Least Bittern

At the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center in Port Aransas, there were several least bitterns that were less secretive than other least bitterns I've seen. I saw at least 2 and one stayed right next to the boardwalk to the delight of my fellow shorebird field trip buddies.

I had seen least bitterns here a year or so ago and last summer at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. The one at Anahuac disappeared into the reeds at the sound of my camera clicks.  The ones today gave us good opportunities to look and photograph.  I hadn't realized how large their feet are in relation to their small body size. Least bitterns are the smallest of the heron egret family.  They are found mostly along the coast.  I think they are one of the most beautifully colored of the herons and egrets with the green heron a close second.

Perseid Meteor Shower 2013

Photographing meteor showers means staying awake between midnight and dawn in a dark place far from city lights.  Mason, Texas was my choice this year and my photographer friend, Nancy Damrom joined me in this adventure.

Because this year's Perseid meteor shower peaked on Monday afternoon, we photographed both early Monday morning and early Tuesday morning.

Our location was the Lindsay Ranch which has hunting cabins for rent with access to their 700 acre ranch.

The first night we set up near the windmill.

The second night we wanted to have trees in our composition.

In our night driving and while we sat waiting for meteors we saw ringtail, skunks, armadillos, deer, and burros.  The night was filled with sounds of crickets and tree frogs.

It was well worth shifting the sleep schedule for a couple of days to spend time watching the beautiful Milky Way waiting for meteors to streak across the sky.  God's creation is a wonder to behold!

Eckert James River Bat Cave Preserve

Last Thursday, I finally had a chance to visit the Eckert James River Bat Cave near Mason, Texas.  My friend and I arrived a little before 7:00 and there was already a stream of bats flying over the river valley.  There were three hawks successfully hunting the bats as we watched.  We grabbed our camera gear and headed up the 1500 foot trail leading up the hill to the entrance to the cave. It is an uphill climb, but it is not too steep. A flashlight would be useful if you stayed until dark to come back down.   When we arrived at the entrance, it was such a pleasant place.  Wooden benches provide comfortable seating in a grove of trees for shade.  The cave opens such that an earlier arrival might have given opportunity for the bats to have natural sunlight for better lighting of their small furry bodies.  I am hoping for my next visit to arrive at 6:00 p.m. when the gates open.

We arrived just as the first set of bats were leaving.  While waiting we saw what was identified as a white racer snake  moving along the other side of the small cliff.

 After waiting patiently the next wave of bats began to fly out.  WOW!  The air in front of the seats was filled with bats!  I believe that this is the closest I've ever been to the bats as they leave their roosts.  It felt like they were coming within about 5 feet of us and we could hear the sound of the thousands of wings.

I had brought both my 28-105 mm lens and my 100-400 lens.  The bats were flying so fast that it was hard to get a good focus with the longer lens.  But even with the 28-105 mm lens, you can see the translucent wings and small bodies as the bats circled the entrance to the cave before leaving the area.

The bats fly very close to you. Some even landed in the little bushes in front of us.  Two snakes were hunting these bats in the bushes near us.  From one of my photos, they had success.

I tried a different angle also with the 28-105mm to get both the silhouettes of the closer bats but also the ribbon of bats flying off to feed.

The Eckert James River Bat Cave is either the 2nd or 3rd largest bat colony with both Mexican Free-tailed bats and Cave Myotis. Approximately 4-6 million bats live in a natural cavern only slightly larger than a school bus.   The Mexican Free-tails exit in a swirling circle from the opening near the observation area.  From the docent I learned that the cave myotis exit a different opening and fly in a straight line.  They also exit right at sunset. As we were leaving near sunset, I saw bats that I think were the cave myotis where she had  told me to look.  I had already put away my camera gear and it was dark - so I did not try to photograph them, but I was glad I saw them.

