I have a Facebook/blogger friend that I thought would know the answer.  Naturalist writer and artist,  Julie Zickefoose, is someone I thought would be able to read and interpret this nature story. Sure enough she wrote back that it WAS a turtle nest that had been dug out by a skunk or raccoon. Since I've seen a raccoon in the back yard recently, I'm guessing he is the culprit. An additional email confirmed that it was either a box turtle nest or a snapper turtle nest - probably the snapper turtle. When baby turtles hatch and leave the nest they only leave a very small hole - not one with piles of dirt and tailings.

Julie says that every time she sees a turtle laying eggs, she covers the nesting area with a cage to protect the turtle eggs so they can hatch. I'm not sure we've ever seen a turtle laying eggs although we see them regularly on the pond.

I suspect we will try to be more observant during turtle egg laying season in late spring and summer.  I also realized that I need to work on my turtle identification of the turtles I see in and around my pond.

Summer Storms

As we were driving home from dinner this evening, I noticed that we had a storm cloud that might be close enough to get some lightning shots.  I was hoping to be able to capture the last of the days light on the cloud with some blue sky and still get some lightning.  As the light faded, the city lights began turning the clouds an ugly orange so we headed on home.

However, after I got near the mailbox at home, I realized that we still had some lightning photo possibilities, so I parked my car so my window was in line for the lightning and kept photographing some lovely cloud to cloud lightning.  When that calmed down, I came in to see what I had.

A little while later I realized we had some more storms building west and north of us, so I went back up to my mailbox area which is higher and has better visibility and started shooting again.  I was fortunate enough to watch the storm build up over Hutto and then I began to get the cloud to ground forked lightning that I always hope for.

I stayed up there about an hour, but began noticing the lightning was been hidden by a rain line, so I headed back to the house. As I walked along my porch the rain started, leaving me feeling I had time this just right.

Two of the lightning bolts must have hit transformers in Hutto, because right after the bolt, there was a beautiful blue glow. After one of those, it looked like Hutto lost power for just a little bit.

These are just a few of the "good ones" I got tonight.  Time well spent capturing the beauty of God's creation.

Summer Bird Chicks

Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge was a wonderful place to watch nesting birds and young chicks and ducklings.

The Common Gallinule (Note that American Ornithologist Union has split the American species from the Common moorhen and renamed it the common gallinule) lives in freshwater and brackish marshes with tall vegetation.  It has long toes that make it possible to walk on soft and floating vegetation.  It is a good swimmer in spite of not having webbed feet.

The spurs on the wings of the chicks allow them to climb into the nest or to grab vegetation.

Black-necked stilts are easily seen as they wade through shallow water on their long red legs.

On one of our driving loops we saw this stilt sitting on her nest.  For some reason, I think she has a quite contented look to her.

It is amazing at how well camouflaged  the chicks are in the marsh grass.

There were several families of black-bellied whistling ducks.




The parents give a sense of contentment as the ducklings sleep.

This was an older family where the coloration on the chicks seems older and a little different.

Even though it WAS hot, it was so much fun to be out enjoying the birds at Brazoria NWR.

Alligators in Texas

The American alligator, Alligator mississippiensis, was facing extinction due to hunting and loss of habitat.  Originally alligators could be found as far north as New Jersey, south along the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast and inland up the Mississippi River to the convergence with the Arkansas River and west in Texas to the 100th meridian.  (San Angelo is just west of the 100th meridian.)  Today's smaller range is east to the Carolina's, west to Texas, and north into Arkansas.  Texas provided protection for alligators beginning in 1969 and the population has recovered such that it is no longer listed as an endangered species.

The American alligator is an amazing creature - a large reptile, armored with coarse scales ranging in length from 6-14 feet.  The head is large with large visible upper teeth along the long jaw line.



The front feet have five toes and the rear feet are webbed with four toes.  Alligators are semi-aquatic choosing to live in marshy bodies of water.  While they are more often found in fresh water, they tolerate brackish water also.  They are good swimmers and often float with just their eyes and nostrils above the water. They are able to run quickly over short distances on land.  I have never been fortunate to hear an alligator, but they can be very vocal.  Young alligators bark and adults may bellow, grunt, or hiss.



