Sabal Palms Sanctuary . . . the feeder

At the bird feeder by the old visitor center, listening to the last rain drops hitting the leaves and palms. 








Watching the water drops hitting the leaves and causing them to flutter. Seeing the reflections of the green tree leaves in the reflections on the dark deck. Feeling the gentle cool breeze. Hearing the quiet voices of a group of birders who drop by but don't stay.   As I wonder if any birds will visit the feeders on this wet day, I hear a bird calling. Chachalacas pass by with their loud cackling call. 






The forest is thick and green around this old visitor center. It is quiet now - only the sound of the occasional rain drop. 

The Green Jay arrives. 

Buff bellied on feeder.

When I mention to a visitor one appeared - a female. 

Shortly a male arrived - giving me ample time to study him but not to photograph. 

Maybe he will come back.

2 white tipped doves silently arrive. 

Now 3 white tipped doves are at the feeder. 

Buff bellied hummingbird came back allowing photo opportunity 

Now there are 4 doves. 

Green jays come in disturbing the white tipped doves

Now 4 green jays but my cough scares the doves off but the green jays quickly return. 

It has been the quiet of nature but in the distance is the rumble of machinery - the bass of a car radio's beats in the distance. 

Hoping for an oriole to drop by . . .

The dove wings whir as they fly off. 

The rumble of thunder precedes the next group of people with their footsteps and quiet voices. 

They pass on by for the trails. 

I have a nice quiet place to weather the storm and a raincoat to keep my equipment dry. But I would prefer that it not rain on my hiking friends. 

I wonder, "Will a Cooper's hawk come fly over the feeder this time as it did the last scattering the birds?"(Sadly, it didn't.)

A loud group of chachalacas passes noisily by out of sight.

10 white tipped doves whir away as they are startled by my cough. 

White tipped doves melodically coo behind me. 

The buff bellied briefly returns. 

Jays come in but the white tipped soon reclaim the feeder. 

The water drops dripping from the leaves are a calming sound. 

As I see movement in the low vegetation and hope for olive sparrow but so far it is always white tipped dove.

The buff bellied comes in briefly.

A soft high call note signals the presence of another small bird. 

Only one chirp. Will it call again, will it reveal itself or will it be just the one note that told of its presence without revealing the identity?

After 4 days of birding, I am soaking in the quiet peace so far removed from the ugly election hoopla. 

A group of chachalaca come silently one by one to the feeder.  

The 5 chachalaca have control of the feeder. 

2 Black crested titmice arrive but can't compete with the chachalaca. 

Green jays and doves wait for the chachalaca to leave.

More human voices. They don't come close as they walk by on their trail. 

The chachalacas are finishing their meal and the green jays return. 

Human voices scatter the birds but a brave few remain at the feeder. 

People stop and we quietly visit sharing stories,

A couple of small birds possibly orange crowned warblers tease us but stay out of sight refusing to reveal their identity.

A cottontail rabbit comes through grazing on the vegetation. 

They tell me the trails are slippery confirming the wisdom of enjoying the feeder station 

Loving watching the green jay's yellow tail display in flight. 

Mourning dove arrives. 

I move over to sit on the wet wooden seats and I am rewarded by a better view and photograph of the buff bellied hummingbird. 

Time to go . . . I enjoyed this peaceful, restful interlude in one of my favorite places in the Rio Grande Valley.

Changing Bird Songs - the Savannah Sparrow

Henry sent me an interesting link this morning.  Science Daily has an interesting article in how bird songs have changed over the last 30 years.  I would have thought that bird songs would remain constant over time, but instead a study showed that savannah sparrows songs changed much like human dialects change over time.  

 Interesting.

Black Terns

 Photographing birds in flight is a challenge.  They fly by fast, it is hard to get the camera and lens to focus on your fast moving target, it is tricky to get a fast enough shutterspeed to stop the motion.  But it IS a fun challenge.

During my last two visits to Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge, I was seeing terns and gulls flying near me.  I have not studied terns enough to immediately identify them as they fly swiftly past me.  So, I wanted to photograph them to help me study their markings in order to identify what I was seeing. When you have a photograph, you can connect with other birders to confirm your guess.  But, getting that photograph . . .

My birding lens is a Sigma 300-800mm lens that I purchased before the price got so high. I also bought a strong tripod and a Wimberly Gimbal Tripod Head to be able to support the big lens and to get the most benefit from it.

 

The Wimberly head allows me to track birds as they go up and down in flight as well as to pan as they fly by. Sometimes I feel like Luke Skywalker on the Millenium Falcon as I try to pan with the bird's flight, get the focus on the bird and attempt the shot. I use AI focus which helps keep the focus on the bird in flight. But there are elements of both skill and luck in getting the focus on the bird and the shot taken before the camera focuses on something else. There are a lot of images that are destined for the trash folder, but with practice you can get images certainly good enough to make the identification. Sometimes you even get some good behavioral images as well.

These are black terns in their non breeding plumage.

Note the gray wings and the black smudgy spot right above the breast (under the wing) as well as the dark spot right behind the eye. 

In trying to capture the images, I was just shooting away.  But it was luck that I caught this shot in this pose.

You don't have a lot of time to frame your photo when you are shooting just to capture the bird in flight, so it is fun when you get the reflection as part of the image as well.

When I shoot birds, I generally shoot shutter priority.  In this case I started at 1/400, but decided that wasn't doing a good enough stop motion.  I bumped it up to 1/640 for these shots. I then set my ISO for the lighting conditions to get a good exposure at the optimum shutter speed.  With the muted early morning sun, it was ISO 500 for these shots.

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.