The Eckert James River Bat Cave is owned and operated by the Nature Conservancy. Richard Phillip Eckert and Virginia Eckert Garret donated the land on the condition that the cave remain open to the public.  The cave is open from mid-May to early October Thursdays through Sundays from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.  Once a month it is open at dawn to view the bats' return.  Cost is $5.00.  It is a good idea to bring exact change.  To reach the bat cave from Mason on the James River Road it is necessary to cross the Llano River.  It is a fun crossing, but use caution and be alert for flash flooding. While most times it is not deep, I recommend a high ground clearance vehicle.  During a rainy time or in doubt, take the back route. Remember turn around, don't drown!

Fireworks - Old Settler's Park - Round Rock, Texas 2013

We got to the park early with a picnic dinner from Golden Chick. The park was crowded and most parking areas were full. By the time we got settled, I feared I was too far away from where I had seen the setup to get what I wanted. But it was fun to watch other families get settled in with their chairs, blankets, and toys for the kids. I especially enjoyed the toddlers, imagining my grandson, Tobyn, exploring his world next year.

4 sec, f/16, ISO 100    

Doing one's homework in advance is usually a good thing, but since I had been to the Old Settler's Park fireworks before, I didn't look it up.  But as it got later I checked Round Rock's website. The fireworks weren't scheduled to begin until 10:00 p.m.  They were going to synchronize with the Dell Diamond fireworks after the ball game.  

When they started, I was ecstatic, because I had a wonderful position.  When zoomed out with my 28-105 lens the bursts overflowed my frame. 

4 sec, f/16, ISO 100

I had to zoom out to get the full displays.  

3.2 Sec, f/22, ISO 100

My experiments with focus blur did not do as well.  My usual technique for photographing fireworks is to use a distant light as my focus with autofocus. Then I change it to manual focus so that I don't have to wait for the camera to refocus on moving fireworks for each shot.  Trying to do the focus blurs from  I mentioned yesterday from PopPhoto.com  required leaving the camera on autofocus and then trying to change the focus mid shot when I was only shooting 4 second shots.  I ended up with camera motion which while intriguing did not produce the look I was trying for.

Here are a couple of the shots where I was trying for focus blur. 

3.2 sec, f/22, ISO 100

3.2 Sec, f/22, ISO 100

I tried setting a longer shutter speed for one shot.  I probably should have tried more choices in longer shutter speeds.

13 sec, f/22, ISO 100

But the fireworks were happening too fast.  I didn't want to miss the captures I knew how to do since I had such a good photographic angle this year. So I went back to my standard methodology - fixed focus with manual settings for exposure for consistency.

4 sec, F/16, ISO 100

4 sec, f/16, ISO 100

I did change my exposure by changing my f/stop giving me my best Grand Finale photos.

3.2 sec, f/22, ISO 100

3.2 sec, f/22, ISO 100

3.2 Sec, f/22, ISO 100

Fortunately, the Dell Diamond shoots fireworks after every game.  I should go back and try again for the focus blurs.

Photographing Fireworks

As a photographer, I think about photographing fireworks each year.  In going back through slides that we took 30-40 years ago I found fireworks photos.

The first year I took digital firework shots, I researched on the internet and got some ideas. The nice thing about digital is that you can shoot a test shot early in the evening to make sure you aren't over exposing.  You can make adjustments that will last until the time for the Grand Finale.  

From 2004, here are some of my firework images along with their settings.

2 sec, f/16, ISO 100, Canon 10D

2 sec, f/16, ISO 100, Canon 10D

In 2010, we were in Breckenridge and I tried to get shots that showed the fireworks over the sweet town.  

3.2 sec f/13, ISO 400, Canon 5D

I had tried the same thing back in 2005 when I was visiting Debra in Malibu, California.  The fireworks were launched from barges in the ocean.  This one captures the ocean, beach and an observer.

