Birding Hornsby Bend

Hornsby Bend is a name associated with many things - a sewage treatment plant, a Biosolids Management Plant . . . and . . . an amazing place to see many species of birds!  

in 1959, G. Frank "Pancho" Oatman noticed ducks flying across the Colorado River.  Following them, he was the first birdwatcher to explore the sewage treatment facility.  He found waterfowl in large numbers, several that had not been recorded in Travis County.  

Today, many birders frequent both the roads around the ponds and the trail along the Colorado River.  A birding visit to Hornsby Bend never disappoints.  While the species of birds varies through the seasons - there is always a wide variety.  

I spent time around the ponds today.  Here are some of the Highlights:

There were hundreds of northern shovelers, possibly 1000. Some resting on snags, others basking on the shore, while others use that amazing beak to forage.  They were everywhere.  Sometimes they form large groups that spin like a pinwheel stirring up the surface of the water to find food.

 

There were both male and female lesser scaup to enjoy.

There were several eared grebes. A couple of them gave me good photo opportunities.

There are always shorebirds.  I am still working on learning to identify this large group of birds.

Least sandpipers are usually found in flocks of 10 or more.  They are a small shorebird and they fly off and land together.  Note the green legs.  They also have a characteristic posture in how they insert their beak in the mud to find their food.

I think this is a spotted sandpiper. I have yet to see one in all of its fine breeding plumage.  Out of breeding season it is much plainer without the spots. It does have a characteristic behavior - bobbing as it forages.  

Today I saw 14 species and this was just from around the ponds.  One of these days I need to take the trails through the woods to the Colorado River. I've done it once - and there are even more bird species to see.

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.

Texas Bridge Bats

I've been fascinated with bats for a long time.  I've gone down to Town Lake to see the bats emerge from the Congress Avenue Bridge. I've been to the Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area and seen the bats emerge a number of times.

If I'm on I-35 in Pflugerville or Round Rock at dusk, I've seen bats emerge from the Wells Branch Bridge, the Howard Lane Bridge, and the McNeil Bridge.

I've gone out a couple of times to try to get some good bat photos. The first time I tried, I couldn't get the right angle for the shot I visualized - the silhouettes of the bats against a colorful sunset sky.  I've been helping with the bat interpretation at the McNeil Bridge, but if I'm talking to people, I'm unlikely to be taking time to photograph.

But Friday night things came together, the clouds in the eastern sky took on a pinkish hue, the bats were a little later than normal coming out, and another picture that I had visualized looked promising.  When the bats emerge from the bridge, they fly to the east to forage over the agricultural fields and pastures in eastern Williamson County.  They make beautiful patterns in the sky as they disperse.  I wanted to capture those beautiful and actually mathematical patterns.

It takes over several hour for the 1.8 million bats to leave their roosts.   But it is an amazing spectacle.

It is amazing to me how the flow of bats weaves itself across the sky, at times almost moving as though there is a common intelligence guiding the patterns. 

 

Late summer is a good time to view the bats because this year's pups have joined the flow.  

My article about the free-tailed bats is in this week's Hutto News.

Henry has a new app for his phone, Radarscope.  He came into my office near sunset asking what time the bats come out.  It turns out that you can see the images on the radar from this app that show the density of the bats emerging from a number of places around us in Central Texas.  Check out his blog and see the video he made of the radar images this evening.

Jerry's Artarama

I've been framing my own work for several years now. I don't do a lot of framing each year, but I figured out very quickly that if you're going to be an artist or photographer, you've got to frame your own work - otherwise framing costs will eat up any profit you might make. Add to that one bad experience getting some work dry mounted that had to be redone at the last minute - think stress attack because I was working on a deadline.

I still fight procrastination, I still work better and faster when that deadline is approaching, so I like to find places to buy what I'm going to need locally. I've got two projects that need to go out next week - one will only be mounted and matted, the other will need to be framed. Both will need to be conservation processed - acid free everything.

Simple black frames seem to be preferred for some gallery shows, so I wanted to see what I could find locally. I had driven by Jerry's Artarama many times, wondering what all they carried. So, I had some time yesterday and I went over. I suspect it is a sign when all the parking spaces except for the handicapped space were full and I had to wait for a parking place. It's a pretty big store with JUST art supplies. Acid free and conservation mats and mounting boards, a different selections of frames than Hobby Lobby and Aaron Brothers, portfolio supplies, drawing, painting, canvases, easels, etc. You could spend a lot of time there exploring.

I found the simple metal frame that I was looking for. I won't know until I've opened the package and actually tried to use it, but I think it is going to make my work look elegant without me having to spend a fortune.

Yes, eventually I need to try out the online places where I can order frames. But, for now, I'm glad I've found one more local place to buy supplies.