Carnivorous, alligators will eat any animal it can catch. The normal diet includes small mammals, waterbirds, snakes, fish, crustaceans, lizards, turtles, and even other alligators.  When human habitation coincides with alligator areas, small pets can also be part of the diet.  Fortunately, alligators usually avoid humans, but small children can be at risk when alligators are present.

In Texas, alligators brumate from mid-October until early March.  Brumation is similar to mammal hibernation, a dormant state for cold blooded animals.  A brumating reptile is lethargic, sometimes not moving at all during the cold season.  Brumation is not the sleep of hibernation rather a less active state where the metabolism slows so they don't need to eat.

After emerging from brumation, alligators breed and nest from March 1 through May 30.  Females remain close to their home territory, but males occupy ranges up to ten square miles.  The female builds a nest from local vegetation that may be as large as six feet across and several feet tall.  She lays eggs in the center of the mound and the heat from both the decaying vegetation and sunlight incubates the eggs.  Females lay over 35 eggs, which are about three inches in length.  Incubation lasts about 2 months and the female watches and defends the nest.  The young alligators "yip" when they hatch and the female helps dig them out of the nest.  Hatchlings are about 9 inches long and stay with their protective mothers for up to two years.

Happy 4th of July!

The 4th of July is just not the same without fireworks - so Henry and I headed over to Lake Pflugerville.  I enjoyed trying to photograph the fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!!!!!!

San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge

We got to San Bernard after lunch.

San Bernard has a wonderful long auto loop and some very interesting looking trails.  I definitely want to come back in spring or fall when the weather is cooler to explore.


Lighting was harsh and I didn't take a lot of photos. However, I do want to share a couple.  This was only the second time I had seen purple gallinules and there were TWO!  It was interesting to watch them climb up to the top of this vegetation and then disappear into it only to climb back up again.  They were far enough away that no lens would be "big enough."  But I wanted a photo because I think they are SO beautiful with their beautiful shiny blue plumage and that bright red beak and the blue forehead!

Even with it being mid-day in the heat we saw 16 species!  And, of course, the alligators!

Atwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge

I've visited Atwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge three times now at different seasons.  While I've not yet seen the prairie chickens, it is always a good experience.  The best way to see the prairie chickens is to go during the Annual Prairie-Chicken Festival the 2nd weekend in April.

The main entrance is on the south side of the refuge, but we went down Prairie Chicken Lane for fun.  There were so many cottontails and a few jackrabbits that I thought perhaps it should be named Bunny Lane!

It had been a long time since I had seen Northern Bobwhites - so it was quite a treat to see them and to hear their cheery "Bob white!" call.

We have Crested Caracaras living near me in Hutto, but this was the closest I've gotten to photograph them in the wild. I was thrilled to get the chance to photograph one so close.

This black vulture also posed cooperatively for me.

It was truly a pleasure to drive through the restored prairie.  And I was pleased to find more dickcissels!

Summer birding

We have gotten off on a short trip. House sitter in place to care for Gambler. We left Tuesday and spent the night in Columbus to be able to get to the Atwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge early. We drove down Prairie Chicken lane but decided today it would be better named Bunny Rabbit Alley because we saw cottontails and jack rabbits everywhere.

Then we drove south to San Bernard NWR and from there to Brazoria NWR. My favorite birds of the day were the beautiful purple gallinule and the least bittern.

My next blog post will have photos of some of the birds we're seeing.