From professional Kathy Adams Clark's blog is another new way to photograph fireworks.  Since I happen to love motion blurs, I am going to try this tonight.  Have the focus sharp at the beginning of the burst and then change the focus during the exposure.  Click here to see some examples.  The article with more information is at PopPhoto.com, Make Unique Fireworks Photos Using Focus Blur.  

When the end is near, that great crescendo of fireworks is a challenge. It is very important to reduce your exposure significantly when it starts.  In the excitement of the moment, I've never gotten it quite right. The finale happens so quickly so you don't have much time to make adjustments as you shoot.

Don't forget to enjoy the fireworks themselves.  Step away from the camera every now and then to appreciate the beautiful show.

I'm finishing this blog with photos from other years and other cameras.  

I wish for you a Happy Fourth of July!  

1 sec, f/13, ISO 400, Canon 5D

4 sec, f/16, ISO 100, Canon 5D

2 sec, f/13ISO 200 Canon 5D MKII

Comet Pan-Starrs

Night before last we sat out on our front porch and found the comet Pan-Starrs with our binoculars.  We've been comet watching before but this was by far the easiest to spot of any we've seen.  By the time the sky is almost dark, it is still high enough to be visible.  Each night it is farther from the moon, but it is at about the 5:00 position about 30 degrees above the horizon.  

Tonight I wanted a cleaner view of the sky - so we went to Chandler Road just west of Toll 130.  This happens to be one of my favorite places to photograph lightning.  The city lights are far enough away that they are not too distracting.  There is also a nice paved area that is out of the way of traffic.

I've cropped these photos - and used Adobe Camera Raw to brighten the exposure and darken the sky.  

 I photographed these with my Canon 5D MK III and my Sigma 300-800mm lens at 800mm.

Sometimes you know that  you're not going to get award winning photos. For this one, I had to focus on one of the light towers in the distance and then set to manual focus to keep the focus.  The wind was gusting which makes a bigger difference with a big lens even on a sturdy tripod.  And . . . I couldn't see the comet through the view finder - which meant I was guessing each photo and then repositioning to try again.

The comet was eventually obscured by a small clump of trees.  But even if these are not award winning photos - they are nice memory photos - and another small adventure for Henry and me.

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.

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.

The Carcass

In other trips to Yellowstone, I had heard people talking about watching wolves on a carcass, but we had never had that opportunity.  On our September trip, many park visitors experienced the wonder of bears and wolves as they fed on the carcass.  The first few days, only the grizzly bears fed.  We heard at one point there were five grizzlies on the carcass.  We passed by every day, usually stopping to spend time.  On the last day we could finally see the skull to identify it as a bison carcass.

The prime viewing spot was at my favorite overlook at Hayden Valley.  Each day there were cars lining the valley - some at better vantage points than others.  There was also an active wolf den at the north end of the valley.

I had both my scope and my Sigma 300-800mm lens focused on the activity.  The carcass was on the other side of the valley from the road - Henry used Google Earth to estimate the distance at 3/4 of a mile.  It felt farther.  The scope can get you visually closer, but I don't have a good digiscoping system set up yet.  But when you crop in on photos with the 300-800mm, you at least have some good "memory" shots of the event.

In our early years of visiting Yellowstone, we didn't have a good scope. I was always grateful when people would generously allow me to peak through their scope.  While I don't have one of the expensive scopes, I now have a decent one.  It is my pleasure to pay back those people from my past by allowing other people to look through my scope so they too can see this marvel of nature in much better detail than their eyes or binoculars allow.

Yellowstone's Pronghorn

I freely admit it - I call them antelope because I grew up with the song "Home on the Range."  But true antelopes are found in Africa.  The American antelope is really the pronghorn, Antilocapra americana. It is so truly unique it is the only member of the family Antelocapridae.  Their horns are unique.  Deer and elk have branched antlers that are shed each year.  Goats and cattle have hollow horns made from hair that are not shed.  Pronghorn have are the only animal with branched, hollow, hairlike horns that are shed annually.  Both males and females have horns, but male horns are larger and have a distinct prong.  Males also have a distinctive black marking on their face below the eye.



Running up to 60 miles per hour, it is the second fastest mammal in the world. It can sustain 30 miles per hour for miles. Only the cheetah is faster and the cheetah cannot sustain its speed as long as the pronghorn.

Pronghorns prosper in dry environments.  Pronghorn are found on the Great Plains from Texas north to North Dakota and in the high desert sage found in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.  They eat forbs (non woody flowering plants) and sagebrush with grass making up only a very small portion of their diet.  In Yellowstone, they are frequently seen in the sagebrush in the Lamar Valley.

On our travels we have seen them regularly in northern New Mexico along highway 84/87 east of Raton, New Mexico and along I-25 in Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. We've also seen them in other sage brush areas of Colorado.   They are common in the Texas Panhandle. I've seen them regularly near Vega and Borger.  They can also been seen in Texas near Alpine and Marfa.

Unlike deer, pronghorn do not jump fences. With the older style barbed wire fences, pronghorn literally run through them or go under the last wire.  Woven wire fencing is a true obstacle.

Pronghorn can raise the hair on their white rumps as a signal of danger.  This is a signal to the herd that danger is near.

The rut for pronghorn occurs in late summer and early fall.  Fawns are born in the spring, usually in pairs. They can walk within an hour of birth and by the fourth day can outrun a man. Pronghorn fawns are odorless as protection from predators such as coyotes and golden eagles. 

While not all pronghorn migrate, Wyoming pronghorns travel 150 miles between Wyoming's Upper Green River Basin and Grand Teton National Park.  They move away from areas with deep winter snow.  The only land mammal that migrates farther distances in North America is the caribou.  

These photographs came from Lamar Valley in Yellowstone.  We saw a small herd near the road. They were a mix of female and juveniles.   I saw the direction they were heading and chose to get ahead of them and park,  hoping they would stay near the road for some nice close up shots as they walked near the car.  I was most pleased when they did what I anticipated.

Yellowstone's Coyotes

As you make the rounds on the roads of Yellowstone, coyotes are frequently seen as they work their way through the sage and grass covered meadows.  Our best encounter this year was just west of Canyon Village mid-afternoon.

We first saw him when he was south of the road working his way through the tall grass looking for mice.  He crossed the road and we managed to move ahead of the path I thought he would take.  It is MUCH easier to photograph an animal as it is working its way toward you naturally.  They often will get closer to you than you could ever get if you try to chase it. A parked car makes an excellent blind that coyotes will often ignore in their search for food.

While I did miss a few shots because I was trying for a good head shot when it pounced and caught the mouse, I was still pleased to get some good shots as he was mousing.

It was really special to be able to watch and photograph the actual capture of the mouse so near to the car.  Amazingly enough, the coyote swallowed the mouse pretty much whole, very little chewing!

I know that outside the park, coyotes are a costly nuisance to farmers and even dangerous for pets in the city.  But . . . one of the wonderful things about Yellowstone, it is possible to see wild animals in their home territory doing what they've done for thousands of years.  In Yellowstone I LOVE to see the coyotes go about their business!

Yellowstone's Night Skies

With clear, dry air  and very few electrical lights, the night sky in Yellowstone is glorious. We tended to explore the park until dark and then make our way back to Silver Gate driving at night. We stopped in Lamar Valley and I decided to try to photograph star trails and the the beautiful Milky Way. There are a lot of ways to approach night astrophotography. One approach is to shoot a long exposure and get beautiful star trails.



I learned quickly that if you are shooting the Milky Way, long exposures just leave the Milky Way blurry - not beautiful. My new Canon 5D MKIII has low noise even at higher ISO's. So I experimented with higher ISO and shorter shutterspeeds. This gave me beautiful Milky Way and much crisper stars.

I tried a different approach with this photo.  I shot away from the Milky Way and gave a much longer exposure trying to get the skyglow to illuminate the scene.  While  it does get the road - hand of man- I like this one.