Here is my bird list for Wednesday:

Atwater Prairie Chicken NWR

Black bellied whistling duck

Turkey vulture
Black vulture
Crested caracara

Mourning doves
Northern bobwhite

Dickcissel

Northern Mockingbird
Northern Cardinal

Great blue heron
Cattle egret
Snowy egret
White ibis

Red Wing blackbird

Killdeer

Non bird species
Cottontail
Jack rabbit

San Bernard NWR

Dickcissel

Black necked stilt

Common gallinule (moorhen)
Purple gallinule (pair)
Coot

White ibis

Great egret
Little blue heron

Red wing  blackbird


Laughing gull

Black bellied whistling duck

Neotropic cormorant

Turkey vulture

Purple Martin

Great tailed Grackle

Brazoria NWR

Scissor tail flycatcher
Mockingbird
Dickcissel

American avocet
Stilt
Willet

White ibis
Roseate spoonbill

Least bittern
Great blue heron
Snowy egret
Great egret
Juvenile little blue heron
Juvenile black crowned night heron
Juvenile yellow crowned night heron


Redwing blackbird
Laughing gull

Mourning dove

Crested caracara

Mottled duck
Black bellied whistling duck
Black bellied whistling duck w/chicks
Fulvous whistling duck
Fulvous whistling duck w/chicks

Coot
Common gallinule with chicks

Meadowlark

Nighthawk

Tern (Foresters???)

Great tail grackle

Non bird species

Alligator

Creating Dramatic Photos

I was going back to my 2009 Canada trip and working up a new blog post when I came across this picture.  I wanted to use it as part of the blog, but the lighting conditions at the time I was there didn't create any really great photos.  So I started playing with the image.

Here is the original:

My first attempt was to add a Layer>Overlay with a neutral density gray choice to brighten the whites in the lighthouse and hopefully to bring out details in the cloudy sky.  The image remained bland.

So I thought about my choices to give this image "pop" and went to my NIK Software HDR Efex Pro. Now I wasn't combining images here, I just wanted to do something to make this one shot more interesting.  When I went to the filter, I had 33 presets to choose from.  After checking all of them, I chose "Realistic (Strong)" as the look I wanted.  

I also like Topaz products so I went back and used Topaz Adjust to see what look I could get. I used the HDR Collection>Dynamic Pop II. Then I went over to Local Adjustments and used a brush to darken the sky more and to brighten up the lighthouse.

When I'm at a location, I strive to photograph photos that will stand well on their own without excessive post processing.  Sometimes, the weather and the lighting are not optimum, so I'm glad to have these tools to create an interesting image when the conditions were not optimum on location.

Cape Spear Light

Cape Spear in Newfoundland is considered the most eastern point in North America.   At night you can look across the bay and see the lights of the capital city,  St. John.

The tall lighthouse on Cape Spear was built in 1955 and uses the dioptric lens from the original.

The original lighthouse began operation in 1836 in this small square building.  It is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador. A stone light tower was built inside to support the lantern room in 1850 after a storm lifted one side of the lighthouse several inches off the foundation. The original light came from a lighthouse from Scotland and used seven Argand burners with curved reflectors. The lamps and reflectors were on a metal frame which rotated to produce 17-second flash of light followed by 43 seconds of darkness.   The first fuel was sperm whale oil and seal oil, acetylene in 1916 and eventually electricity in 1930.  The original curved reflectors were replaced by a dioptric lens system in 1912.  A foghorn was added in 1878.

This was the second lighthouse in Newfoundland.  The first light was placed at Fort Amherst, the entrance to St. John's harbor in 1810.

Today, the interior has been restored to the period of 1839 and is open to the public, giving visitors a glimpse of the life of a light keeper.  Generations of the Cantwell family lived and worked at Cape Spear for over 150 years, maintaining this vital light for the mariners. A detailed history of the Cantwell family and the Cape Spear Light can be found at the Lighthouse Friends website.

I loved the parlor. I can really image the lightkeeper and his family spending time here.

The flag room housed the marine signal flags, an easy and universal way for ships and lighthouses to communicate important messages. 

Cape Spear is also a great place to watch for birds and whales.  During the summer, it is possible to see shearwaters such as Manx shearwater, Sooty shearwater, and Greater shearwater which are usually only seen far out at sea.  Other bird species such as murres, razorbills, skuas, and jaegers may be seen as well. While the humpback whale is the most commonly sighted whale, minke and fin whales are also seen.  Other marine mammals such as beaked dolphins, porpoises, harbor seals, and otters have also been spotted.