The following night I went to a different place in Lamar Valley -Soda Butte.  I wanted to illuminate the Butte and get the stars.  My results were mixed because when I used the highest ISO, there is a LOT of noise. One shot was "messed up" by the passage of a car, but it looked better than I expected.

In this one below, the lights from a passing car lighted up Soda Butte.  Because I was trying to position the Milky Way in the third's position, I had to clone out our car and the reflective road poles.  I shot this with an ISO of 25,600 hoping to get the stars crisp. The noise level was much higher than I wanted so I definitely had to use noise reduction software.  There is still noise when you blow this up at pixel level. But it is pleasing anyway.

I did try light painting on Soda Butte, but was not happy with the results.

I meant to try one more time, but as the days went by getting up before dawn to look for wolves and staying out late to enjoy other parts of the park, our stamina gradually diminished. Our last night there was overcast.

Things I would try next time - lower ISO on the star trails over the trees. I used infinity focus for most shots, but I think it might have been better to focus on a brighter star. Henry recommended using a smaller aperture to try to get the stars crisper.

Perhaps I'll have another opportunity as we travel east from Seattle to try more star shots.

Birding in Yellowstone

The bird above is a dusky grouse, formerly called the blue grouse.  We were thrilled to get to see in on the Blacktail Plateau drive.

I had enough time in Yellowstone to try to identify the birds we saw.  I kept my intial list on my notepad on my iPhone.   To get my bird list better organized I entered them after the fact in my phone app, Bird Log. I probably should have used Bird Log to do my initial observations, because I had to go back and correct the coordinates. While I labeled my bird sighting Yellowstone, it picked up my geographic location when I started putting the information into Bird Log in Washington State.  I had to go back to the website to get the coordinates for this sighting back in Yellowstone. 

After I completed the bird list and submitted it to eBird, I emailed myself the information because I wanted to post my bird sightings here on my blog.  I know that I saw a few more birds that I couldn't identify, one a hawk that might have been a Cooper's Hawk.  I get frustrated because there are still so many birds I don't immediately recognize.  However, when I think back to my 2002 visit, I know so many more birds than I did then. 

Here is the list the way it shows up on eBirds.  I like the way it automatically organizes the list by species groupings.  BIrd Log is a great app for keeping up with the  birds you see - whether you submit to eBird or not.

mammelton
2012-09-09 03:54
yellowstone national park
Traveling
50 miles
420 Minutes
Observers: 1
All birds reported? Yes
Comments: This represents a week of birdwatching in Yellowstone National Park. I was more interested in how many species rather than exact counts. 
100 Canada Goose
Specie Comments: Too many to count and all over the park
20 Mallard
7 Lesser Scaup
50 Common Goldeneye
10 Common Merganser
1 Ruddy Duck
1 Dusky Grouse
Specie Comments: I have a photo
1 Common Loon
1 Eared Grebe
2 Osprey
2 Bald Eagle
1 Northern Harrier
7 Red-tailed Hawk (Western)
2 Peregrine Falcon
13 American Coot
2 Sandhill Crane
Specie Comments: I am very familiar with Sandhill cranes. We saw a pair several times- possibly same pair in different locations
1 Wilson's Snipe
3 gull sp.
1 Gray Jay
1 Black-billed Magpie
8 Clark's Nutcracker
1 Common Raven
5 Mountain Bluebird
8 American Robin
5 American Pipit
10 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Sage Sparrow

Memories of my Trips to Yellowstone

Because we travel so much, people frequently ask me what my favorite place is.  That is a very difficult question for me, because I don't have just one favorite place.  I have  many places that I love - all of them for differrent reasons.  That said, Yellowstone is high on the list of favorite places for me.  We tend to go back over and over again.