Birding Field Trips

I'm a member of the Williamson Audubon Meetup group.  There is a group of us on a field trip to the Central Texas coast - the Corpus Christi-Rockport-Fulton area.  We went to seven locations today and as a group we saw around 75 bird species.  Did everyone see every species?  No . . . But on my own, I would not have been able to identify everything that I saw.  Plus many eyes are better than one when locating little birds flitting around in the leaves of the trees or that hawk soaring high in the sky.  I truly believe that one of the best ways to become a better birder is to spend time out in the field with people who really know their birds.  Today was one of those days.


These are only the birds I saw.  There were at least 6-10 other species that were also seen by members of my group. 


It was a great day to be outdoors, appreciating the amazing variety of species in God's creation


Blucher park
Franklin's gull 
Baltimore oriole male and female
Orchard oriole male and femaleSummer tanager
Black chinned hummingbird
Black and white warbler
Chestnut sided warbler
Golden fronted woodpecker
Black throated green warbler
Inca dove
Common yellowthroat
Bronzed cowbird
Catbird
Broadwing hawk
Rose breasted grosbeak
Chimney swift
Indigo bunting
House wren
Kiskadee
Blue wing/golden wing back cross warbler (not quite a brewsters')
Northern mockingbird
European starling
House sparrow



Polliwog Pond - Water treatment site
Scarlet tanager male
Female western tanager - we think so because of a wing bar seen
White eyed vireo
Female summer tanager
Swanson hawk
Coots
Crested caracara



Hazel Bazemore County Park
Black bellied whistling duck
Least sandpiper
Blue wing teal
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Northern shoveler
Long billed dowitcher
Semi palmated sandpiper
Snowy egret
Mottled duck
Green heron
Northern harrier

Grass farm 
Upland sandpiper
Buff breasted sandpiper

Tulle Lake
Western sandpiper
Dunlin
Gull bill tern
Neotropic Cormorant
Brown pelican
White pelican
Great blue heron
Great egret
Least tern
Tri color heron
Black-necked Stilt
Stilt sandpipers
Lesser yellowlegs
Roseate spoonbills
Least tern
Ring bill gull
Forester tern
Red wing blackbird

Rose Hill Cementery
Mourning dove
Grackle
Hummingbird. Mostly gray
Turkey vulture
Robin???? In flight
Common tern????

Blucher Park (p.m.)
Orchard oriole male
Orchard oriole female
Baltimore oriole male

East Texas Flowering Dogwoods

I was fortunate to get to go to East Texas this spring. While the dogwoods were late blooming this year, there were a few trees in full bloom. When they are all in bloom it is magical, because the small understory tree becomes a bright elegant white tree that attracts your attention in the deep woods.

Flowering Dogwoods are understory trees that prefer the deep shade of the forest. Dogwoods occur from East Texas and Missouri all the way to Maine.  The red fruit ripens in the fall feeding squirrels, deer, and 28 bird species.  Unfortunately there is a powerful fungus threatening dogwoods, dogwood anthracnose, that is spreading rapidly throughout the range of dogwoods in the United States.  It kills the tree within  two to three years.  I hope that scientists are wrong who predict that there is little hope of saving flowering dogwood in the wild.

I was with a photographer friend, Nancy Damron.  Because they were not in full bloom, we had to pay attention to find dogwoods in bloom at the Davey Dogwood Park in Palestine, Texas. We were rewarded for our careful searching with several trees that were in bloom.

The blooms are delicate and to get all the details in the texture, I had to be careful not to overexpose them.

When you're photographing them, you keep going around and around the tree trying to see how many compositions you can find.

The light was never quite right to capture the entire bloom covered trees, but individual branches filled with the delicate blossoms.

While generally, I like to photograph flowers in shade, the gentle touch of the morning sun really made them sparkle.