I went first as a child when I was 10 or 11.  I went with my grandparents.  It was a very brief visit.  We saw Morning Glory pool and Old Faithful and drove around the park some.  My grandad was very cold natured. The conversation around us made him believe that the available cabins were very cold at night.  We drove south through Jackson, but all the hotels were full.  I saw the Tetons by moonlight.  By the time we found a place to stay it was too far to come back.

My next visit was in 1977.  My husband and I had bought a new extended length van and converted it to a camper complete with bed, closet, and simple porta-a-pottie bathroom.  We spent about three days in Yellowstone as part of a longer trip that took us all the way through Glacier Naitonal Park and Banff and Jasper in Canada. One of the highlights from that trip was going to all of the viewpoints for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the beautiful waterfalls.  I went all the way down to Uncle Tom's trail.  I'm glad I did it then while I was young - it is a LONG way down!

We brought our kids to Yellowstone in 1985 - Thomas was 5 and Debra was 1 1/2.  We were tent camping and I think we stayed at Grant Village.  Thomas' memory is that you had to wait along time for the geysers to erupt.  That was the trip that we focused on the geysers.  One day we hit it just right to see Grand erupt with 5 glorious bursts and Riverside. We spent most of the day exploring the Lower Geyser Basin.  When we got back to Old Faithful, it was a short single burst - a disappointment after the other longer geysers.

When it was time to go to Yellowstone when the kids were older, Thomas was old enough to stay home.  Sadly his memories of waiting so long for the geysers made him uninterested in returning.  With a nearby family to watch over him, we left for Yellowston in 1993 with just Debra.  I think it was a tent camping trip and I think we stayed at Tower.

At one of these trips, we went to an evening ranger program where they were talking about the desirablity to return wolves to the greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.  The talk made such an impression that both Henry and I remember it today.

At another trip, the bison were in rut. It was so funny to watch the bulls follow the cows with their unique grunts! Usually the bulls are off by themselves, but that time they were always following a female.
While the kids were at Camp Blue Haven,  Henry and I went again in 1998. We made our home base at the hotel in Canyon Village. Canyon Village is very close to Hayden Valley which is one of our favorite places in Yellowstone. So easy to be at the lookout over the valley at sunset and be close to the hotel.  That was the trip where we really learned how to look for elusive wildlife - the bears and the wolves.  The small moving dark dots on the far hillside were worth checking out because some were bears not bison.  That was also right after the wolves had been released.  In Lamar Valley,  there were scientists monitoring the wolves through the radio collars.  It was fascinating to be around the people who knew which wolf you were seeing and where they were in the valley from the radio signals.

When Debra graduated and left for college, Henry and I had the opportunity for extended travel. That first fall, 2002, we discovered the joy of Yelllowstone in the fall.  The elk were in full rut, the air was crisp.  One evening as we headed back to the campground, we could hear the sounds of the elk battling with their antlers for the privilege of mating.  We left at the end of the season as they were closing up the Fishing Bridge RV park as well as other major lodging in the park.

My favorite trip was 2007, once again in the RV.  We came in late May and stayed 3 glorious weeks.  Birds were tending their nests. A coyote den with nine pups was right next to the road.  A grizzly sow with two cubs frequented Dunraven Pass, giving many people a great view.  We started our stay at Fishing Bridge RV Park, but finished up at Pebble Creek Campground in Lamar Valley.  I have so many great photos from that stay.

We've just finished our 2012 trip to Yellowstone.   The wolves were especially easy to see this year, both in Lamar Valley and in Hayden Valley.  Grizzly bears and wolves put on quite a show at a bison carcass in Hayden Valley.  I was surprised that it was still feeding animals even after 3 or 4 days.  We sampled a little bit of everything this trip - wolf and bear watching, geysers, waterfalls, bison, elk, and antelope.  I even did night photography with the beautiful stars and Milky Way.

Some people make it to Yellowstone every year.  We live too far away to come that frequently. But, I never tire of the wonders that I see in Yellowstone. I keep hearing the call to return.  I dream of a winter trip some year.